NASA Mars Rover Opportunity Update: Studying Rock Target ‘Amboy’ (With Photos)

Sols 2825-2832, January 04-11, 2012: Opportunity is positioned for winter on the north end of “Cape York” on the rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover is tilted about 15 degrees to the north for favorable solar energy production. Opportunity is conducting in-situ (contact) science investigations of the rock target, “Amboy.” The Moessbauer spectrometer has been in place for several sols on Amboy.

On Sol 2829 (Jan. 8, 2012), the Microscopic Imager was used to make additional surveys of the target with the Moessbauer being placed again on the same point. After some image assessments, the robotic arm was used on Sol 2831 (Jan. 10, 2012), to slightly reposition the Moessbauer.

Ongoing with the long Moessbauer integrations, Opportunity has been conducting regular radio Doppler X-band tracking passes in support of an experiment to measure the precession and nutation of the planet. Opportunity has also been collecting color Panoramic Camera (Pancam) images of the full 360-degree “Greeley” panorama from this site. The plan ahead is more Moessbauer, more Pancam and more radio Doppler tracking.

As of Sol 2832 (Jan. 11, 2012), solar array energy production was 281 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.697 and a solar array dust factor of 0.471.

Total odometry is 21.35 miles (34,361.37 meters).