[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: February 19-26, 2015

[Ron Baalke]

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

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE:  New Flight Software to Fix Memory Issues is Onboard 
Rover - sols 3937-3943, February 19, 2015-February 26, 2015:

Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater near "Marathon Valley," 
a putative location for abundant clay minerals now only about 492 feet 
(150 meters) away.

The project is preparing to mask off the troubled Bank 7 sector of the 
Flash file system with a new version of the flight software (FSW). The 
preparations for the FSW load and build were to begin with the 3-sol plan 
on Sol 3938 (Feb. 20, 2015). However, bad weather and a complex power 
outage in Canberra, Australia prevented the plans from being sent. The 
rover was allowed to safely execute its onboard runout plan for the weekend.

On Sol 3941 (Feb. 23, 2015), preparations were restarted for the FSW build. 
Remote sensing observations of Marathon Valley were also performed. On 
Sol 3942 (Feb. 24, 2015), the FSW patch was uploaded and the new FSW was 
successfully built and saved onboard. On the next sol, Opportunity successfully 
booted onto the new version of FSW and is running without error. Further 
remote observations of Marathon Valley with the Panoramic Camera (Pancam) 
and the collection of an atmospheric argon measurement with the Alpha 
Particle X-ray Spectrometer were also commanded. The plan ahead is to 
allow a few days to confirm all aspects of the new FSW before performing 
the reformat of the Flash file system with the new software.

As of Sol 3943 (Feb. 26, 2015), the solar array energy production was 
559 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.734 and a solar 
array dust factor of 0.674.

Total odometry is 26.13 miles (42.05 kilometers).