March 5, 2015: Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Discovers New Rock Type, Updates Flight Software. Opportunity stayed the course along the western rim of Endeavour Crater toward Marathon Valley in February. While the pace may have seemed a little slow going, behind the scenes, it was anything but. From the discovery of a new rock type to a successful flight software upload that should enable the robot field geologist to regain her long-term, flash memory, the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) and her team delivered what turned out to be a hugely productive and memorable 133rd month on the Red Planet. [...]
“We’ve still got a lot of stuff going on,” said Steve Squyres, MER principal investigator, of Cornell University. But at the moment, it’s what lies ahead that has everyone talking.
Opportunity is knocking on the door of Marathon Valley, slowly venturing into one, if not the most significant trips back in time on the Red Planet, a science site where discoveries are there for the making. During the first eight years or so of her ongoing expedition, the robot uncovered solid evidence for highly acidic past water, but the clay minerals lying in wait in the valley indicate the presence of an ancient wet environment where water was more neutral, more like water you and I would drink….. [More at link]