NASA Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity Update 10 February 2006

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Finishing Up at ‘Olympia’ – sol 723-728, Feb 10, 2006:

Opportunity is healthy. The rover is in the midst of a robotic-arm and remote-sensing campaign on a feature informally named “Roosevelt.” Last week Opportunity used its microscopic imager, Moessbauer spectrometer and alpha particle X-ray spectrometer to examine “Overgaard.”

The short-term goal is to finish studying the “Olympia” outcrop by mid next week. The final feature that will be characterized in this location is called “Bellemont.”

Sol-by-sol summaries:

Sol 723 (Feb. 4, 2006): Finished the microscopic-imager mosaic on Overgaard.

Sol 724: Stowed the robotic arm in the hover position. Attempted a short drive to Roosevelt, but the drive ended early due to suspension limits.

Sol 725: Succeeded in short drive to Roosevelt.

Sol 726: Used alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and Moessbauer spectrometer on a target called “Rough Rider.”

Sol 727: Used the microscopic imager for an image mosaic of Roosevelt.

Sol 728: Continued using the Moessbauer spectrometer on Rough Rider.

Acquired high-resolution images of surrounding outcrops with the panoramic camera.

Total odometry as of sol 728 (Feb. 9, 2006): 6,509.8 meters (4.045 miles)