[meteorite-list] Opportunity Mars Rover Preparing for Active Winter

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4721

Opportunity Mars Rover Preparing for Active Winter
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
September 25, 2015

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is conducting a "walkabout" 
survey of "Marathon Valley," where the rover's operators plan to use the 
vehicle through the upcoming Martian winter, and beyond, to study the 
context for outcrops bearing clay minerals.

Marathon Valley slices downhill from west to east for about 300 yards 
or meters through the western rim of Endeavour Crater. Opportunity has 
been investigating rock targets in the western portion of the valley since 
late July, working its way eastward in a thorough reconnaissance of the 
area.

The rover's panoramic camera has captured a scene dominated by a summit 
called "Hinners Point," forming part of the valley's northern edge. The 
image also shows a portion of the valley floor with swirling reddish zones 
that have been a target for study. It is online at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA19819

For several months starting in mid- to late October, the rover team plans 
to operate Opportunity on the southern side of the valley to take advantage 
of the sun-facing slope. The site is in Mars' southern  hemisphere, so 
the sun is to the north during fall and winter days. Tilting the rover 
toward the sun increases power output from its solar panels. The shortest-daylight 
period of this seventh Martian winter for Opportunity will come in January 
2016.

"Our expectation is that Opportunity will be able to remain mobile through 
the winter," said Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager John Callas of 
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.

The walkabout is identifying investigation targets in and near the valley 
floor. Rocks in reddish zones there contain more silica and less iron 
than most rocks in the area.

"We have detective work to do in Marathon Valley for many months ahead," 
said Opportunity Deputy Principal Investigator Ray Arvidson, of Washington 
University in St. Louis. "During the Martian late fall and winter seasons 
Opportunity will conduct its measurements and traverses on the southern 
side of the valley. When spring arrives the rover will return to the valley 
floor for detailed measurements of outcrops that may host the clay minerals."

Endeavour Crater spans about 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter. Opportunity 
has been studying its western rim since 2011. Marathon Valley became a 
high priority destination after a concentration of clay minerals called 
smectites was mapped there based on observations by the Compact Reconnaissance 
Imaging Spectrometer for Mars aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. 
Smectites form under wetter, milder conditions than most rocks at the 
Opportunity site. Opportunity is investigating relationships among clay-bearing 
and neighboring deposits for clues about the history of environmental 
changes.

The rover team has been dealing for more than a year with Opportunity's 
tendency to undergo unplanned computer resets when using the type of onboard 
memory that retains information when power is off: flash memory. For three 
months until mid-September, operators fully avoided use of flash memory. 
In this mode, images and other data cannot be stored overnight, when the 
rover is powered off to conserve energy. To gain operational flexibility 
in a trade-off with possible "lost" days from resets, the team has resumed 
occasional use of flash memory.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project landed twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity 
on Mars in 2004 to begin missions planned to last three months. Both rovers 
far exceeded those plans. Spirit worked for six years, and Opportunity 
is still active. Findings about ancient wet environments on Mars have 
come from both rovers. The project is one element of NASA's ongoing and 
future Mars missions preparing for a human mission to the planet in the 
2030s. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages 
the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about Opportunity, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/rovers

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov

Follow the project on Twitter and Facebook at:

http://twitter.com/MarsRovers

http://www.facebook.com/mars.rovers


Media Contact

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov 

2015-301