From the latest text update:

Opportunity is completing an intensive survey of the "Karatepe" region that began 50 sols ago when the rover first ventured into "Endurance Crater." The rover currently sits about 20 meters (about 66 feet) inside the stadium-sized crater. The investigation at an area dubbed "Inuvik" at a target called "Tuktoyuktuk" (named for a small village in the Canadian arctic) will likely be the rover's last in this region. The rover planning team is contemplating the next traverse which will move Opportunity around the interior of the crater, first to some outcroppings dubbed the "Arctic Islands," then possibly to "Burns Cliff," roughly 80 meters (about 262 feet) from the rover's current position. Opportunity continues to perform very well, a testament to all those who worked so hard to get it to Mars and to those who operate it daily.

Looks like Opportunity might remain inside Endurance Crater for the rest of its mission lifetime.

I cant possible see how it can get anywhere near burns cliff - and I thought the whole point of Karatepe was that it was the same geologic units as seen in burns cliff. You can follow the strata around the rim and that makes sense.

More suprises from mars it seems. The Arctic Islands seems like something I predicted a few days ago - driving down a little more and to the right to the little bits of rock near the beginning of the dunes.

What we really need is some more MOC imagery - we've not seen if they've caught an MER on the rove from Orbit yet
Doug

....and i want to see where the heatshield impacted the surface, and whats out on those plains. I hope the rover doesn't get stuck

Yeah - the heatshield would be a very cool target, not just for engineering reasons - but also to see the hole it's dug

Doug

shhh, I shouldn't be posting this but what the heck

The latest flight directors update said that Opportunity was leaving the crater......

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mer/flightdir.cfm

Uh, that's weird... I thought they wanted to visit some of the other targets first and then drive out of the crater...

The plan was:

> Sol 186: IDD work on Inuvik/Tuktoyuktuk
> Sol 187: IDD work on Inuvik/Tuktoyuktuk
> Sol 188: Drive to Arctic Islands target/Mars Express UHF demo
> Sol 189: Drive to Arctic Islands target
> Sol 190: Approach Arctic Islands target

So, we're at Sol 189 now, but who knows maybe the changed their minds from visiting the Burns Cliff due to excessive slippage they experienced...

He did say there would be some "science targets along the way" he was pretty vague when talking about Opportunity though.

Maybe recent rover glitches have reminded people that the clock is ticking and NASA is doing some on the fly schedule changes. And as always seems to happen not everyone is on the same page.... Just guessing

The latest flight directors update has been posted:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mer/flightdir.cfm

And they ARE heading to Burns cliff