Mars Rover Opportunity Update: Opportunity Keeps on Driving to Endeavour Crater

Opportunity Status for sol 2329-2335

Opportunity again drove five times in the past week, adding more to the total rover odometry as she makes her way to Endeavour crater.

The rover drove on Sols 2329, 2330, 2333, 2334 and 2335 (Aug. 12, 13, 16, 17 and 18), totaling over 330 meters (1,083 feet). The rover has been driving with long (about 70 meter, or 230 foot) commanded drives followed by short drive segments of autonomous navigation (AutoNav) to extend the drive distance each sol.

A diagnostic test was conducted on the miniature thermal emission spectrometer (Mini-TES) instrument on Sol 2332 (Aug. 15, 2010). The instrument exhibited the same anomalous behavior as back on Sol 2257 (May 30, 2010). The project and instrument team are continuing to investigate.

As of Sol 2334 (Aug. 17, 2010), solar array energy production was 581 watt-hours with atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.484 and the solar array dust factor of 0.749.

Total odometry is 22,640.31 meters (22.64 kilometers, or 14.07 miles).