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Brightening Skies Bolster Opportunity For MER-B To Survive 2007 Dust Season
Pasadena CA (SPX) Aug 27, 2007 Opportunity is healthy and remains perched near the rim of "Victoria Crater." The rover was on a low-power schedule that alternated between a 3-sol plan and a 4-sol plan. Tau (atmospheric opacity) has begun to stabilize this week at around 3.7, resulting in solar array energy between 230-240 watt hours. Therefore in the upcoming week, the team will return to nominal planning. The rover conducted a lot of what engineers call "runout science." This includes: panoramic camera wide-range tau measurements, navigation camera tau measurements, navigation camera cloud measurements, panoramic camera soria (imaging a rough, rocky area near the rover), front hazard avoidance camera images, rear hazard avoidance camera images, navigation camera images, panoramic camera sky spot, panoramic camera dust monitoring on the mast, miniature thermal emission spectrometer target calibration and panoramic camera high-sun surveys. Sol 1256: Opportunity conducted one hour of runout science. Sol 1257: On this sol, the rover's activities included the following: uplinked on high-gain antenna, panoramic camera wide-range tau, navigation camera tau, navigation camera bitty cloud, panoramic camera soria, front hazard avoidance camera images, rear hazard avoidance camera images, navigation camera images, panoramic camera wide-range tau, panoramic camera horizon survey, panoramic camera calibration target, mast dust monitoring, miniature thermal emission spectrometer calibration target and panamoric camera high-sun survey. Sol 1258: Opportunity conducted 45 minutes of of runout science. Sol 1259: On this sol, the rover did 30 minutes of runout science and completed a UHF data downlink. Sol 1260: Opportunity conducted 45 minutes of runout science. Sol 1261: Opportunity's activities included the following: uplink on high-gain antenna, engineering navigation camera tau, panoramic camera wide range tau, panoramic camera soria calibration target, front hazard avoidance camera images, rear hazard avoidance camera images, navigation camera images, panoramic camera high-sun sky survey, pancam wide range tau and UHF downlink. Sol 1262: The rover did 30 minutes of runout science and completed a UHF downlink. Sol 1263: Opportunity conducted 45 minutes of runout science. Sol 1264: On this sol, the rover's activities included the following: uplink on the high-gain antenna, engineering navigation camera tau, panoramic camera wide-range tau, panoramic camera soria calibration target, front hazard avoidance camera images, rear hazard avoidance camera images, panoramic camera sky thumbs and panoramic camera wide-range tau. Sol 1265: 45 minutes of runout science and UHF downlink. Odometry: Opportunity's odometery is 11,462.94 meters (7.12 miles) as of the last drive on sol 1232. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com Lunar Dreams and more
Mars Rovers Get About As Spirit Clips Viking 2 For Ground Duty
Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 24, 2007After six weeks of hunkering down during raging dust storms that limited solar power, both of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have resumed driving. Opportunity advanced 13.38 meters (44 feet) toward the edge of Victoria Crater on Aug. 21. Mission controllers were taking advantage of gradual clearing of dust from the sky while also taking precautions against buildup of dust settling onto the rover. |
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