Several Drives This Week Put Opportunity Over 17-Mile Mark
Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 12, 2011 Opportunity continues the trek towards Endeavour crater with great dispatch, driving on four of the last six sols. On Sols 2554 and 2556 (April 1 and 3, 2011), the rover drove over 100 meters (328 feet) due east on each sol. On Sol 2558 (April 5, 2011), the drive stopped short at only 64.6 meters (212 feet) of progress when the right bogie angle limit was exceeded. The limit was set very tight to ensure safe driving. A modest terrain feature caused the limit to trip. After careful review that there was no safety concerns, the rover resumed driving on Sol 2559 (April 6, 2011), with a 65.4 meter (215 foot) drive to the southeast. There continues to be a small increase in the motor currents for the right-front wheel. The project is tracking this. Another diagnostic of the miniature thermal emission spectrometer (Mini-TES) instrument was performed on Sol 2557 (April 4, 2011). Those diagnostics still indicate anomalous behavior. The instrument investigation is continuing. As of Sol 2559 (April 6, 2011), solar array energy production was 414 watt-hours with an elevated atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.910 and a solar array dust factor of 0.561. Total odometry is 27,504.97 meters (27.50 kilometers, or 17.09 miles).
Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Mars Exploration Rovers Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com Lunar Dreams and more
Study Of 'Ruiz Garcia' Rock Completed Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 31, 2011 Opportunity completed the in-situ (contact) investigation on the surface target Ruiz Garcia at Santa Maria crater. On Sol 2520 (Feb. 25, 2011), the rover used the robotic arm (Instrument Deployment Device, or IDD) to collect a microscopic imager (MI) image mosaic of Ruiz Garcia. Then, it placed the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS) down on the target for multi-sol integration. ... read more |
|
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |