[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: January 22-27, 2015

[Ron Baalke]

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

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE:  Several Drives This Week Put Opportunity Near Marathon 
Distance - sols 3909-3914, January 22, 2015-January 27, 2015:

Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater heading towards "Marathon 
Valley," a putative location for abundant clay minerals now about 984 
feet (300 meters) away.

The project is operating the rover without using the Flash storage system 
to avoid reset problems and is using instead random access memory (RAM) 
for temporary storage of telemetry. The project is preparing to mask off 
the troubled sector of Flash and resume using the remainder of the Flash 
file system in normal operations.

Opportunity drove on Sols 3909, 3911 and 3914 (Jan. 22, Jan. 24 and Jan. 
27, 2015), totaling almost 279 feet (85 meters). On the evening of Sol 
3912 (Jan. 25, 2015), an atmospheric argon measurement was collected with 
the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer. Targeted color imagery is being 
collected as the rover makes progress towards the "Spirit of St. Louis" 
crater and Marathon Valley.

As of Sol 3914 (Jan. 27, 2015), the estimated solar array energy production 
was 534 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.891 and an inferred 
solar array dust factor of 0.636.

Total odometry is 26.02 miles (41.88 kilometers).