Mars crater descent delayed

See that crater? That's Victoria Crater, and it's going to freaking destroy one of the most amazing rovers ever to set foot on the breathtaking landscape of the red planet we call Mars - a rover known by the noble name of Opportunity. Dust storms have delayed Opportunity's descent into Victoria Crater which was expected to occur around the 7th July, but eventually, later this month, she will take the dangerous plunge into the crater, a descent from which she may never return.

Unfortunately for Opportunity, "late July" may mark the end of her extremely long life on Mars, which seems to have been oddly plagued by bad luck, if she can't navigate the treacherous terrain in order to climb back out. Lets take some time out and review the history of our stalwart champion of interplanetary exploration. Lest ye be forgot, Opportunity; this is your life.

25^th January, 2004. Opportunity successfully lands on Mars on the majestic plain known as Meridiani Planum. Somehow, against all odds (the Meridiani Planum being a rather large expanse of relatively flat land) our little rover friend bounced right into a crater. That's right, her first bounce upon landing launched her over 200 metres into a god damn crater. The crater proved to be no particular challenge to the rover however, prompting NASA scientists to say "We meant to do it all along".

January, 2005. After returning some valuable information to NASA about her landing location, and undertaking an exploration of a second crater, Endurance Crater, Opportunity headed to the site of her discarded heat shield, presumably because NASA scientists wanted to check out the awesome job they did littering on a whole new planet. Upon arrival, she took an awesome photo of the smashed up heat shield and found the first ever meteorite located on interplanetary terrain - since dubbed 'Heat Shield Rock'.

April - June, 2005. Tragedy strikes! Opportunity goes and gets bogged in a sand dune. For almost two months. Apparently all six wheels became lodged in the sand, prompting Steve Squyres (leading scientist on the Mars Exploration Rover effort) to declare "We're going to be here awhile." After careful work, Opportunity was freed from the sand trap and continued on her merry way in early June.

29^th May, 2006. As the first anniversary of Opportunity's incredible escape from the sand trap at Purgatory Dune approaches, an unexpected event occurs. Opportunity, once again, gets stuck in the sand. Again, careful work yielded results as NASA scientists manoeuvred the rover out of the sand trap.

From here Opportunity continued on her way to Victoria Crater, via Erebus Crater, ready for more work after already outliving her life expectancy of just 90 Martian days (sols). Currently Opportunity has lasted an incredible 12 times longer than expected - over 1100 sols! She nows waits, poised on the brink of oblivion staring down into Victoria Crater. Even if she doesn't make the journey into and back out of the crater, Opportunity will have far outlived anyone's expectations. I salute you, Opportunity, may you do us all proud!