[meteorite-list] Mars Exploration Rover Update: May 29 - Jun 03, 2008

[Ron Baalke]

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

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE:  On the Road Again! - sol 1545-1550, 
May 29 - Jun 03, 2008:

After passing a series of tests to earn a new driver's certificate,
Opportunity resumed driving while keeping its robotic arm in a new,
"stowed" position that is essentially mostly unstowed. Engineers studied
the vehicle's response in a variety of scenarios and determined that the
new, unstowed position minimizes joint stresses, provides a clear field
of view for driving, provides sufficient clearance between the turret
holding the scientific instruments and the surface, and allows the
largest possible work volume for in-situ science.

In fact, tests of a surrogate rover on Earth were in some ways an
"overtest," because gravitational forces on Earth are greater than on Mars.

Opportunity completed two drives, advancing about 0.5 meters (1.6 feet)
on Sol 1547 (May 31, 2008) and 0.22 meters (0.72 feet) on Sol 1550 (June
3, 2008). The robotic arm behaved as expected during both drives.

Prior to the recent electrical anomaly that caused the robotic arm to
stall, Opportunity performed a "toe dip," during which the rover drove
forward a short distance and then backward to characterize the sandy
terrain en route to a promonotory dubbed "Cape Verde." During the
procedure, Opportunity experienced significant wheel slippage of more
than 90 percent in addition to high tilt while moving backward. After a
series of adjustments, rover operators discovered that the rover's front
wheels had begun to dig into the terrain. They decided to stop driving
forward and focus on driving backward to extract the rover's front
wheels from the sand.

During this week's two drives, Opportunity continued to make slow and
steady progress toward backing out of the sand. Once the rover's wheels
are free, Opportunity will head for a staging area to make more
observations of the Cape Verde promontory. The staging area is about 15
meters (49 feet) away, or about the length of two passenger buses lined
up end to end.

Opportunity continued to acquire images for the full-color "Garrels
panorama" as well as images of the soil target informally named
"Williams." The rover remains healthy and all subsystems are performing
as expected. Solar-array energy has averaged about 475 watt-hours (100
watt-hours is the amount of energy needed to light a 100-watt bulb for
one hour).

Sol-by-sol summary:

In addition to receiving morning instructions directly from Earth via
the rover's high-gain antenna and measuring atmospheric dust with the
panoramic camera, Opportunity completed the following activities:

Sol 1545 (May 29, 2008): Opportunity acquired Part 12 of the Garrels
panorama.

Sol 1546: Opportunity took images of Williams, surveyed the sky at high
Sun, took thumbnail images of the sky for calibration purposes and
surveyed the horizon with the panoramic camera.

Sol 1547: Opportunity drove 0.5 meters (1.6 feet). Before and after the
drive, the rover took images of the robotic arm with the navigation
camera. The rover took post-drive images of the surface near the wheels
with the hazard-avoidance cameras and images of the surrounding terrain
with the navigation camera.

Sol 1548: In the morning, Opportunity took spot images of the sky for
calibration purposes with the panoramic camera and six time-lapse movie
frames in search of clouds with the navigation camera. The rover
measured argon gas in the Martian atmosphere with the alpha-particle
X-ray spectrometer.

Sol 1549: After relaying data to NASA's Odyssey orbiter, Opportunity
continued to measure atmospheric argon with the alpha-particle X-ray
spectrometer.

Sol 1550 (June 3, 2008): In the morning, Opportunity produced a
six-frame, time-lapse movie in search of Martian clouds with the
navigation camera. The rover drove 0.22 meters (0.72 feet) toward Cape
Verde and acquired post-drive images with the hazard-avoidance and
navigation cameras. After sending data to Odyssey, Opportunity measured
atmospheric argon. Plans for the next morning called for Opportunity to
acquire panoramic-camera images of the rover's external magnets and
survey as well as acquire thumbnail images of the sky with the panoramic
camera for calibation purposes.

Odometry:

As of sol 1550 (June 3, 2008), Opportunity's total odometry was
11,690.27 meters (7.26 miles).