Mars Index - Top Ten MER Images - Top Raw Images
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Multiple sand dunes on the floor of Endurance Crater sweep upward to form interlocking ridges that enclose depressions with diverse geometrical shapes. In the lower front half of the image, narrowing tendrils extend downward toward the front edge of the image.
Endurance Crater's Dazzling Dunes (false-color)
08/06/2004
Opportunity
Cresting enticingly are dunes on the floor of Endurance Crater. The mission team had to resist the temptation, as the dunes proved to be too slippery for the rover to drive on.
As NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity crept farther into "Endurance Crater," the dune field on the crater floor appeared even more dramatic. This false-color image taken by the rover's panoramic camera shows that the dune crests accumulated more dust than the flanks of the dunes and the flat surfaces between them. Also evident is a "blue" tint on the flat surfaces as compared to the dune flanks. This results from the presence of the hematite-containing spherules ("blueberries") that accumulate on the flat surfaces.

Sinuous tendrils of sand less than 1 meter (3.3 feet) high extend from the main dune field toward the rover. Scientists wanted to send the rover down to one of these tendrils in an effort to learn more about the characteristics of the dunes. Dunes are a common feature across the surface of Mars, and knowledge gleaned from investigating the Endurance dunes close-up may have applied to similar dunes elsewhere. Rover drivers discovered that the slippery slope that led to the dunes was not firm enough to ensure a successful drive back out of the crater, and the dune field may have been a true sand trap, so Opportunity ultimately did not cruise around too close to the dunes.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell