[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: June 12-17, 2014

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2014 14:52:56 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201407022152.s62Lqvcc007524_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Imaging Mars' Moon Phobos - sols 3691-3696,
June 12, 2014-June 17, 2014

Opportunity is exploring the west rim of Endeavour Crater. On Sol 3691
(June 12, 2014), the rover continued south along the ridgeline of the
crater rim, completing a 66-feet (20-meter) drive.

On the evening of Sol 3693 (June 14, 2014), a Flash memory amnesia event
(where Flash memory fails to mount after a wake up) occurred. There were
no impacts to operations and no loss of science data. On Sol 3696 (June
17, 2014), Opportunity continued the southward progress with a 115-feet
(35-meter) drive. The rover is also documenting the current terrain with
targeted multi-color Panoramic Camera (Pancam) images and Navigation
Camera (Navcam) panoramas.

With abundant energy and the need to condition the batteries,
Opportunity has been waking late at night and collecting atmospheric
argon measurements with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS).
These late wake ups have also created opportunities to image Mars' moon
Phobos. The martian moon along with its putative dust torus will be
imaged on the evening of Sol 3697 (June 18, 2014). Wheel currents
continue to be very well behaved. And, no Flash-induced resets have
occurred in this reporting period.

As of Sol 3696 (June 17, 2014), the solar array energy production was
706 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.617 and a solar
array dust factor of 0.864.

Total odometry is 24.57 miles (39.4 kilometers).
Received on Wed 02 Jul 2014 05:52:56 PM PDT