NASA Mars Rover Opportunity Update: April 04-12, 2012

Left-Front Wheel Stabilized – sols 2914-2921, April 04-12, 2012: Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production.

The solar insolation has been improving and the rover has benefitted from some small dust cleaning events. Radio Doppler tracking passes for the geo-dynamic investigation were performed on Sols 2916 and 2918 (April 6 and April 9, 2012). An atmospheric argon measurement was collected by the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on Sol 2915 (April 5, 2012). On Sol 2914 (April 4, 2012), the left-front wheel of the rover was stabilized by performing two wheel motions with steering wiggles in between. Subsequence diagnostic imaging has shown the rover to be stable with no detected motion. A Microscopic Imager (MI) image of the left-front wheel was taken from the modified stow position of the robotic arm. Although the image is out of focus (expected), it does show good contact between the left-front wheel and the terrain. Other imagery also confirms this. The project has thus resumed in-situ (contact) science with the robotic arm instruments.

On Sols 2919 and 2920 (April 10 and April 11, 2012), a suite of MI mosaics were collected of surface targets each followed by a placement of the APXS for an overnight integration. More dust cleaning events have occurred, improving the solar array dust factor by a small amount.

As of Sol 2921 (April 12, 2012), solar array energy production was 336 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.526 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.535.

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