Meridiani Planum
Meridiani Planum is the flat plain where the Opportunity rover landed in 2004 and drove more than 45 km, a distance record on another world. Explore it in 3D.
- Location
- about 2° S, 5.5° W, near the Martian equator
- Landed
- Opportunity, January 2004
- Record
- about 45 km driven, the longest of any off-Earth rover
- Famous find
- hematite "blueberries" formed in water
Meridiani Planum is a smooth plain just south of the Martian equator. Orbiters had spotted grey hematite there, a mineral that often forms in water, and that made it a prime landing site for the Opportunity rover in January 2004.
Opportunity was designed to work for about 90 sols. It kept going for more than 14 years, until a planet-wide dust storm in 2018 cut off its power. By then it had driven about 45 km, more than any other rover on another world.
What to look for
- Eagle Crater. Opportunity bounced to a stop inside a small crater on landing and found layered rocks right next to it.
- The "blueberries". Tiny hematite spheres scattered across the ground, evidence that water once soaked these rocks.
- Endurance and Victoria craters. Larger craters along the route that let the rover look deeper into the rock layers.
- Endeavour Crater. The rover's final destination, a 22 km wide crater it explored for years.
Driving Meridiani in Trawers
The plain is gentle, which makes it a good place to rack up kilometres. Try to beat Opportunity's 45 km. In real-time mode it is a serious challenge, but far more doable than it was for the real rover, which averaged only metres per day.