Opportunity climbs to crater rim’s high point

After completing two drives this week, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has paused to photograph the panoramic vista from the highest point the rover has reached during its 40 months of exploring the western rim of Mars’ Endeavour Crater. The view is one of the grandest in Opportunity’s Martian career of nearly 11 years and more than 25.8 miles (41.6 kilometers). The rover has been having trouble with a section of its flash memory, the type of memory that can store data even when power is switched off. Opportunity’s operators at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, have adopted a tactic of avoiding use of the flash memory, while they prepare a software remedy to restore its usability… [More at link]