Opportunity: Panorama Above 'Perseverance Valley'

[bystander]

Panorama Above 'Perseverance Valley'
NASA | JPL-Caltech | MER Opportunity | 2017 Jul 20

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded a panoramic view before entering the upper end of a fluid-carved valley that descends the inner slope of a large crater's rim.

[c][imghover=https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/im ... _hires.jpg]https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/im ... _hires.jpg[/imghover]This June 2017 view from the Pancam on NASA's Opportunity Mars rover shows the
area just above "Perseverance Valley" on a large crater's rim. A broad notch in the crest
of the rim, at right, might have been a spillway for a fluid that carved the valley, out
of sight on the other side of the rim. The mouseover provides a stereo view. It
combines images from the left eye and right eye of the rover's Pancam to appear
three-dimensional when seen through blue-red glasses with the red lens on the left.
(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ.)[/c][hr][/hr]

Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) took the component images for this view from a position outside the crater during the span of June 7 to June 19, 2017, sols 4753 to 4765 of the rover's work on Mars.

This scene includes features that may have been ancient channels from water, ice or wind moving toward the notch in the rim, which might have been a spillway. Perseverance Valley, just on the other side, was likely carved by action of some fluid, such as water, water-lubricated debris, or wind. The mission is investigating to learn more about that process from evidence in place. ...

Opportunity's panoramic camera (Pancam) took the component images of the scene during a two-week driving moratorium in June 2017 while rover engineers diagnosed a temporary stall in the left-front wheel's steering actuator. The wheel was pointed outward more than 30 degrees, prompting the team to call the resulting vista Pancam's "Sprained Ankle" panorama. Both ends of the scene show portions of Endeavour Crater's western rim, extending north and south, and the center of the scene shows terrain just outside the crater. ...