[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: Jun 25-30, 2015

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2015 09:25:26 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201507051625.t65GPQhC004191_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

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

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Opportunity Gets Back to Work - sols 4059-4064, June
25, 2015-June 30, 2015:

Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater at the 'Spirit of St.
Louis' crater near the entrance of 'Marathon Valley.'

The Earth-Mars Solar Conjunction command moratorium and communication
blackout is over and the rover has resumed normal operations and science
planning.

On Sol 4059 (June 25, 2015), the rover conducted targeted remote sensing
including capturing a spectacular Phobos transit of the Sun. The next
sol had the rover collecting change-detecting imagery to compare to imagery
collected before solar conjunction. On Sol 4061 (June 27, 2015), Opportunity
bumped just over a meter to reach some new surface targets just the other
side of the 'Red Zone' unit that had been previously investigated. Post-dump
targeted Panoramic Camera (Pancam) images and a 360-degree Navigation
Camera (Navcam) panorama were collected. With the new position, the rover
on Sol 4064 (June 30, 2015), used the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) to brush
the surface target, named 'Ryan NYP.' This was followed with a Microscopic
Imager (MI) mosaic and a placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer
(APXS) for an evening integration.

The rover continues to operate in RAM-only mode while the on-board Flash
storage system is being investigated. The rover is otherwise in good health.

As of Sol 4064 (June 30, 2015), the solar array energy production was
465 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.725 and a solar
array dust factor of 0.628.

Total odometry is 26.33 miles (42.37 kilometers), more than a marathon.
Received on Sun 05 Jul 2015 12:25:26 PM PDT