[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: February 22-28, 2012

[Ron Baalke]

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

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE:  Slight Cleaning of Solar Panels - 
sols 2873-2879, February 22-28, 2012:

Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of
Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for
favorable solar energy production.

While positioned for the winter, Opportunity is conducting regular radio
Doppler tracking measurements to support geo-dynamic investigations of
the planet, in-situ (contact) science investigations of the rock target,
"Amboy," including Microscopic Imager mosaics and long Mossbauer
spectrometer integrations, and continued collection of Panoramic Camera
(Pancam) images.

Radio Doppler tracking passes were performed on Sols 2873, 2875, 2877
and 2878 (Feb. 22, 24, 26 and 27). Microscopic Imager mosaics were
performed on Sols 2873, 2874 and 2879 (Feb. 22, 23 and 28). The
Mossbauer spectrometer was placed down again on Amboy for further
integration time after each Microscopic Imager mosaic. Additional
13-filter Pancam images of foreground targets were taken. In the last
few sols, there has been a small amount of solar array cleaning (dust
factor improvement).

As of Sol 2879 (Feb. 28, 2012), solar array energy production was 305
watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.520 and a modestly
improved solar array dust factor of 0.489. A recent recalibration of
atmospheric opacity resulted in a re-baseline of dust factor numbers.

Total odometry is unchanged at 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).