November 4, 2015: Opportunity Hits Winter Slopes at Marathon Valley: Opportunity hit the slopes of her seventh winter haven on the south side of Marathon Valley in October as the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) mission entered the 130th month of what was initially slated to be a 90-day tour.
The veteran robot field geologist has been investigating rock targets in Marathon Valley, which cuts through the western rim of Endeavour Crater for about 300 yards or meters, since late July, working her way west to east on a geological reconnaissance of the area.
In mid-October, the rover pulled into the southern part of the valley and onto a north-facing slope with little effort and plenty of time to check out her new site and find the best targets to actively investigate during the coming Martian winter. “We kind of just slipped into the winter haven,” said Matt Golombek, MER project scientist, of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), home to all of NASA’s Mars rovers. “We knew we had to get to these slopes and it just kind of happened naturally. The really good news is that it doesn’t look like we’re going to be very constrained this winter.” [More at link]