OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Beginning to Explore 'Marathon Valley', sols 4085-4093, July 21, 2015-July 30, 2015
Opportunity has entered 'Marathon Valley' on the west rim of Endeavour Crater and has begun the search for clay minerals. Previously, the project tested returning to using Flash memory for data storage. The Flash exhibited instability after a few sols, so the project returned Opportunity to operating in RAM-only mode on Sol 4085 (July 21, 2015). Over the next two sols a 360-degree Navigation Camera (Navcam) panorama was collected. On Sol 4088 (July 24, 2015), the rover resumed contact science with the collection of a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of a surface target followed by the placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on the same for a multi-hour integration. Additional MI images were collected on the next sol to complete the mosaic. Atmospheric observations were also made as part of this multi-sol plan. On Sol 4091, (July 28, 2015), the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) was used to brush the surface target to prepare it for further investigation. This was followed by another MI mosaic and the placement of the APXS. On Sol 4093 (July 30, 2015), an offset MI mosaic was collected and the APXS placed on the offset target. Other than the Flash, Opportunity is in good health. As of Sol 4092 (July 29, 2015), the solar array energy production was 424 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.695 and a solar array dust factor of 0.611. Total odometry is 26.40 miles (42.48 kilometers), more than a marathon. ______________________________________________ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
