[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: November 17-22, 2011

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Nov 2011 19:04:11 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201111260304.pAQ34BsX001790_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html#opportunity

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Scouting Sites for the Winter - sols 2778-2783,
November 17-22, 2011:

In preparing for positioning Opportunity for the coming winter, the project
has been scouting sites with favorable northerly tilt on the north end of
Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.

There are two candidate sites for winter havens that indicate sufficient
northerly tilt. Opportunity is investigating one of those two sites with
the plan to spend the Thanksgiving holiday there. Because of the coming holiday,
the project implemented multi-sol plans for the last three planning days before
Thanksgiving.

On Sol 2778 (Nov. 17, 2011), the rover moved just under 39 feet (12 meters) to the
south approaching the candidate location. Rover attitude increased to 10 degrees of
northerly tilt. On Sol 2780 (Nov. 19, 2011), an atmospheric argon measurement was made
with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS). On Sol 2781 (Nov. 20, 2011), Opportunity
bumped just under 10 feet (3 meters) to reach an interesting surface target with improved
rover tilt. The northerly tilt increased to about 12 degrees.

On Sol 2783 (Nov. 22, 2011), Opportunity made a very small turn to move a surface target
within the work volume of the robotic arm. Another atmospheric argon measurement was
collected with the APXS later that sol. The plan ahead is to spend Thanksgiving at this
location and to collect Microscopic Imager (MI) images of this new surface target, called
"Transvaal" along with an APXS measure of the same.

As of Sol 2783 (Nov. 22, 2011), solar array energy production was 297 watt-hours with an
atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.661 and a solar array dust factor of 0.463.

Total odometry is 21.34 miles (34,342.70 meters or 34.44 kilometers).
Received on Fri 25 Nov 2011 10:04:11 PM PST