Meridiani Planum (alternatively Terra Meridiani) is a large plain straddling the equator of Mars. The plain sits on top of an enormous body of sediments that contains a lot of bound water. The iron oxide in the spherules is crystalline (grey) hematite (Fe2O3).
Opportunity, also known as MER-B or MER-1, is a robotic rover that was active on Mars from 2004 until 2018. Opportunity was operational on Mars for 5111 sols. Launched on July 7, 2003, as part of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover program, it landed in Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004, three weeks after its twin, Spirit (MER-A), touched down on the other side of the planet. With a planned 90-sol duration of activity, Spirit functioned until it got stuck in 2009 and ceased communications in 2010, while Opportunity was able to stay operational for 5111 sols after landing, maintaining its power and key systems through continual recharging of its batteries using solar power, and hibernating during events such as dust storms to save power. This careful operation allowed Opportunity to operate for 57 times its designed lifespan, exceeding the initial plan by 14 years, 47 days. By June 10, 2018, when it last contacted NASA, the rover had traveled a distance of 45.16 kilometers.
Sinus Meridiani is an albedo feature on Mars stretching east-west just south of the planet's equator. It was named by the French astronomer Camille Flammarion in the late 1870s.
Eagle is a 22-metre long impact crater located on the Meridiani Planum extraterrestrial plain, situated within the Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle (MC-19) portion of the planet Mars. The Opportunity rover came to rest inside Eagle crater when it landed in 2004. Scientists were delighted that the rover landed there, as the crater contains rocky outcroppings that helped prove that Meridiani was once an ocean floor.
Fram is an impact crater located within the Meridiani Planum extraterrestrial plain, situated within the Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle (MC-19) region of the planet Mars. It was visited by the rover Opportunity (MER-B) on Sol 84, April 24, 2004.
Martian spherules (also known as hematite spherules, blueberries, & Martian blueberries) are small spherules (roughly spherical pebbles) that are rich in an iron oxide (grey hematite, α-Fe2O3) and are found at Meridiani Planum (a large plain on Mars) in exceedingly large numbers.
Heat Shield Rock is a basketball-sized iron-nickel meteorite found on the Meridiani Planum plain of Mars by the Mars rover Opportunity in January 2005.
Victoria is an impact crater on Mars located at 2.05°S, 5.50°W in the Meridiani Planum extraterrestrial plain, lying situated within the Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle (MC-19) region of the planet Mars. This crater was first visited by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. It is roughly 800 metres (2,600 ft) wide, nearly eight times the size of the crater Endurance, visited by Opportunity from sols 951 to 1630. It is informally named after Victoria – one of the five Spanish ships of Ferdinand Magellan and the first ship to circumnavigate the globe – and formally named after Victoria, Seychelles. Along the edges of the crater are many outcrops within recessed alcoves and promontories, named for bays and capes that Magellan discovered.
Erebus is a crater lying situated within the Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle (MC-19) region of the planet Mars, this extraterrestrial geological feature was visited by the Opportunity rover on the way to the much larger crater Victoria. It is named after the polar exploration vessel HMS Erebus which was used by James Clark Ross in 1841 to discover the Great Ice Barrier, now known as the Ross Ice Shelf. The rover was in the immediate vicinity of the crater from approximately sol 550 to 750.
NASA's 2003 Mars Exploration Rover Mission has amassed an enormous amount of scientific information related to the Martian geology and atmosphere, as well as providing some astronomical observations from Mars. This article covers information gathered by the Opportunity rover during the initial phase of its mission. Information on science gathered by Spirit can be found mostly in the Spirit rover article.
Bounce Rock is a football-sized primarily pyroxene rock found within the Meridiani Planum of the planet Mars. It was discovered and observed by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity in April 2004. The rock was named for it having been struck by Opportunity as the craft bounced to a stop during its landing stage.
The Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle is also referred to as MC-19. The Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle covers the area from 0° to 45° west longitude and 0° to 30° south latitude on Mars. Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle contains Margaritifer Terra and parts of Xanthe Terra, Noachis Terra, Arabia Terra, and Meridiani Planum.
Endeavour is an impact crater located in the Meridiani Planum extraterrestrial plain within the Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle (MC-19) region of the planet Mars. Endeavour is about 22 kilometers (14 mi) in diameter. Using Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter data, phyllosilicate-bearing outcrops have been detected along its rim. These minerals may have formed under wet conditions in a low-acidic environment during the early history of Mars. There are raised rim segments to the north, east, and southwest. The rim has become worn, rounded and degraded, with infilling of plains material in a manner similar to the Victoria crater.
Henry is a large crater in the Arabia quadrangle of Mars. It is 171 kilometres (106 mi) in diameter and was named after the brothers Paul Henry and Prosper Henry, both of whom were French telescope makers and astronomers.
Mars may contain ores that would be very useful to potential colonists. The abundance of volcanic features together with widespread cratering are strong evidence for a variety of ores. While nothing may be found on Mars that would justify the high cost of transport to Earth, the more ores that future colonists can obtain from Mars, the easier it would be to build colonies there.
The composition of Mars covers the branch of the geology of Mars that describes the make-up of the planet Mars.
Opportunity is a robotic rover that was active on the planet Mars from 2004 to 2018. Launched on July 7, 2003, Opportunity landed on Mars' Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004, at 05:05 Ground UTC, three weeks after its twin Spirit (MER-A), also part of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission, touched down on the other side of the planet. While Spirit became immobile in 2009 and ceased communications in 2010, Opportunity exceeded its planned 90 sol duration of activity by 14 years 46 days. Opportunity continued to move, gather scientific observations, and report back to Earth until 2018. What follows is a summary of events during its continuing mission.
Bopolu is an impact crater located within the Meridiani Planum extraterrestrial plain of Mars. Bopulu was seen by Opportunity rover in 2010 in the distance, and with some of its rim visible. Bopoplu was officially named in 2006 along with 31 Mars craters. Research has indicated that the impact that is thought to have created Bopulu went so deep that it went through existing layers and ejected older material from Mars' Noachian period. Bopulu is a 19 kilometres (12 mi) diameter wide crater south of the Opportunity MER-B landing site, a rover which operated in the region starting in 2004 and therefore resulted in greater exploration and study of craters in this region. Bopulu was identified as a possible source for the Bounce Rock ejecta fragment Bounce rock, which was examined by the MER-B rover, was found to be similar in composition to the shergottite class of Mars meteorite found on Earth.
