Opportunity recharging batteries in between drives

Opportunity drove three times in the last week, spending time between drives to recharge her batteries. Because of the approaching winter solstice, solar array energy levels have been dropping.

Opportunity must pause from driving for a sol or two to recharge her batteries sufficiently to drive again. On Sol 2213 (April 15, 2010), Opportunity drove about 66 meters (217 feet). After recharging on Sol 2214 (April 16, 2010), the rover drove on Sol 2215 (April 17, 2010), traveling only about 36 meters (118 feet). With two sols of recharging, Opportunity drove on Sol 2218 (April 20, 2010), achieving almost 66 meters (217 feet).

The plan ahead is more driving as energy allows. As of Sol 2218 (April 20, 2010), the solar array energy production was 247 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.348 and a dust factor of 0.4995.

Total odometry is 20,553.25 meters (20.55 kilometers, or 12.77 miles).

Winter solstice just three weeks away

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 powered off all sub-systems, except her master clock. 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 know 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 relay orbiters are also listening over any scheduled UHF relay passes. The winter solstice is just three weeks away (Sol 2261, or May 13, 2010).

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

 

 

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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