NASA Mars Rover Opportunity Update: October 24-30, 2013

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE:  Seeking the Sun’s Rays as Winter Approaches – sols 3467-3472, Oct. 24, 2013-Oct. 30, 2013:

Opportunity is ascending the northern edge of ‘Solander Point’ at the rim of ‘Endeavour Crater.’ The rover is maintaining favorable northerly tilts for improved energy production as winter approaches.

On Sol 3467 (Oct. 24, 2013), Opportunity bumped 4.3 feet (1.3 meters) towards the outcrop called ‘Waratah.’ The next sol had the rover use the robotic arm to collect a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of the surface target, called ‘Baobab,’ and then place the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on the same for a multi-sol integration. On Sol 3471 (Oct. 29, 2013), Opportunity continued the ascent up Solander heading toward another energy ‘lily pad,’ driving about 95 feet (29 meters) nearly due south, and collecting a set of post-drive Panoramic Camera (Pancam) and Navigation Camera (Navcam) panoramas. On the following sol, the rover continued driving with a nearly 33 feet (10-meter) drive toward another energy lily pad.

As of Sol 3472 (Oct. 30, 2013), the solar array energy production was 299 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.510 and a solar array dust factor of 0.488.

Total odometry is 23.93 miles (38.51 kilometers).