Posted: Thu, Aug 28, 2008, 8:04 AM ET (1204 GMT)
NASA's Mars rover Opportunity will soon exit a crater it has been exploring for nearly a year, in part as a precaution as the rover ages. Opportunity has spent nearly a year inside Victoria Crater, examining exposed rock layers within the crater that has provided scientists with insights to the planet's history. The rover will exit the crater at the same place it entered and return to the plains around it, studying rocks in the region. Part of the reason for having Opportunity leave the crater is a electrical current spike recently detected in one of the rover's six wheels; a similar spike in Spirit came just before the affected wheel was disabled. Project officials said Opportunity could probably not leave the crater on just five wheels. Spirit, meanwhile, has survived another Martian winter although it will not begin to move again for a few months, when solar energy reaches sufficient levels.
