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It's been seven years since the rovers landed on Mars. This was originally a 90-day
mission, only three months. The fact that they lasted this long and driven this far was in
nobody's imagination. Opportunity has crossed almost 26 kilometers of odometry, and
is still in very good health, that's amazing after seven years. (music)
Opportunity is in kind of a desert trek mode ever since we left Victoria. Opportunity now
is located at Santa Maria crater. It's one of the freshest craters that either rovers had a
chance to explore and there's also evidence of some hydrated sulfate minerals around the
southeast corner of this crater. They can only form when there's been water along for a
really long period of time. The next big adventure for that rover and that's to get to Endeavour crater,
which is a giant crater, that's still some 6 kilometers away from where the rover is right now.
We're trying to do a balance of driving as fast as we can, but making sure we don't miss
anything critical as we drive. Endeavour is such a large crater, we might start seeing
rocks ejected from Endeavour, well before we get there. That's our next big objective
because we know there are these clay minerals present in the rim of Endeavour crater that
are suggestive of ancient water on Mars that was neutral pH. Neutral water is what
astrobiologists assess that life started in, and so the fact that there is evidence of
ancient neutral water on Mars is very exciting for the bio-potential of the planet.
It's an exciting time, over the next year or so, while we get this underway.