[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: Jun 25-30, 2015

[Ron Baalke]

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

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE:  Opportunity Gets Back to Work - sols 4059-4064, June 
25, 2015-June 30, 2015:

Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater at the 'Spirit of St. 
Louis' crater near the entrance of 'Marathon Valley.'

The Earth-Mars Solar Conjunction command moratorium and communication 
blackout is over and the rover has resumed normal operations and science 
planning.

On Sol 4059 (June 25, 2015), the rover conducted targeted remote sensing 
including capturing a spectacular Phobos transit of the Sun. The next 
sol had the rover collecting change-detecting imagery to compare to imagery 
collected before solar conjunction. On Sol 4061 (June 27, 2015), Opportunity 
bumped just over a meter to reach some new surface targets just the other 
side of the 'Red Zone' unit that had been previously investigated. Post-dump 
targeted Panoramic Camera (Pancam) images and a 360-degree Navigation 
Camera (Navcam) panorama were collected. With the new position, the rover 
on Sol 4064 (June 30, 2015), used the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) to brush 
the surface target, named 'Ryan NYP.' This was followed with a Microscopic 
Imager (MI) mosaic and a placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer 
(APXS) for an evening integration.

The rover continues to operate in RAM-only mode while the on-board Flash 
storage system is being investigated. The rover is otherwise in good health.

As of Sol 4064 (June 30, 2015), the solar array energy production was 
465 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.725 and a solar 
array dust factor of 0.628.

Total odometry is 26.33 miles (42.37 kilometers), more than a marathon.