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the high-resolution camera on nasa's

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mars reconnaissance orbiter has

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photographed the mars exploration rover

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opportunity beside a stadium-sized

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crater which the rover will explore over

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the next several weeks the time includes

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an important milestone for opportunity

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and its twin spirit

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this month both rovers are celebrating

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it's been seven years since the rovers

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landed on mars and this was originally a

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90-day mission only three months and

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here we are some seven years later and

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we're still exploring and we're still

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discovering on the surface with these

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rovers recently the high-rise camera on

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the mars reconnaissance orbiter took a

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picture of santa maria crater with

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opportunity right there and so if you

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zoom in on the picture you can see

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opportunity right there at the edge of

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the crater you know this is just like a

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parent at the grand canyon and your

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child is walking around to the other rim

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and you see them very close to the edge

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and you get a little worried but no the

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rover's right there doing what we have

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her doing exploring that crater after

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opportunity has finished uh the

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investigation of santa maria crater

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which will happen

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after we complete solar conjunction so

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around mid-february

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the rover is going to you know pick

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things up and start driving again and

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head towards endeavor crater which is

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still about six kilometers away as the

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crow flies so it'll take us some time to

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get there you know probably with the

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order of a martian year maybe two earth

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years but that's our next big objective

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because we know there are these clay

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minerals present in the rim of endeavor

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crater that is suggestive of ancient

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water on mars that was of neutral ph

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uh neutral water is what astrobiologists

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um assess that life started in and so

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the fact that there is evidence of

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ancient neutral water on mars is very

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exciting for the biopotential of the

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planet spirit has gone into a deep sleep

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during the winter and spirit will get

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colder than she's ever gotten before so

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there's a real risk that the rover may

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not survive the winter however if spirit

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does survive the winter

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we are listening

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uh and we're listening every day to see

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if the rover wakes up and talks to us

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and so that's what we've been doing ever

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since march we haven't heard from spirit

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since

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and but energy levels should be

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improving every single day and will

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continue to listen as long as we think