Photos: Opportunity Studies ‘Chester Lake’ Rock Outcrop on Mars

Opportunity Status for sol 2710-2716: Opportunity is in position at a target called “Chester Lake” at Cape York on the rim of Endeavour crater.

On Sol 2710 (Sept. 8, 2011), the rover pumped forward just over a meter (3 feet) to put some surface targets within reach of the rover’s robotic arm. On Sol 2713 (Sept. 11, 2011), Opportunity took a color photograph of the flag and aluminum plate on the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) at the end of the robotic arm. The aluminum was recovered from the New York World Trade Center site after the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, and used to manufacture part of the RAT on both Mars rovers. Also on that sol, Opportunity collected Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaics of surface targets and then placed the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on the surface for an overnight integration.

On Sol 2715 (Sept. 13, 2011), the rover performed a seek-scan with the RAT in preparation for brushing a surface target with the RAT. The brushing is planned for Sol 2717 (Sept. 15, 2011).

As of Sol 2716 (Sept. 14, 2011), solar array energy production was 334 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.887 and a solar array dust factor of 0.520.

Total odometry is 20.86 miles (33,574.75 meters, or 33.58 kilometers).