Matijevic Hill detailed survey, Sol 3153 - 3290 Options

[jhagen]

Opportunity MI mosaic...

[attachment=29170:mi_1b.jpg]

In this version of MI 3158 I rotated the mosaic 180 degrees just for familiar shadow angle.

[xflare]

Looks like there is a bit of everything mixed up in that rock

[Floyd]

The forgotten rover is still keeping busy. From JPL

Shoulder Work At 'Copper Cliff'
Opportunity Status for sol 3159-3165
Release Date: 12/19/12

Opportunity is working at "Matijevic Hill" (named in honor of Jake Matijevic) at the inboard edge of "Cape York" on the rim of Endeavour Crater. There, the rover has been conducting in-situ (contact) science measurements at a location called "Copper Cliff."

On Sol 3160 (Dec. 13, 2012), Opportunity began taking images with its Microscopic Imager (MI) for a mosaic of a surface target. Partway through the activity, the rover's robotic arm experienced a stall in the shoulder azimuth joint. This has been seen a few times before when the arm is commanded to move at a slow rate, but not the slowest rate. Magnetic detents normally hold the motor armature when unpowered, and under certain slow-rate conditions they are able to restrain the armature from spinning. At higher rates, the armature has enough momentum to keep spinning, while at the slowest rates a higher stall threshold is used. Activities on Sol 3162 (Dec. 15, 2012) confirmed the joint is OK, and an offset placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) was completed.

On Sol 3165 (Dec. 18, 2012), Opportunity bumped about 18 feet (5.5 meters) to the west to reach a new set of surface targets in this Copper Cliff area. The rover will likely continue in-situ investigations in the area through the coming holiday.

As of Sol 3165, the solar array energy production was 533 watt-hours with an increased atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.955 and a solar array dust factor of 0.607.

Total odometry is 22.02 miles (35438.37 meters)

Image of Copper Cliff area

[ronald]

The forgotten rover

Naaaaa

Vermilion again - sol 3165:

[James Sorenson]

I wasn't going to add this here, because I made this for my Facebook Banner, but I'll post it anyway's.

[fredk]

Some changes visible between sols 3168 and 3177, probably due to dust blown by wind:

They're not due to lighting differences, since the local times of the two frames differ by only a few minutes. Gusts are always welcome...

[TheAnt]

They're not due to lighting differences, since the local times of the two frames differ by only a few minutes. Gusts are always welcome...

Good find, and yes Gusts of wind are very much welcome for Opportunity.

[fredk]

Sure enough, we did have a cleaning event, on sol 3175, according to the latest update.

[fredk]

And we are back at Whitewater Lake:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...0M1.JPG?sol3182
You can see the grind mark (circled):

[mhoward]

Hey, you're right! I was wondering where those tracks came from.


MERBSol3182BackAtWhitewaterLake, on Flickr

[kungpostyle]

The Planetary Society report:

http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-top...ck-on-2012.html

[nprev]

A.J.S. Rayl just plain does it right.

And a big shout-out to our own Stu & Tesheiner for their featured contributions to this excellent article!

[mhoward]

That's a particularly blockbuster report. Really striking for the collaboration between MER and MRO to reach any conclusions. Makes me wonder: if Opportunity were parked over, say, Whitewater Lake, would that be detectable to CRISM?

[Tesheiner]

Opportunity did a small bump to the right on sol 3185, and Whitewater Lake is now dead center ahead of the IDD workvolume.

[acastillo]

With what is going on with Curiousity, I sometimes forget the amazing landscape that Opportunity is roving in.

Go Opportunity!!