[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: September 4-9, 2014

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 20:09:36 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201409150309.s8F39amx016671_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

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

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Flash-Memory Reformat Successful! - sols 3773-3778,
September 04, 2014-September 09, 2014:

Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater heading towards 'Marathon
Valley,' a putative location for abundant clay minerals.

The rover's Flash file system was successfully reformatted on Sol 3773
(Sept. 4, 2014). The Flash space available is slightly smaller (<1%) than
before the reformat, consistent with the reformatting process flagging
some bad cells to avoid. On Sol 3775 (Sept. 6, 2014), some scripts and
configuration files were copied back to Flash from EEPROM (other non-volatile
storage) were they were kept during the reformat. Other configuration
files were loaded from the ground on Sol 3776 (Sept. 7, 2014). The rover
has performed without any anomalies or unusual behavior since the reformat.

A drive was sequenced on Sol 3778 (Sept. 9, 2014), using visual odometry
to navigate around potential rock obstacles. The drive stopped almost
as soon as it started because the rover's visual odometry could not find
enough visual features for the algorithm to converge. The plan ahead is
to re-sequence the drive but to instruct the rover to use a different
scene with more visual features for the visual odometry.

As of Sol 3778 (Sept. 9, 2014), the solar array energy production was
694 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.879 and a solar
array dust factor of 0.754.

Total odometry is 25.28 miles (40.69 kilometers).
Received on Sun 14 Sep 2014 11:09:36 PM PDT