Stuart Atkinson

Stuart Atkinson is a lifelong space enthusiast, amateur astronomer and frustrated martian. He writes about the daily adventures of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity at his Road to Endeavour blog. You can find his homepage here and his Twitter here. He participates at unmannedspaceflight.com under the name "Stu."

He is an astronomy outreach educator and author of 14 children’s astronomy and spaceflight books. He has written for many magazines, newspapers and websites, and also runs his town’s astronomical society, the “Eddington Astronomical Society of Kendal”.

Stuart broadcasts regularly on his local BBC and independent radio stations, making regular appearances on BBC Radio Cumbria in which he talks about topical astronomical and spaceflight stories.

Latest Blog Posts

Outcrop Ahead for Opportunity!

Posted 2012/09/07 01:12 CDT | 1 comments

Oppy is opening an exciting new chapter in her adventure at Cape York. Having driven down to, over and past Whim Creek, she has now explored halfway down Cape York, to a promising fin-like ridge of dark rock.

Mars Exploration Rover artist's concept Opportunity within Endurance Crater

Three Thousand Sols

Posted 2012/07/02 11:18 CDT | 0 comments

Earlier today, unnoticed by the vast majority of the world, Opportunity reached and then silently passed a major milestone in her great adventure on Mars. At just before 3am, UK time, Opportunity began her 3000th sol, or martian day, on Mars.

Oppy close to the edge…

Posted 2012/06/05 10:00 CDT | 0 comments

Since you last visited, Opportunity has continued to drive downhill – well, what passes for ‘downhill’ on Cape York! – and is now not far at all from the northern edge of the Cape. From where she is now she sees the Meridiani desert stretching away to the north and west, the eastern hills on her right, and the Cape itself behind her. And around her? lots and lots of Homestake-like gypsum veins.

Older blog posts »

Latest Processed Space Images

Rippled terrain in 3-D

Posted 2013/05/19 | 0 comments

This picture, put together from raw images that Opportunity sent home in April 2010, shows the almost mesmerizing rippled terrain that the rover 'sailed' through.

Spirit still shining at Troy

Posted 2013/05/19 | 0 comments

In this picture of Home Plate, taken by the HiRISE camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, you can easily see the stark white figure that is Spirit to the left (west) of the geologic formation in this image color enhanced by Stuart Atkinson. "If you look carefully you can actually see bright trailing leading to Spirit - this is the result of the (right front) broken wheel being dragged through the dirt, unearthing brighter material beneath," he points out. For more of Atkinson's enhanced images and poems, check out his blog, Road to Endeavour at: http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/