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I was an optimist from the very

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beginning and that I knew the Rovers

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were well built and that as long as we

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survive landing that we had a very good

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chance of an extended mission for

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opportunity things went well from the

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very beginning when we landed right

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within a short distance of the rover was

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exposed bedrock or when the scientists

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examined that bedrock in detail they

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determined that it was laid down in

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water some three-and-a-half to four

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billion years ago so this was the first

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evidence of ancient surface water on

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Mars it's something that the scientists

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were looking for and it was right there

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where they landed so they couldn't have

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asked for a better spots

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I think the greatest accomplishment of

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Eagle crater was they saw things that

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look like blueberries and these are

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things that are little tiny balls of

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material that looked like something that

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was produced in the presence of water

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and so this was one of the first

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indications that there had been water on

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Mars in the past and so I think that was

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craters are great or the geologist

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because they're like time tunnels there

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are big holes in the ground and by going

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down into the crater you're essentially

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going back in time because you know the

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older rocks or towards the bottom

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opportunity is the crater exploring

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rover on this side of the planet

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endurance was exciting because this is

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the first big crater we had entered

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that's something we never thought we

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would ever do with a roamer because it

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was considered too dangerous so we

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actually had to do some additional work

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here on earth to verify that it was safe

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not only to go down into the crater but

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that we could get back out again at

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times we breach slopes about 30 degrees

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and slightly higher it's actually hard

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for people to walk on 30-degree slopes

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we had a lot of close calls where you

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know we'd be driving a particular

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location we'd start sliding then we try

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to go back up and we'd slide and there's

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a certain point for if you keep on

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sliding you know you may never get out

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it was a little nerve-wracking but they

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determined it was worth going in there

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because scientifically was so

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interesting our big crater was Victoria

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a half mile diameter crater that took us

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about two years to

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to reach and it was excited because we'd

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never been to crater quite that large

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and we had to find at first a safe place

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to go into this crater well for us

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actually it was a little scary to be

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perfectly honest imagine going to the

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edge of the Grand Canyon and looking

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over and then here you are your

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commanding of over to go to the very

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edge and it's a mission manager you're

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responsible for this health and safety

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of this Rover and so the scientists say

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go closer go closer because we want to

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see what's at the very edge you have to

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be very careful about getting as close

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to the edge as you can we're not falling

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over the greatest threat to

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opportunities survival was a global

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Martian dust storm and these are massive

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storms I mean they block out the Sun it

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was quite a surprise because you know we

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hadn't seen anything of that magnitude

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before and so it was it was very

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stressful at that time and we at that

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was actually right before we started our

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ingress into victoria crater that was

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very scary because during that period

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you know the cloud got very dark and

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since we're a solar powered vehicle our

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power got very low so there was about a

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two-week period where it was

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touch-and-go every day and we didn't

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know whether we'd come in the next day

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and the road would still be there but it

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rode out the storm it got through it the

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opportunity will be leaving Victoria

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crater and heading to an even larger

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crater this is called endeavour and it's

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20 kilometers in diameter so it's about

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12 miles in size and it's about 20

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kilometers away so you know another 12

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miles in distance so it's actually

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further away that all the driving that

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opportunity has done in the past five

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years so it's a very distant objective

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it's a very ambitious objective but

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scientifically that's the direction to

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head even if we don't reach this a new

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larger giant crater the science that we

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can do along the way will add to the

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Martian history books it will extend our

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our historical understanding of the

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geology on Mars I think the the great

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contribution that these Rovers have made

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is that they have made Mars a familiar

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place the images that we take are taken

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very much with a human perspective

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because the cameras on the rover write

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up about eye level for a person standing

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on Mars and so you get the the

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perspective as if you were the air

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yourself looking over these great vistas

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with five years of operation for both

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Rovers and all the images thing of the

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over 40 million images that have been

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returned have really made Mars seem like

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our neighborhood it's no longer an 8 a-4

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nor alien or distant world it's now a

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familiar place that has earth-like

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characteristics we love the rover's as

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if they're our own children because it's

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gone through so much it's accomplished

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so much it's gone through hardships it's

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gone through incredible victories and so

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you know we love the rumors we care

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about them we worry about them we're

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excited whether it meets new discoveries