[meteorite-list] Mars Exploration Rovers Update - April 1-6, 2011

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2011 17:27:57 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201104110027.p3B0RvNW006274_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

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

SPIRIT UPDATE: Spirit Remains Silent at Troy* /- sols 2574-2579,
March 31 - April 5, 2011:

No communication has been received from Spirit since Sol 2210 (March 22,
2010).

Deep Space Network X-band listening and recovery commanding continue.
The project has been systematically conducting commanding over a range
of frequencies and over a range of local solar times on Mars. This
covers possibility that the rover's receiver has degraded and/or the
clock has drifted significantly since March of 2010.

The project is continuing the commanding of extra-long ultra-high
frequency (UHF) relay passes to account for possible rover clock drift
or clock error and to make the rover responsive to UHF relay (if it is
has experienced a mission-clock fault). The team is also commanding the
backup solid-state power amplifier, in case the primary X-band
transmitter has failed.

Total odometry is unchanged at 7,730.50 meters (4.80 miles).

------------------------------------------------------------------------

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Several Drives This Week Put Rover Over 17-Mile
Mark!* - sols 2554-2559, April 01-06, 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).
Received on Sun 10 Apr 2011 08:27:57 PM PDT