[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: July 16-20, 2015

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 2015 17:02:44 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201508270002.t7R02iQ6000730_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Experimenting with Flash Memory sols 4080-4084,
July 16, 2015-July 20, 2015:

Opportunity has entered 'Marathon Valley' on the west rim of Endeavour
Crater.

On Sol 4081 (July 17, 2015), the rover drove 96.7 feet (29.47 meters)
to the northeast to enter the valley and collected spectacular imagery.
The project has been experimenting with the Flash file system on the rover
to understand its current usability.

On Sol 4082 (July 18, 2015), Opportunity mounted its non-volatile Flash
file system, instead of using volatile RAM for telemetry storage. The
Flash seemed to work, although a benign 'amnesia' event did occur later
on the sol. On the next Sol the rover was unable to mount the Flash at
all and used RAM instead, still able to carry out the science plan that
day.

On Sol 4084 (July 20, 2015), a short bump was sequenced, but because of
an amnesia event later on the sol, the telemetry from the bump was not
received on the ground, although other data showed the drive completed
as expected and the rover moved to the planned location.

The Flash file system will continued to be investigated by the project
as the science mission in Marathon Valley continues. Other than the Flash,
Opportunity is in good health.

As of Sol 4084 (July 20, 2015), the solar array energy production was
432 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.645 and a solar
array dust factor of 0.607.

Total odometry is 26.40 miles (42.48 kilometers), more than a marathon.
Received on Wed 26 Aug 2015 08:02:44 PM PDT