Intrepid Crater on Mars

On 2010, the robotic rover Opportunity chanced across a small crater on Mars. Pictured below is Intrepid Crater, a 20-meter across impact basin slightly larger than Nereus Crater that Opportunity chanced across 2009.

This image is in approximately true color but horizontally compressed to accommodate a wide angle panorama.

Intrepid crater on Mars carries the name of the lunar module of NASA’s Apollo 12 mission, which landed on Earth’s moon Nov. 19, 1969.
Apollo 12’s lunar module Intrepid carried astronauts Alan Bean and Pete Conrad to the surface of Earth’s moon while crewmate Dick Gordon orbited overhead in the mission’s command and service module, Yankee Clipper.

NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded this view of the crater during the 2,417th Martian day, or sol, of the rover’s work on Mars (Nov. 11, 2010).

Beyond Intrepid Crater and past long patches of rusty Martian desert lie peaks from the rim of large Endeavour Crater, visible on the horizon.

► Credit: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, Cornell, JPL, NASA

Further reading and references

► http://go.nasa.gov/2hs3SYz

► http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap101208.html

► http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13593

#SolarSystem, #Apollo12Mission, #IntrepidCrater, #Mars, #Space, #NASA, #Opportunity