Cape York - The "Lakelands", Starting sol 2703 Options

[Tesheiner]

Bye bye, Tisdale. It's time to move on.
Next target? Philosilicates.

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Edited on Sep 16 2011.

This thread is dedicated to the exploration of Cape York, starting on sol 2703 when Opportunity left the "rocky garden" and started moving towards Chester Lake.

[djellison]

Pancam - Fine, and less dusty than it has been
MiniTES - Bust

IDD - Azimuth joint bust - can position instrument along a vertical plane, not full 3D space.
APXS - Fine
MI - Fine
RAT - Fine ( but obviously, teeth are consumed to near death )
Mossbauer - VERY VERY tired. We're > 10 half-lives into it - so integrations that would have taken 6 hrs could technically take > 6 months. A good integration now would involved several weeks.

[stevesliva]

MiniTES - Bust

Or dust. Depends on how you see it. They do gamely keep checking it.

[djellison]

Or dust. Depends on how you see it. They do gamely keep checking it.

Check the documentation for the MER Analysts Notebook.

For example - Sol 2261-2267 MER B Downlink Report

Opportunity is healthy and all* subsystems are nominal as of the Sol 2267 UHF downlink. Energy is currently 296 Whr with Tau at 0.370 and a dust factor of 0.5820 as of Sol 2267.

*except the Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer (MTES) which has experienced a failure. Investigations into the Mini-TES failure are ongoing.

or
Sol 2281-2287 MER B Downlink Report

[Mini-TES, the miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer experienced an anomaly on Sol 2257 which is currently being investigated.]

later, you will just find

*with the exception of a known problem with Mini-TES as of the Sol 2308 downlink.

Or from the excellent : http://www.planetary.org/news/2011/0901_Ma...ver_Update.html

Last Sunday, the rover's Sol 2700, the team decided to have the rover conduct another set of diagnostics on the miniature thermal emission spectrometer (Mini-TES) that began acting up last year and hasn't been working since. "We’re all about trying to exhaust even remotely likely possibilities," noted Nelson. Opportunity followed her commands to exercise the back-up laser and back-up optical switch.

Or going back further in time
http://www.planetary.org/news/2011/0430_Ma...ate_Spirit.html

Last year, after being turned on, the Mini-TES failed to conduct a transferring kind of "handshake" with the PMA. "It timed out, and then said it wasn't talking to the flight software, and it was also not properly commanding the motors that would have changed the PMA azimuth, and we got a PMA fault," Nelson recounted. The ensuing diagnostics indicated the PMA azimuth motor is fine, and the issue is likely between the Mini-TES and the motor control board.

This month, the Mini-TES exhibited more anomalous behavior. Specifically, it failed to draw power. A functioning Mini-TES should draw 200-250 milliamperes up to about ¼ amp, according to Nelson. "We're not seeing that current draw," he said.

That would seem to suggest that the Mini-TES is simply not turning on, or that something somewhere between the instrument and motor control board has failed. Although the instrument investigation is continuing, the Mini-TES remains, Nelson said, "effectively out of commission."

It is, as I said.... bust.