[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: November 24 - December 3, 2014

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 15:00:49 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201412102300.sBAN0nDw029425_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/status.html#opportunity

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Flash-Memory Reformat Planned - sols 3852-3861,
November 24, 2014-December 03, 2014:

Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater heading towards 'Marathon
Valley,' a putative location for abundant clay minerals less than a mile
(about a kilometer) to the south.

The rover is stopped at an interesting geologic unit and conducting in-situ
(contact) measurements. On Sol 3853 (Nov. 25, 2014), the rover used the
robotic arm to reposition the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS)
for a surface measurement. On the next sol, the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT)
was used to brush a new surface target, which was then imaged with the
Microscopic Imager (MI) and examined with the APXS.

With the Thanksgiving holiday, a multi-sol plan was built to collect Pancam
images over the long holiday weekend. However, the rover experienced amnesia
events and then a computer reset around Sol 3856 (Nov. 28, 2014). After
the reboot, the rover was no longer under sequence control and was unable
to mount the flash (non-volatile) memory. The project restored the rover
to normal sequence operation on Sol 3859 (Dec. 1, 2014), but the flash
file system remained unavailable. The project prepared for a reformatting
of the flash memory on Sol 3862 (Dec. 4, 2014).

As of Sol 3859 (Dec. 1, 2014), solar-array energy production was 468 watt-hours,
with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 1.376 and a solar-array dust factor
of 0.638.

Total odometry as of Sol 3861 (Dec. 3, 2014) is 25.66 miles (41.30 kilometers).
Received on Wed 10 Dec 2014 06:00:49 PM PST