Opportunity completes three drives this week; Spirit standing by at Troy
Fri Jun 25, 2010 at 05:06 UTC
Opportunity has been making good progress toward Endeavour crater with three drives in the past week.
On Sol 2274 (June 17, 2010), the rover completed over 60 meters (197 feet) driving due east. On Sol 2276 (June 19, 2010), the rover made a small J-turn to avoid a ripple and then headed 72 meters (236 feet) east. With this drive, Opportunity has passed the distance for a half-marathon (21,097.5 meters, or 13 miles).
The rover drove again on Sol 2279 (June 22, 2010), covering over 70 meters (230 feet) to the east/southeast.
As of Sol 2279 (June 22, 2010), solar array energy production has improved to 320 watt-hours, atmospheric opacity (Tau) was 0.257 and the solar array dust factor is 0.5585.
Total odometry is 21,209.69 meters (21.21 kilometers, or 13.18 miles).
Spirit standing by at Troy
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).
As stated previously, 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. When the batteries recover to a sufficient state of charge, Spirit will wake up and begin to communicate.
There is the additional risk that the rover may trip a mission clock fault. If that happens, the rover would remain asleep until the batteries have recharged sufficiently and there is enough sunlight on the solar arrays to wake the rover. With the southern winter solstice back on May 13, 2010, solar energy levels and temperatures are expected to be improving.
Total odometry is unchanged at 7,730.50 meters (4.80 miles).
| Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory | |
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