Doug Ellison • Sep 13, 2007
Opportunity takes first gingerly steps into Victoria Crater
I have been overwhelmed by Iapetus and Kaguya, so have given scant attention to the fact that Opportunity has finally, at long last, rolled into Victoria Crater for the first time. I didn't want to pass up this news so I asked Doug Ellison to write an update on how this happened. --ESL
Mars Exploration Rover scientists, engineers and enthusiasts have been playing the waiting game for 10 weeks, watching the much-reported dust storm subside so that Opportunity could get back to doing what it does best - exploring craters.
In the past 20 sols, Opportunity has driven that last few tens of meters to the rim of Victoria Crater. On sol 1291, Tuesday, September 11, with a small piece of the World Trade Center onboard the Rock Abrasion Tool, she took her first toe-dip into Duck Bay. As rover drivers did more than three years ago at the much smaller Endurance crater, the first 'dive' was a brief traction-scouting excursion lasting less than two hours. Opportunity has spent nearly a whole Earth year studying the northwestern rim of Victoria crater trying to find a safe site to enter - and it was the recommendation of rover driver Paolo Bellutta that puts us back, to within a meter, on the very spot where Opportunity first arrived at Victoria, in front of site now appropriately called Paolo's Plunge.
![Opportunity route map to sol 1291](https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_1200x1140_crop_center-center_82_line/20131231_Route_Map_Sol1291.jpg 1200w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_768x729_crop_center-center_60_line/20131231_Route_Map_Sol1291.jpg 768w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_576x547_crop_center-center_60_line/20131231_Route_Map_Sol1291.jpg 576w)
By decoding the filenames of the images returned, we can see that after a lunch of 'brave pills,' Opportunity entered Victoria crater on the strike of 1:00 p.m. local time, and drove approximately four meters over the lip of a small sand ripple at the edge of Duck Bay. By 1:42, Opportunity was fully inside Victoria, and spent about 10 minutes imaging the slope directly in front with a rather dirty Pancam with color filters, a further 10 minutes getting a wider stereo perspective with Navcam, and 40 minutes later began backing out of the crater. An expedition as brief as it was anticipated.
![Opportunity's first dip into Victoria Crater](https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_768x768_crop_center-center_60_line/20131231_B-1291-fhaz_br2.jpg 768w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_576x576_crop_center-center_60_line/20131231_B-1291-fhaz_br2.jpg 576w)
Using the lessons learned at Endurance crater and not least of all at the infamous Purgatory ripple, Opportunity monitored wheel slippage - the amount of distance covered divided by the distance the wheels have turned. Sensing a slip of 40%, the rover stopped just shy of backing all the way out again, with her front wheels just inside the crater, the rears just outside. Engineers will now spend a few days studying the engineering data from the toe-dip before diving back in to Duck Bay. With her second martian birthday less than 50 sols away, Opportunity is ready for a whole new adventure.
![View from the 'Toe Dip'](https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_1200x466_crop_center-center_82_line/20131231_B1291_Paolos_Plunge_half.jpg 1200w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_768x298_crop_center-center_60_line/20131231_B1291_Paolos_Plunge_half.jpg 768w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_576x223_crop_center-center_60_line/20131231_B1291_Paolos_Plunge_half.jpg 576w)
Now back to your regular programming and more spectacular images from the big walnut!
Postscript: The moment I click the "send" button, images of the second excursion into the crater come down the pipe. Just two days later - the toe dip becomes a dive - Opportunity has driven back down into Duck Bay to begin the journey to the layers of outcrop exposed a few meters down the slope.
![The sloping wall of 'Paolo's Plunge'](https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_768x768_crop_center-center_60_line/20131231_1R242973306EFF86JZP1312L0M1.jpg 768w, https://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/web/assets/pictures/_576x576_crop_center-center_60_line/20131231_1R242973306EFF86JZP1312L0M1.jpg 576w)
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