[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: January 22-27, 2015

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2015 10:51:10 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201502021851.t12IpAFj001489_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

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

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Several Drives This Week Put Opportunity Near Marathon
Distance - sols 3909-3914, January 22, 2015-January 27, 2015:

Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater heading towards "Marathon
Valley," a putative location for abundant clay minerals now about 984
feet (300 meters) away.

The project is operating the rover without using the Flash storage system
to avoid reset problems and is using instead random access memory (RAM)
for temporary storage of telemetry. The project is preparing to mask off
the troubled sector of Flash and resume using the remainder of the Flash
file system in normal operations.

Opportunity drove on Sols 3909, 3911 and 3914 (Jan. 22, Jan. 24 and Jan.
27, 2015), totaling almost 279 feet (85 meters). On the evening of Sol
3912 (Jan. 25, 2015), an atmospheric argon measurement was collected with
the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer. Targeted color imagery is being
collected as the rover makes progress towards the "Spirit of St. Louis"
crater and Marathon Valley.

As of Sol 3914 (Jan. 27, 2015), the estimated solar array energy production
was 534 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.891 and an inferred
solar array dust factor of 0.636.

Total odometry is 26.02 miles (41.88 kilometers).
Received on Mon 02 Feb 2015 01:51:10 PM PST