This image shows tracks left by the MER Rover Opportunity as it traversed around the rim of Victoria Crater over the past nine months.

The rover's tracks can be seen as faint parallel lines punctuated by dots where the rover stopped to perform scientific investigations or turned for course corrections or to facilitate communications (1792 x 877, 1.5 MB). The oldest tracks date from September 2006, and extend from the upper left corner of the image to an embayment called Duck Bay. Opportunity then travelled eastwards along the north rim of Victoria, pausing at many of the crater promontories to examine the layered rocks exposed in the cliffs.

In early April 2007, Opportunity crossed a pair of active wind streaks near the eastern end of the image, leaving bright tracks in the dark wind streaks. Scientists hope to monitor the erasure of rover tracks over time as a way to gauge the activity of wind streaks. Opportunity reached the furthest eastward point of the nine-month traverse on 28 April 2007. The rover performed a test of autonomous driving software at this location that produced an arcuate track, and then quickly drove back towards Duck Bay, keeping far from the crater rim. The Opportunity rover can be seen just to the north of Duck Bay, where it will attempt to enter into the crater.
Written by: Paul Geissler

All of the images produced by HiRISE and accessible on this site are within the public domain: there are no restrictions on their usage by anyone in the public, including news or science organizations. We do ask for a credit line where possible: Image: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technology Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona. The image data were processed using the U.S. Geological Survey’s ISIS3 software.