[meteorite-list] Mars Exploration Rover Update - January 20, 2006

[Ron Baalke]

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html#opportunity

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Driving Again - sol 695-707, Jan 20, 2006:

Opportunity has resumed driving after engineers determined an 
acceptable new way to stow the robotic arm during drives. With 
the arm in the newly approved stow configuration, the rover 
drove 2.4 meters (7.9 feet) on sol 707 (Jan. 19, 2006) to 
approach a rock called "Overgaard," chosen for close examination 
because of its cross-lamination texture.

When the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter was passing 
overhead, Opportunity used its panoramic camera and miniature 
thermal emission spectrometer for atmospheric observations 
coordinated with observations by the orbiter. The short Phobos and 
Deimos eclipse season started this week, and Opportunity observed 
transits of the moons.

Earlier, Opportunity completed a very long integration with the 
Moessbauer spectrometer and an overnight integration with the 
alpha particle X-ray spectrometer on a target called "Ted." The 
panoramic camera finished high-resolution imaging of the area 
around the location where the rover worked for several weeks while 
engineers determined the new ways to use and stow the arm. Symptoms 
of a broken wire in a shoulder-joint motor had appeared back on sol 
654 (Nov. 25, 2005). While at that location, Opportunity also put 
its arm into various positions and photographed it with the front 
hazard-avoidance camera, a calibration activity that the team dubbed 
"Martian Tai Chi."

Sol-by-sol summaries:

Sol 695 (Jan. 6, 2006): Continued Moessbauer spectrometer 
integration at Ted, sunset imaging, high-resolution imaging of an 
area with evidence of festooned crossbedding.

Sol 696: Overnight alpha particle X-ray spectrometer integration at 
Ted, imaging with the navigation camera for terrain and driving 
analysis.

Sol 697: Sky flat imaging with the microscopic imager, panoramic 
camera and navigation camera for image calibration. Normally the 
team would have stowed the robotic arm today (since arm work at this 
location is done), but since engineers have not yet determined the 
best stow position, we simply returned the arm to the ready position.

Sol 698: Observations with the miniature thermal emission 
spectrometer and navigation camera, calibration activity the team 
calls "Martian Tai Chi." During this activity, the arm is commanded 
to a few different positions and the front hazard-avoidance camera 
acquires images at each position. The arm location as reported by the 
spacecraft is compared to the location shown in the images so the arm 
model and camera model can be calibrated against each other. 

Sol 699: Photometry observations with the navigation camera, start of 
acquiring a high-resolution blue stereo panorama of the surrounding 
outcrop (the "Fenway Panorama").

Sol 700: Miniature thermal emission spectrometer observations of the 
atmosphere and several outcrop targets, continued photometry 
observations.

Sol 701: Completion of Fenway Panorama and photometric observations.

Sol 702: Thirteen-filter observations of Overgaard with the panoramic 
camera, atmospheric remote sensing.

Sols 703 to 705: Intended stowing of the robotic arm on sol 704 was not 
successful due to faulting out of the shoulder-joint motor. The miniature 
thermal emission spectrometer made atmospheric observations coordinated 
with an overflight by Mars Express on sol 705. The panoramic camera was 
used for some super-resolution imaging.

Sol 706: Successful stowing of robotic arm, panoramic camera observations 
coordinated with Mars Express, observation of Deimos transit. The 
resistance for the shoulder azimuth joint was increased to 65 ohms 
(from 58 ohms) for this stow.

Sol 707: Opportunity drove back 1 meter (3.3 feet), took images, then 
drove forward 1.4 meters (4.6 feet) to a target called "Lower Overgaard." 

As of sol 707 (Jan. 19, 2006) Opportunity's total odometry is 6,504.55 
meters (4.04 miles).