Vostok (crater)

Crater Vostok on Mars
Planet Mars
Region Meridiani Planum
Coordinates 1°54′S 354°30′E / 1.9°S 354.5°E / -1.9; 354.5Coordinates: 1°54′S 354°30′E / 1.9°S 354.5°E / -1.9; 354.5
Diameter ~20 metres
Depth Effectively zero - the crater is filled with sand
Discoverer Opportunity rover
Eponym The Soviet Vostok programme of manned spaceflight.
This article is about the impact crater on Mars. For other uses, see Vostok (disambiguation).

Vostok is a crater lying situated within the Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle (MC-19) region of the planet Mars that was reached by the rover Opportunity on sol 399 (March 8, 2005). Vostok is located roughly 1200 meters south of Endurance in Meridiani Planum. The crater appears to have been covered up with sand by the winds on the red planet, but many rock outcrops are still visible from the surface.

The location of the crater Vostok as shown on this traverse map.

The rover's Mini-TES instrument was malfunctioning when it was near Vostok, however, the issues soon disappeared.

Other smaller craters visited along the way included Argo, Jason, and Alvin just south of the heat shield, and Naturaliste, Géographe, and Investigator.

While at Vostok, Opportunity investigated a rock dubbed "Gagarin", named for cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. It also imaged a soil sample named "Laika". The rover left on Sol 404, and headed south towards Erebus - an eroded crater wider than Endurance, some "etched terrain" and an even larger crater, the 750-meter wide Victoria.

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