PASADENA – After conquering one Martian crater, the NASA rover Opportunity is setting out to explore a far bigger one.

Whether the six-wheel rover will get there is another story. It must drive seven miles across the equatorial plains – equal to its total distance traveled since landing in 2004.

“We may not get there, but it is scientifically the right direction to go anyway,” chief scientist Steve Squyres of Cornell University said in a statement Monday.

Opportunity climbed out of the half-mile-wide Victoria Crater earlier this month after spending a year inspecting and snapping images of bright rock layers.

It is now headed for Endeavour Crater, a depression measuring about 13 miles across, and located to the southeast.

Scientists estimate the trek could take two years. Along the way, the rover will study loose rocks.

Opportunity and its twin Spirit have been working long past the three months their missions were originally planned to last. The missions are operated by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

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