Opportunity prepares to dig out--hopefully

Images: JPL rover site
Info: Cornell rover site (w/pics, journal and video)


After several practice attempts with an Earth-based rover, JPL scientists hope to extricate Opportunity from its Martian sand trap very soon. How soon is unknown as engineers continue to replicate the current situation and practice various techniques for escape.
Let's all cross our fingers...
Even though Opportunity has been stuck for the past several days, critical data continues to stream in from its sister rover, Spirit. Here's a snippet from the Spacedaily.com story:


The really good news is that we now have emerging the first true stratigraphy that we've seen in the Columbia Hills... a suite of stratified rocks that we can put together into a time-ordered sequence and work out a history of geologic events. We don't have the whole story yet, but it's really coming together now. I'm hoping to be able to report on it at the American Geophysical Union meeting that's coming up in New Orleans in a few weeks.

Ok, I admit it: Martian rock-hunting is boring to anyone but a geologist...Still, exploration is exploration and what we are learning from these little "wonder-bots" is changing our understanding of the Solar System and the planet we live on.
That's excitement enough for me!