The Opportunity rover passed the halfway mark this week on its long journey from Victoria crater to the huge 22 kilometre (14 mile) diameter Endeavour crater. A fitting first post for the new blog, as it is of course in Meridiani Planum where Opportunity has been travelling since 2004… It will be interesting as we get closer, because clay minerals have been found around the rim of the crater by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter; clay minerals form in non-acidic (alkaline) liquid water, so this would be yet another indicator of different surface conditions in the ancient Martian past…
