Traversing the slopes of Cape Tribulation will likely be one of the most intense and challenging things Opportunity has ever done. “The driving will be more difficult,” Seibert admitted. “We will also have some communication challenges, because there will be times the orbiters’ overflights, which we use to send data back to Earth, will be so low on the western horizon that they will barely peek above the rim of the crater, and those passes won't return much. And, as long as we don't have Flash enabled, that means we can only get a trickle of data back on those sols. That can slow down our operations pace a little bit.”

Anything could happen in this treacherous Martian terrain, but with the care and concern this team has always had for their field geologist, this rover’s fate is in the most experienced and capable hands in the solar system. The MER drivers are ready, willing, able and dedicated beyond measure.

“When we're driving, we could experience slip downhill and driving across slope that could pull us off our heading, so we have to be really careful how we're tracking the rover's position,” Seibert said. “Thankfully, our Visual Odometry system allows us to more accurately track our position, but it's going to involve more periodic safety checks during driving. Even when we're not driving, the rover will be tilted to the east, so we'll have more power early in the sol, but our effective sunset, due to rover's tilt and the crater’s rim, means that we’ll lose a bit of time at the end of each sol where the solar arrays no longer generate any power.”

Still, these challenges are a part of what the excitement is all about, especially for the rover drivers, not only because Opportunity will be going where no rover has gone before, but because the tilt and terrain will give them experience and perhaps some thrills of a lifetime. “It will make for very interesting operations,” said Seibert, “and it’s definitely going to be exciting.”

Opportunity is ready and so far Mars is cooperating. The weather has been good with the spring dust storms keeping their distance and the rover’s power levels are still in excess of 600 watt-hours.

The really good news is that each of the currently charted routes is reversible. “Had we decided to go down Marathon Valley all the way into the crater, it would be likely one way, and that's why we didn't go that way,” said Callas. “Even though we expect to follow the gully down to the floor of Endeavour at the end of our extended plan for the next two years, there is an exit point where we can come back out again if we want to exit and head for Iazu or other ambitious targets.”

After twelve and a half years into what was originally slated to be a three-month tour, how can anyone not marvel over this rover, this team, this mission? The planet, of course, has played a hugely important role in this magical story too, and as the MER mission heads into its tenth extension Mars continues to be, as the team is wont to say, "cooperating."

“Mars,” Squyres acknowledged, “has been really good to us.”