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Spirit Still In X-Band Fault Mode
Pasadena CA (SPX) Oct 20, 2009 Spirit is still in X-band fault mode due to a high-gain antenna (HGA) dynamic brake anomaly that first occurred back on Sol 2027 (Sept. 15, 2009) and has re-occurred most recently on Sol 2052 (Oct. 11, 2009). With the HGA fault, all X-band uplinks use the low-gain antenna (LGA) and uplink bandwidth is limited. Spirit was to be back under normal HGA operation on Sol 2054 (Oct. 13, 2009). However, a Deep Space Network (DSN) station outage at the last minute, with no alternative station available, prevented the HGA-recovery uplink from getting to Spirit. Spirit will be under runout sols, and the next planned uplink will be on Sol 2057 (Oct. 16, 2009). So the Sol 2057 plan is to clear the X-band and HGA faults and change the communication behavior manager (CBM) back to X-band nominal. The HGA dynamic brake status has been masked already in flight software. Spirit is otherwise in good health (power positive, thermally stable and communicative over LGA and UHF) conducting limited remote sensing science in the runout sols. The Mossbauer (MB) spectrometer is positioned on a surface target and will resume an extended integration on Sol 2057 (Oct. 16, 2009). As of Sol 2054 (Oct. 13, 2009), Spirit's solar array energy production was 427 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.605. The dust factor is 0.6075, meaning that about 61 percent of the sunlight hitting the solar array is penetrating through the dust on the array. Total odometry as of Sol 2055 (Oct. 14, 2009): 7,729.97 meters (4.80 miles). Share This Article With Planet Earth
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Opportunity Finished With 'Shelter Island'Pasadena CA (SPX) Oct 19, 2009 Opportunity completed its survey of the meteorite called "Shelter Island". On Sol 2029 (Oct. 8, 2009), the rover completed the in-situ (contact) science campaign on the meteorite's surface with a microscopic imager (MI) mosaic and an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS) placement for integration. On Sol 2031 (Oct. 10, 2009), the robotic arm (instrument deployment device, or IDD) was ... read more |
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