[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: January 28 - February 3, 2015

[Ron Baalke]

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

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE:  Rover Continues Driving While Team Works on Rover 
Memory Issues - sols 3915-3921, January 28, 2015-February 3, 2015:

Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater heading towards "Marathon 
Valley," a putative location for abundant clay minerals now only about 
656 feet (200 meters) away.

The project is operating the rover without using the Flash storage system 
to avoid resets associated with a corrupted portion of Flash. The project 
is preparing to mask off the troubled sector of Flash and resume using 
the remainder of the Flash file system.

Opportunity drove on Sols 3916, 3918 and 3921 (Jan. 29, Jan. 31 and Feb. 
3, 2015), totaling about 282 feet (86 meters). The operations strategy 
has been to perform pre-drive targeted imaging, then drive on the first 
sol of a multi-sol plan, collecting post-drive Panoramic Camera (Pancam) 
and Navigation Camera (Navcam) imagery in the forward direction for data 
return that evening. Then, on the next sol, complete the 360-degree Navcam 
panorama with images in the rearward direction.

As of Sol 3921 (Feb. 3, 2015), the solar array energy production was 484 
watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.949 and a solar array 
dust factor of 0.632.

Total odometry is 26.08 miles (41.97 kilometers).