The Mars Rover Opportunity spent the first months of 2012 in Greeley Haven, an outcrop in the area of the ​​Endeavour Crater on Mars because in the southern hemisphere because it was winter and there was the need to use much of which received little solar energy to maintain its temperature to a level sufficient to avoid damage. On May 8, 2012, Opportunity awoke from a sort of hibernation and started moving.

The Mars Rover Opportunity moved only a few meters (about 12 feet) but that indicates that after more than eight Earth years and five Martian winters it still works. Its solar panels are partially covered of sand so it will be necessary at least for now to travel with a tilt of at least 8 degrees to allow it to make short trips.

During these months, however, the Mars Rover Opportunity hasn’t been completely inactive. At Greeley Haven in fact it used various instruments of its robotic arm to perform various analyzes of the soil around it. Some spectrometric and radio Doppler data Were collected which allowed to investigate on the inside of Mars obtaining information on its rotation.

The next target is in the north of the Endeavour Crater called Cape York to conduct an investigation of an area of ​​land that apparently contains a lot of dust. The hope is to find phyllosilicates, a type of clay minerals that indicate long-term interaction between water and rock.

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The significance of this research is to understand where there was water in the past with the hope that some is still there. The Endeavour Crater was already analyzed from the orbit and clay minerals were found that were interpreted as evidence of wet conditions with lower acidity than the ancient wet environments recorded by the Mars Rover Opportunity at other sites in previous years.

At this point, the objective is to have Mars Rover Opportunity perform a deeper analysis. However it will be necessary to move it cautiously so that it always has enough energy to reach another destination later in the area, the one called Cape Tribulation.

If the Martian winds cleaned again its solar panels it would be much easier, otherwise the team that decides how to move the Mars Rover Opportunity will use due caution to allow this amazing machine to keep on operating year after the end of its original mission.