Opportunity picking up pace to Endeavour crater; Spirit awaits winter at Troy

Opportunity has picked up the pace a little as she presses on toward Endeavour crater, recharging her batteries between drives.

First, the rover must clear a region of large ripples, so Opportunity is heading south before the turn to the East. Sols 2206 (April 8, 2010) and 2208 (April 10, 2010), each saw a roughly 50-meter (164-foot) drive straight south. On Sol 2211 (April 13, 2010), Opportunity drove 30 meters (98 feet) east, deliberately crossing a series of ripples to collect terrain data that will be used to calibrate simulation software. That software will help design future drives.

The right-front and right-middle wheel are exhibiting modestly elevated motor current levels, which the project continues to watch. The plan ahead is more driving. As of Sol 2211 (April 13, 2010), the solar array energy production was 227 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.347 and a dust factor of 0.474.

Total odometry is 20,385.31 meters (20.39 kilometers, or 12.67 miles).

 

Spirit remains silent at her location called "Troy" on the west side of Home Plate. No communication has been received from the rover since Sol 2210 (March 22, 2010).

It is likely that Spirit has experienced a low-power fault and has turned off all sub-systems, including communication. The rover will use the available solar-array energy to recharge her batteries. When the batteries recover to a sufficient state of charge, Spirit will wake up and begin to communicate. When that does happen, Spirit will also trip an up-loss timer fault. This fault response will allow the rover to communicate over Ultra-High Frequency (UHF), as well as X-band.

It is not known when the rover will wake up, so the project has been listening for any X-band signal from Spirit through the Deep Space Network every day. The Mars Odyssey orbiter is also listening over any scheduled UHF relay passes. The winter solstice is still about a month away.

Total odometry is unchanged at 7,730.50 meters (4.80 miles).

 

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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