[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: March 21-26, 2013

[Ron Baalke]

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

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE:  Opportunity Moves Into Place for Quiet Period of Operations - 
sols 3255-3260, Mar. 21, 2013-Mar. 26, 2013:

This location, called 'Big Nickel,' is the last in-situ (contact) target before 
the rover departs from Cape York, once solar conjunction is concluded.

Solar conjunction is when the Sun comes between Earth and Mars, which occurs about 
once every 26 months. During this time there will be diminished communications to 
Opportunity. The team will suspend sending the rover new commands between April 9 
and April 26. The rover will continue science activities using a long-term set of 
commands to be sent beforehand. No new images are expected to be returned during 
this time.

On Sol 3255 (March 21, 2013), after completing the investigation of the 'Newberries' 
at the location called 'Kirkwood,' Opportunity drove over 82 feet (25 meters) 
straight north toward the location called 'Big Nickel.' On Sol 3257 (March 23, 2013), 
the rover completed the approach to 'Big Nickel' with a 13-foot (4-meter) drive. In 
order to reach a specific surface target, Opportunity performed a modest, 0.8 inch 
(2-centimeter) bump on Sol 3260 (March 26, 2013).

With the rover precisely positioned, the plan ahead is to sequence the robotic arm 
to collect a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of the target, called 'Esperance' and 
place the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) for an overnight integration.

On Sols 3255, 3256 and 3257 (March 21, 22 and 23, 2013), Opportunity benefitted 
from some dust cleaning of the solar arrays, improving energy production.

As of Sol 3260 (March 26, 2013), the solar array energy production was 590 watt-hours 
with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.760 and an improved solar array dust factor 
of 0.654.

Total odometry is 22.15 miles (35.65 kilometers).