PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Opportunity rover is in excellent shape, relaying sets of photos that show Meridiani Planum to be just as scientists pledged: A surreal, dark landscape unlike any ever seen before on the red planet.

After traveling nearly 300 million miles through interplanetary space, Opportunity made a hole-in-one, said Steven Squyres, Principal Investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project from Cornell University.

Clearly visible in initial images from Opportunity is light-colored bedrock within the crater walls.

"We could spend most of the mission just within this little crater," Squyres told reporters today at an afternoon press briefing here at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

The exposed bedrock is prized geology. "This is the home neighborhood of those rocks. Its where they were born. So we can say unambiguously what their point of origin was," Squyres reported.

Scientists have begun scripting driving instructions for Opportunity, once off its landing pedestal. Initial study of nearby soil is the first order of business, followed by a drive to the rock outcrop. From there, the rover would climb out of the crater and steer to an even larger crater of which two are within easy striking range.

"Its going to be a wonderful adventure," Squyres said.

At the Opportunity landing spot, the site features a veneer of fine-grain material, likely to be hematite-laden.

Hematite is a type of iron oxide material. Making use of Opportunitys science tools to analyze the hematite-rich surroundings is early on the robots to-do list.

Scientists here are hoping to determine whether the mineral was formed in association with liquid water, or as a product of volcanic processes, said Doug Ming, MER Science Team Member from NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

"If it got any better, I couldnt stand it," Ming said. Opportunitys instruments are a perfect match to help decipher the nature of the hematite, aiding scientists to piece together Meridiani Planums geologic past.

"Its a new Mars," said Ron Greeley, a Science Operations Working Group Chair for the MER effort from Arizona State University in Tempe.

"This is gangbustersfantastic," Greeley told SPACE.com after surveying the first pictures transmitted from Opportunity.

"We have never seen clear outcrops of bedrock and thats what weve got here," Greeley said. Instead of being confronted with a jumble of rocks that could have been transported from a distant locale, finding bedrock on site is a scientific bonanza.

"Ask any terrestrial geologist. You dont look at scumyou go find it in place. And thats what we have a chance to do now for the first time," Greeley said.

While Mars scientists are euphoric about where Opportunity has landed, software wizards are digging in their heels and scripting a recovery mode for the balky Spirit rover sitting on the other side of the planet.

Spirits condition is still serious, "but were moving to guarded condition," said Peter Theisinger, JPLs MER Project Manager.

Theisinger said steady progress is being made in troubleshooting what ails Spirit.

A leading theory is that a file management software module experienced a condition that it could not cope with. "It is not robust enough for the operations we were engaged in" when the problem cropped up.

Other theories are also being tested. There may have been a hardware issue involving a circuit board that controls motors on the robot.

Another possibility under review is that a solar event last Wednesday may be culpable for the onset of Spirits problems. High energy particles tossed out by the Sun were detected rushing by NASAs Mars Odyssey circling the planet, perhaps coincident with Spirit throwing conniptions troubles on Mars surface.

While software and hardware engineers are hot on the trail of recovering Spirit, Theisinger warned that putting the rover back into working order will be time consuming.

"Dont expect us to be driving for a couple of weeksmaybe three," he said.

In bringing Spirit back to full-service, lessons learned in that process will be applied to the Opportunity rover. It is becoming increasingly likely that the glitch that befell Spirit may also exist in its twin rover, Opportunity.

Mars Rovers: Complete Coverage

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