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the first extraterrestrial marathon

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presented by science at nasa

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with all the fanfare about mars rover

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curiosity landing on the red planet in

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august 2012 it's easy to forget that

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there's already a rover on mars an older

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smaller cousin set to accomplish a feat

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unprecedented in the history of solar

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system exploration

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mars rover opportunity is on track to

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complete the first extraterrestrial

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marathon

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opportunity landed on mars in 2004

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nasa's goal was to have the rover travel

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a meager 600 meters

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however no one knew what kind of runner

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opportunity would turn out to be

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as of july 2012 opportunity has traveled

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almost 22 miles only 4.2 short of a full

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marathon

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runner author hal higdon once said the

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marathon never ceases to be a race of

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joy a race of wonder

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that goes double for a marathon on

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another world where every mile promises

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a new discovery

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opportunities prime mission is to search

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for signs of ancient water

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today the red planet is a bone-dry

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desert with breathtakingly thin

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atmosphere conditions deadly to almost

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every known form of life on earth

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billions of years ago however things

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might have been different

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many researchers believe that mars was

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warmer wetter and friendlier to martian

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life

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opportunity's job is to search for clues

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to that ancient time

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just getting to the starting line was

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epic this particular marathoner had to

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fly about 283 million miles across space

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before being unceremoniously drop

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bounced on the martian surface says ray

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arvidsson mars exploration rover mission

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deputy principal investigator

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like many long distance runners

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opportunity likes to take it slow on a

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typical drive day the rover travels only

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50 to 100 meters

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this gives the rover time to pause and

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look for the unknown

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and take some photos along the way

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recently opportunity sent home its 100

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thousandth image a stunning panorama of

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the marscape

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opportunity first uncovered signs of

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water in deposits near the landing site

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in eagle crater

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there were rocks that seemed to have

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formed in an ancient shallow lake

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over the next four years opportunities

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scavenged ever larger and deeper craters

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finding more evidence of wet periods

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indications were however that the

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ancient lake water might have been too

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acidic for life

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the metallic marathoner soon set its

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sights on endeavour crater an enormous

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pit 14 miles wide and hundreds of meters

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deep

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endeavour's depth would offer a look

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farther back into the history of mars to

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a time when the water was possibly less

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acidic

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the marathon route crossing mars

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meridiani plane to endeavor was a daring

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trek with no aid stations anywhere

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raging dust storms reduced the rover's

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solar power so much that opportunity

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almost entered the sleep of death

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soft sandy wind-blown ripples trapped

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the rover's wheels

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and there was an injury a failure an

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opportunity's right front steering

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actuator made running forward tricky

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ever resourceful the rover ran part of

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its race backwards

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the course took opportunity over

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sedimentary bedrock made of magnesium

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iron and calcium sulfate minerals

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further indication of water billions of

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years ago says arvidsson

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when the marathoner reached endeavour

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crater in august 2011 things got

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interesting

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endeavour is surrounded by fractured

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sedimentary rock and the cracks are

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filled with gypsum

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gypsum forms when groundwater comes up

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and fills cracks in the ground

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depositing hydrated calcium sulfate

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this is the best evidence we've ever

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found for liquid water on mars

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the gypsum veins were likely formed in

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conditions more ph neutral and possibly

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more hospitable to life

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jackpot

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but this marathoner isn't done

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opportunity is doing so well that 26.2

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miles might not be the finish line after

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all

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we have no plans to stop running says

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arvidsson

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extraterrestrial ultramarathon anyone