"Everything is looking good with Opportunity," said Arthur Amador, one of the officials in charge of the Mars Exploration Rover.

Opportunity landed safely on Mars at 9:05 pm Saturday (0505 GMT) in a small crater in an area known as the Meridiani Planum -- region of particular interest to geologists studying the planet.

"We could spend most of the mission just in this little crater," the mission's scientific director Steve Squyres said at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory here.

The region is full of exposed bedrock, mostly an iron oxide called grey hematite, which could have been formed under an ocean or by volcanoes, he said.

Unlike the area where Opportunity's twin probe Spirit landed, the rocks in Opportunity's neighborhood were formed where they lie, giving scientists a chance to try to unravel the planet's geologic history.

Spirit, which landed on January 3 but broke down last week, remains "serious," said its mission chief Pete Theisinger.

"We are kind of on the way to a normal recovery. I think we have a very good chance that we will have a very good rover. Once again, it will take some time to make sure that we have completely characterized the problem."

SPACE.WIRE