NASA Announces Media Teleconference About Opportunity Rover

PASADENA, Calif., Aug. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA will host a media teleconference on Thursday, Sept. 1, at 12:30 p.m. PDT to discuss progress of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. Opportunity reached the Martian Endeavour crater earlier this month after years of driving.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO)

The teleconference participants are:

-- Dave Lavery, program executive, Mars Exploration Rovers, NASA Headquarters, Washington.

-- Steve Squyres, principal investigator, Mars Exploration Rovers, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

-- Ray Arvidson, deputy principal investigator, Mars Exploration Rovers, Washington University in St. Louis.

-- John Callas, project manager, Mars Exploration Rovers, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif.

To participate in the teleconference, reporters must contact the JPL Media Relations Office at 818-354-5011 not later than 11 a.m. on Thursday for the call-in number and passcode.

Opportunity and its twin, Spirit, completed their three-month prime missions on Mars in April 2004. They continued to work for years in bonus mission extensions. Spirit finished communicating in 2010, after six years of operation.

Opportunity, still very active, reached the rim of Endeavour crater on Aug. 9. The arrival gives the rover access to geology different from any it explored during its first 90 months on Mars.

For live audio streaming of the teleconference, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio

More information about the twin rovers, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/rovers

SOURCE NASA