Opportunity driving away from 'Concepcion'; Spirit has a light winter schedule

Numerous targeted images were taken of rocks around the crater but no new rock targets were chosen to be analyzed using the in-situ (contact) instruments of the rover's robotic arm (IDD).

During the last leg around the crater on Sol 2172 (March 4, 2010), the third and final checkout for the AEGIS automated targeting software was successfully run. For this checkout, AEGIS analyzed a Navigation Camera (NavCam) image and searched for "cobbles" using a profile that prioritized rocks based on rock size and brightness. The top target found was an excellent example of a cobble. AEGIS then took a high quality, quarter-frame, 13-filter, Panoramic Camera (PanCam) image of this target.

Opportunity drove away from Concepción crater on Sol 2177 (March 9, 2010), and has driven about 130 meters (427 feet). Opportunity has now returned to the original path to Endeavour crater.

As of Sol 2177 (March 9, 2010), the solar array energy production was 278 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.446 and a dust factor of 0.504. Total odometry is 19,492.84 meters (12.11 miles).

High resolution image (3.6 MB)

Opportunity's traverse map through Sol 2176. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/University of Arizona

Spirit is in her winter position, still embedded in the area called "Troy" on the west side of Home Plate.

Winter operations have begun with the rover, which consists of a single 7-sol plan each week. The 7-sol plan contains a single X-band uplink and a single Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) downlink. The activity on each sol consists simply of a brief wakeup, an atmospheric opacity (tau) measurement, and then a shutdown for the rest of the day and night. The last downlink from the rover was on Sol 2195 (March 7, 2010). The next downlink from the rover is not scheduled yet, but expected to be sequenced for this coming weekend. Energy production by the solar arrays has just been matching energy consumption by the rover. However, this will diverge as solar array energy decreases as the sun descends lower in the sky and as rover energy needs increase from heaters as environmental temperatures drop. The risk of a low-power fault (where batteries are drawn down below a specific cell voltage threshold) increases each sol going forward.

As of Sol 2195 (March 7, 2010), the rover solar array energy production was to 151 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.339 (measured on Sol 2193, March 5, 2010) and a dust factor of 0.506 (from Sol 2193 data). Total odometry is unchanged at 7,730.50 meters (4.80 miles).

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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