NASA's Mars Opportunity Rover has conquered its highest peak in its long mission despite suffering "amnesia," it has been reported.
To commemorate the event, the wheeled robot snapped a stunning panorama of the view from atop "Cape Tribulation" and photographed the American flag printed on its robotic arm, Discovery News reported.
The Cape was around 135 meters above the plain surrounding the 14 mile-wide crater and the rover got there after rover drivers guided Opportunity, from Jan. 5 to Jan. 6, the final 53 meters southeastward to the crest of the rise. This final stretch was achieved without the use of flash memory.
Now Opportunity has conquered its latest hurdle, it has been hoped that a software fix will soon be uploaded to the rover's computer to instruct it to ignore the damaged flash memory bank so the nearly 11 year-old rover can roll to its next target.