Opportunity Cracks The 18-Mile Mark
Pasadena CA (JPL) May 16, 2011 Opportunity continues the trek towards Endeavour crater after a brief jog last week through a small field of young impact craters, named in honor after the spacecraft of the NASA Mercury Program. On Sol 2588 (May 5, 2011), Opportunity headed east with a drive of over 126 meters (413 feet). On Sol 2589 (May 6, 2011), the rover drove further east achieving almost 129 meters (423 feet). On Sol 2592 (May 10, 2011), Opportunity again achieved another long drive to the east covering another 126 meters (413 feet). With this drive, Opportunity passed 29 kilometers (18 miles) of total mission odometry. On Sol 2593 (May 11, 2011), the rover repeated another long drive to the east of about 117 meters (384 feet). The science team spied an interesting crater in the distance, so on Sol 2594 (May 12, 2011), Opportunity drove 72 meters (236 feet) to stop near the crater named Skylab for a brief imaging sequence before moving on with a drive planned for the next sol. As of Sol 2594 (May 12, 2011), solar array energy production was 382 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.816 and a solar array dust factor of 0.514. Total odometry is 29,278.59 meters (29.28 kilometers, or 18.19 miles). Spirit Remains Silent at Troy - sols 2608-2614, May 5-11, 2011: No communication has been received from Spirit since Sol 2210 (March 22, 2010). The project is continuing the recovery effort of both Deep Space Network X-band and ultra-high frequency (UHF) relay communication attempts. Total odometry is unchanged at 7,730.50 meters (4.80 miles).
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Opportunity Images Small Craters Pasadena CA (JPL) May 06, 2011 Opportunity continues the trek towards Endeavour crater with a brief sojourn through a small field of young impact craters. In honor of the 50th anniversary of the first American into space, Alan Shepard, the Mars Exploration Rover project informally named the craters in this impact field after the spacecraft of the NASA Mercury Program. On Sol 2581 (April 28, 2011), Opportunity bega ... read more |
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