[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: April 8-14, 2015

[Ron Baalke]

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

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE:  Robotic Arm Gets Busy on Rock Outcrop - sols 3983-3989, 
April 8, 2015-April 14, 2015:

Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater near the entrance of 
"Marathon Valley," a putative location for abundant clay minerals. 

The rover is positioned on a light-toned outcrop next to the feature called 
"The Spirit of St. Louis" crater. The rover is continuing a campaign to 
investigate surface targets in this outcrop. 

On Sol 3984 (April 9, 2015), Opportunity examined the surface target called 
"Thermopylae" using the robotic arm to collect a Microscopic Imager (MI) 
mosaic and later perform a placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer 
(APXS) for a multi-sol integration. On Sol 3986 (April 11, 2015), the 
rover repeated this set of science observations on a different target 
within the rover's work volume. Another MI mosaic and APXS integration 
were collected. On Sol 3989 (April 14, 2015), Opportunity bumped about 
24 inches (60 centimeters) to position to reach some other surface targets 
in the same outcrop. The rover has implemented a supplementary way of 
collected additional battery data and has also been acquiring some atmospheric 
opacity measurements to support the Insight mission. 

The rover experienced two more amnesia events on the evenings of Sols 
3987 and 3988 (April 12 and April 13, 2015). Both were benign and resulted 
in no loss of science data. The rover is otherwise in excellent health. 

As of Sol 3989 (April 14, 2015), the solar array energy production was 
561 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.813 and a solar 
array dust factor of 0.714. 

Total odometry is 26.24 miles (42.24 kilometers), more than a marathon.