Rover Opportunity begins making decisions

PASADENA, Calif., March 24 (UPI) -- NASA says its Mars rover Opportunity is now capable of choosing what observations it makes on arrival at a new location.

NASA scientists said they uploaded software during the winter to take advantage of the rover's unanticipated longevity to test robotics advances that will be used in future missions.

Opportunity landed on Mars in 2004 and began a mission designed to last several months. The rover is now in its seventh year of operation.

The new software allows Opportunity's computer to examine images taken with its navigation camera after a drive to a new location. The software can recognize rocks meeting specified criteria and the rover then takes multiple images of the chosen target.

NASA said without the new system, follow-up observations depend on first transmitting post-drive navigation images to scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California to check for targets of interest. Because of time and data-volume constraints, the rover team may opt to drive the rover again before potential targets are identified.

The first images taken by Opportunity choosing its own target show a rock about the size of a football, tan in color and layered in texture.

"It found exactly the target we would want it to find," said Tara Estlin of JPL's artificial intelligence group, who added "It's amazing to see Opportunity performing a new autonomous activity after more than six years on Mars."