[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: September 10-16, 2014

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 11:33:53 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201409241833.s8OIXrXs021763_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

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

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Back to Driving - sols 3779-3785,
September 10, 2014-September 16, 2014:

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

The rover is headed to a near-term target, a small crater named
'Ulysses.' On Sol 3780 (Sept. 11, 2014), Opportunity drove a little over
33 feet (10 meters) in rocky terrain, requiring the use of Visual
Odometry to safely navigate the rock hazards. On the evening of Sol 3781
(Sept. 12, 2014), an atmospheric argon measurement was collected using
the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer. The next day, the rover drove
again, achieving over 66 feet (20 meters) in the difficult terrain.

On the evening of Sol 3783 (Sept. 14, 2014), an 'amnesia' event
occurred. This results from the rover being unable to mount its Flash
(non-volatile) file storage system during the wake up for Deep Sleep. A
reformat of the Flash file system was performed 10 sols ago and
corrected many of the worn out cells in Flash. No science data was lost
as a result of the amnesia event and the rover continued normally.

The 98 feet (30-meter) drive on the next sol completed without any
issues and the rover performed nominally. The project continues to
investigate the Flash-related issues. The rover is otherwise operating
in good health.

As of Sol 3785 (Sept. 16, 2014), the solar array energy production was
693 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.905 and a solar
array dust factor of 0.768.

Total odometry is 25.32 miles (40.75 kilometers).
Received on Wed 24 Sep 2014 02:33:53 PM PDT