[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: May 26 - June 3, 2015

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2015 11:59:00 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <201506081859.t58Ix0V3001972_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

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

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Rover Ready for Solar Conjunction and Period of
Curtailed Operations - sols 4030-4038, May 26, 2015-June 03, 2015:

Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater at the 'Spirit of St.
Louis' crater near the entrance of 'Marathon Valley.' The rover is now
configured for Solar Conjunction with all sequences onboard for the next
three weeks.

Solar conjunction is when the Sun comes between Earth and Mars, which
occurs about once every 26 months. During this time there will be
diminished communications to Opportunity. More on solar conjunction here:
http://mars.nasa.gov/news/whatsnew/?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1824

The last drive was on Sol 4031 (May 27, 2015). The rover moved 19 meters
to approach a surface target that will be the subject of investigation
during solar conjunction. On Sol 4034 (May 30, 2015), the robotic arm
was used to collect a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of the surface
target. Then, the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) was placed
for a multiple hour integration. The next robotic arm activity will
actually occur during Solar Conjunction on Sol 4047 (June 12, 2015). On
that sol, Opportunity will perform a small, less than an inch (1 cm)
offset of the APXS placement and perform another long integration. As
of
the entry into the Solar Conjunction communication moratorium,
Opportunity was in good health operating in persistent RAM-mode to avoid
the use of Flash memory.

As of Sol 4037 (June 2, 2015), the solar array energy production was 500
watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.952 and a solar array
dust factor of 0.688.

Total odometry is 26.33 miles (42.37 kilometers), more than a marathon.
Received on Mon 08 Jun 2015 02:59:00 PM PDT