This MRO High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera image shows tracks left by Opportunity as it traversed around the rim of Victoria Crater over the past nine months.

The rover's tracks can be seen as faint parallel lines punctuated by dots where the rover stopped to perform scientific investigations or turned for course corrections or to facilitate communications. The oldest tracks date from September 2006, and extend from the upper left corner of the image to an embayment called Duck Bay. Opportunity then trekked eastwards along the north rim of Victoria, pausing at many of the crater promontories to examine the layered rocks exposed in the cliffs.

In early April 2007, Opportunity crossed a pair of active wind streaks near the eastern end of the image, leaving bright tracks in the dark wind streaks. Scientists hope to monitor the erasure of rover tracks over time as a way to gauge the activity of wind streaks. Opportunity reached the furthest eastward point of the nine-month traverse on April 28, 2007.

Take a look at the Opportunity rover just to the north of Duck Bay. If all goes well, this is where the robot will attempt to wheel itself down into the crater.

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--Leonard David

Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona