Status Report

NASA Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity Status: 11 March 2006

By SpaceRef Editor
March 13, 2006
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NASA Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity Status: 11 March 2006
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OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Hawkeyeing from the ‘Half Pipes’ – sol 751-756, Mar 11, 2006:

Opportunity is healthy and making its way south along the “Payson” outcrop of “Erebus Crater.” The traverse paths are known within the team as “half-pipes,” after the popular Olympic event. Last week Opportunity drove along one half-pipe, collecting high-resolution panoramic camera images of the outcrop. (The team calls this “scoot and shoot”). The rover has now left this path, and the team has planned a drive to the next half-pipe. Depending on traversability, Opportunity will either continue its scoot-and-shoot outcrop imaging campaign over the weekend, or start down the road to “Victoria Crater.”

Sol-by-sol summaries:

Sol 751 (March 5, 2006): Opportunity drove a short bump, took mid-drive panoramic camera images of the outcrop, then drove about 8 meters (about 26 feet) along the “half-pipe.”

Sol 752: The rover did untargeted remote sensing this sol, including atmospheric science and systematic foreground studies with the navigation camera and the miniature thermal emission spectrometer. Systematic foreground studies means gathering a set of consistent observations of different objects right in front of the rover.

Sol 753: Opportunity took pre-drive panoramic camera images of a cobble, drove 4 meters (13 feet), imaged the outcrop, then drove about 11 meters (36 feet) out of the first half-pipe towards the next one. It also acquired post-drive imaging.

Sol 754: Opportunity conducted systematic foreground studies with the panoramic camera and the miniature thermal emission spectrometer. The rover also did some atmospheric science.

Sol 755: Opportunity drove about 19 meters (about 62 feet) to the edge of the half-pipe and acquired post-drive imaging to determine traversability.

Sol 756 (March 10, 2006): The plan for the sol is to conduct atmospheric science, including an attempt to observe clouds.

Total odometry as of sol 753 (March 7, 2006): 6645.57 meters (4.13 miles)

SpaceRef staff editor.