[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: July 18-22, 2014

[Ron Baalke]

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

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE:  Opportunity Passes 25 Miles of Driving on Mars! 
- sols 3726-3730, July 18, 2014-July 22, 2014:

Opportunity is exploring south along the west rim of Endeavour Crater
heading toward a notch, called 'Marathon Valley' about 1.2 miles (2
kilometers) away.

This valley has been observed from orbit to have an abundant clay
mineral signature. On Sol 3727 (July 19, 2014), the rover began the
first sol of a two-sol 'Touch 'n Go' with collecting a Microscopic
Imager (MI) mosaic of a surface target of opportunity, called 'Barstow,'
then placing the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on the same
for a multi-hour integration (the 'Touch'). On the next sol, Opportunity
drove over 328 feet (100 meters) (the 'Go') surpassing 25 miles (40
kilometers) in drive distance on Mars. The drive included some mid-drive
imaging and post-drive Navigation Camera (Navcam) and Panoramic Camera
(Pancam) panoramas. On Sol 3730 (July 22, 2014), the rover moved further
with a 325-foot (99-meter) drive, again followed by post-drive Navcam
and Pancam panoramas. A Flash memory amnesia event occurred on Sol 3727
(July 19, 2014). However, the science data were recovered with a
subsequent second readout of the APXS.

As of Sol 3730 (July 22, 2014), the solar array energy production was
676 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.771 and a solar
array dust factor of 0.818.