This week NASA released an ultra-high-resolution view of the frigid Martian landscape captured by the only rover currently operating on the red planet. “The view provides … a spectacularly detailed view of the largest impact crater that we’ve driven to yet,” said planetary scientist Jim Bell of Arizona State University in a press release July 5. The solar-powered, golf-cart-sized rover, called Opportunity, wrapped up exploration of the half-mile-wide Victoria Crater in August 2008. It then rolled for the next three years to reach the 14-mile-wide Endeavour Crater. But the plucky robot must hunker down during Martian winters that last six Earth months, as Opportunity needs to have enough power to warm its fragile electronics. So from Dec. 21, 2011 through May 8, 2012, NASA instructed the robot to stay put and take 817 images. The space agency stitched those photos together to craft a near-wraparound image of Opportunity’s overwintering spot, a rocky outcrop near the 4-billion-year-old Endeavour Crater that scientists named “Greeley Haven.” NASA’s next car-sized rover called Curiosity arrives at Mars Aug. 5, but it won’t have to overwinter like Opportunity. Instead of relying on feeble sunlight, it will use a thermoelectric nuclear battery to provide it with decades’ worth of power. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State University [high-resolution version]