NASA: Mars rover ready to enter crater

WASHINGTON, June 28 (UPI) -- National Aeronautics and Space Administration scientists said the Mars rover Opportunity is ready to descend into that planet's massive Victoria Crater.

The latest trek presents a high degree of risk for the long-lived robotic explorer, but NASA and the Mars Rover science team expect it to provide valuable data.

Although NASA has planned the descent to enable an eventual exit, scientists said Opportunity might become trapped inside the crater or lose some capabilities. The rover has operated more than 12 times longer than its originally intended 90 days.

The crater inspection is expected to yield information about the planet's geological history. The impact crater is half a mile across and about five times as wide as Endurance Crater, where Opportunity spent more than six months exploring in 2004.

"We don't want this to be a one-way trip," said Steve Squyres, of Cornell University, the principal investigator for the rovers' science instruments. "We still have some excellent science targets out on the plains that we would like to visit after Victoria. But if Opportunity becomes trapped there, it will be worth the knowledge gained."