[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: October 15-22, 2014

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2014 15:01:19 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201411052301.sA5N1Jrb012623_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/status.html#opportunity

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Opportunity Snaps Images of Comet Siding Spring
- sols 3813-3820, October 15, 2014-October 22, 2014:

Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater heading towards
'Marathon Valley,' a putative location for abundant clay minerals only a
mile (1.6 kilometers) to the south.

This past week the rover continued its examination of the ejecta field
of the small crater named 'Ulysses,' as well as taking time out to take
a unique photo opportunity of Comet Siding Spring. See comet images at:
http://mars.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring/.

On Sol 3814 (Oct. 16, 2014), Opportunity began the first of a two-step
drive toward target 'Birmingham,' which appeared to be granular. Upon
closer inspection this did not turn out to be the case but was deemed
more likely to be impact melt. It was still considered interesting
enough to analyze, and so the rover bumped to set up for the Instrument
Deployment Device on Sol 3817 (Oct. 19, 2014).

In the meantime, on Sol 3817 (Oct. 21, 2014) Opportunity successfully
acquired a set of spectacular images of Comet Siding Spring during its
close approach to Mars. The bump to Birmingham on Sol 3817 having also
been successful, the rover proceeded to perform a Microscopic Imager
(MI) and Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) on target 'Crimson
Tide' in the Sol 3819 (Oct. 21, 2014) plan. Unfortunately, the rover
experienced two additional 'amnesia' events during this period - one on
Sol 3813 (Oct. 15, 2014) and another on Sol 3817 (Oct. 19, 2014).
Neither impacted rover operations. The rover is in otherwise good health.

As of Sol 3820 (Oct. 20, 2014), the solar array energy production was
434 watt-hours with an elevated atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 1.75 and a
solar array dust factor of 0.697.

Total odometry is 25.35 miles (40.79 kilometers).
Received on Wed 05 Nov 2014 06:01:19 PM PST