Mars rover Opportunity is set to explore the Santa Maria crater on the red planet, NASA's Jet Propulsion Loboratory (JPL) announced on Tuesday, Xinhua reported.
Opportunity arrived at the western edge of the Santa Maria crater in mid-December and will spend about two months investigating rocks there, according to the JPL, headquartered in Pasadena, Los Angeles.
That investigation will take Opportunity into the beginning of its eighth year on Mars, the JPL said.
JPL scientists hope that the mission will gather new proof that water once existed on Mars.
During the mission, Opportunity will drive to several positions halfway around the crater, conducting a sophisticated wide-baseline stereo-imaging survey of Santa Maria and a mineral survey using the spectrometers, microscope and drill -- known as the RAT or rock abrasion tool -- located at the terminus of the rover's robotic arm.
Opportunity landed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars on Jan. 25, 2004 for a mission originally planned to last for three months.
Santa Maria is the largest feature that Opportunity will explore between Victoria and Endeavour craters. JPL scientists assign informal names to craters visited by Opportunity based on the names of historic ships of exploration in human history.
Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, which passed its seventh anniversary on Mars this week, both have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life, according to the JPL.
The JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Exploration Rover projects for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.