NASA is sending the aging Mars rover Opportunity on a 7-mile, two-year journey towards a larger crater than the one it has studied since 2006.  After spending two years examining the Victoria crater, researchers from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory sent it towards the much larger Endeavour crater.

Opportunity began its Mars mission in January 2004, scheduled for three months, but has continued over numerous hurdles to help provide more information about the Red Planet.  NASA understands that trying to navigate to Endeavour may be a death march, but the sheer size of the crater has grabbed the attention of researchers.

NASA expects Opportunity to travel around 110 yards per day and getting to the crater in two years is an optimistic goal.  The rover only has a limited time frame when it can operate per day and will shut down in the winter when temperatures drop too low for it to go any further.  Every day involves a thermal cycle because of the rovers' positions around the Martian equator, which leads to 180 degree Fahrenheit temperature changes in a 24-hour period.

"We may not get there, but it is scientifically the right direction to go anyway," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, principal investigator for the science instruments on Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit. "This crater is staggeringly large compared to anything we've seen before."

Endeavour is almost 14 miles wide in diameter, where as the Victoria Crater measures only 800 meters in diameter.

The NASA Mars rover Spirit, also exceeding initial expectations, continues its journey around Mars.  The rover is traveling backwards due to a locomotion problem caused by a jammed wheel.

Using the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera will help researchers create the safest, most navigable route for Opportunity on its journey to Endeavour.  Furthermore, upgraded software uplinked to the Spirit and Opportunity allow both rovers to have better autonomous travel.