Spirit still in deep sleep; Opportunity's solar panels get minor cleaning

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).

Opportunity has benefited from a small (about 10 percent) dust cleaning event on her solar arrays on or about Sol 2246 (May 19, 2010).

It is likely that Spirit has experienced a low-power fault and has turned off all sub-systems, including communication and gone into a deep sleep. While sleeping, the rover will use the available solar array energy to recharge her batteries. The rover electronics module (REM) is expected to get colder than ever before. When the batteries recover to a sufficient state of charge, Spirit will wake up and begin to communicate over X-band and Ultra-High Frequency (UHF).

Although the rover may not wake for some time, the project has been listening every day for any X-band signal from Spirit through the Deep Space Network (DSN) using the Radio Science Receiver (RSR). The Mars Odyssey orbiter is also listening for any scheduled UHF relay passes. If energy levels for the rover are even lower than estimated, there is the additional risk that the rover may trip a mission clock fault. If that happens, the rover would remain asleep until the Martian spring or summer when bright sunlight is needed to wake the rover. With the passing of the southern winter solstice two weeks ago, solar energy levels and temperatures should begin improving.

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

Opportunity's solar panels get minor cleaning

Opportunity has benefited from a small (about 10 percent) dust cleaning event on her solar arrays on or about Sol 2246 (May 19, 2010). This improves the available energy for the rover. With the passing of the winter solstice, temperatures should be improving, as well.

On Sol 2247 (May 20, 2010), Opportunity completed another successful checkout of the autonomous exploration for gathering increased science (AEGIS) software. On Sol 2250 (May 23, 2010), an old problem reappeared with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer (Mini-TES). Short interferograms (incomplete instrument science data) are being produced by the instrument. The instrument otherwise shows no anomalies (with the exception of the known dust contamination on the external elevation mirror). The short interferogram problem was last seen several winters ago. The project is investigating.

On Sol 2252 (May 25, 2010), the rover was able to drive over 56 meters (184 feet) to the east/southeast as she makes her way toward Endeavour Crater. With the improved energy production, more driving is being planned for the period ahead.

As of Sol 2253 (May 26, 2010), solar array energy production increased to 275 watt-hours, atmospheric opacity (Tau) was 0.317 and the solar panel dust factor improved to 0.530.

Total odometry is 20,810.90 meters (20.81 kilometers, or 12.93 miles).

 

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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