Victoria Crater

Opportunity snapped this view of Victoria Crater from the edge of Duck Bay during the JPL rover’s 952nd Martian day, or sol (September 27–28). Seven frames from the navigation camera were combined to make this image of what has been the rover’s destination for the past 21 Earth months. The crater’s far side is about 800 meters away, and its rim towers approximately 70 meters above its floor. Victoria’s exposures of layered bedrock are 20–30 meters thick—compared to the seven meters found in Endurance Crater, which Opportunity spent six months examining in 2004, and the 30–50 centimeters in Eagle Crater, where Opportunity landed—and should reveal a proportionately longer span of local Martian history.