Spirit's overwintering position and Opportunity's layers
Fri Feb 15, 2008 at 10:07 UTC
Spirit is responding to declining winter power levels by dipping into the batteries on one sol (Martian day), then recharging them on the next.
In addition, one of the first things the rover did to conserve energy was eliminate afternoon data transfers to the Odyssey orbiter on days when the batteries were being recharged. Though this approach meant the rover wouldn't be able to send data on those sols, it saved enough energy to be worth the sacrifice.
As Martian winter deepens, it's possible that, as the Opportunity rover did during the depth of the dust storm a few months ago, Spirit will use only every third Odyssey pass or adopt even more stringent power-conserving measures.
Meanwhile, Spirit remains healthy. For the most part, all subsystems are performing as expected. Energy has been holding steady in the range of 260 watt-hours. Tau (atmospheric opacity) continues to decline slightly, but the dust factor (the ability of sunlight to penetrate dust on the solar panels) also continues to decline slightly.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University.
High resolution image.
Spirit has this view northward from the position at the north edge of the "Home Plate" plateau where the rover will spend its third Martian winter.
Husband Hill is on the horizon. The dark area in the middle distance is "El Dorado" sand dune field.
Spirit used its panoramic camera (Pancam) to capture this image during the rover's 1,448th Martian day, of sol (Jan. 29, 2008).
This view combines separate images taken through the Pancam filters centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers, 535 nanometers and 432 nanometers. It is presented in a false-color stretch to bring out subtle color differences in the scene.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University.
High resolution image.
This view from Opportunity shows bedrock within a stratigraphic layer informally named "Lyell," which is the lowermost of three layers the rover has examined at a bright band around the inside of Victoria Crater.
Opportunity used its panoramic camera (Pancam) to capture this image with low-sun angle at a local solar time of 3:30 p.m. during the rover's 1,429th Martian day, of sol (Jan. 31, 2008).
This view combines separate images taken through the Pancam filters centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers, 535 nanometers and 432 nanometers. It is presented in a false-color stretch to bring out subtle color differences in the scene.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University.
High resolution image.
This view from Opportunity shows bedock within a stratigraphic layer informally named "Gilbert," which is the rover's next target after completing an examination of three stratigtaphic layers forming a bright band around the inside of Victoria Crater. The rover will descend deeper into the crater to reach the Gilbert layer.
Opportunity used its panoramic camera (Pancam) to capture this image with low-sun angle at a local solar time of 3:21 p.m. during the rover's 1,433rd Martian day, of sol (Feb. 4, 2008).
This view combines separate images taken through the Pancam filters centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers, 535 nanometers and 432 nanometers. It is presented in a false-color stretch to bring out subtle color differences in the scene.
Opportunity's is still grinding into the surface of rocks to unlock the secrets of their interior chemistry. Meanwhile, fall arrived in the southern hemisphere of Mars on Dec. 9, 2007, Opportunity's 1,378th Martian day, or sol, of exploration of the Red Planet. Ten days later, Earth made its closest approach to Mars, coming within 88 million kilometers (54.8 million miles).
Opportunity used the rock abrasion tool to bore a shallow hole into a rock target known as "Lyell_1" and then spent about 70 hours integrating data about iron minerals inside the rock using the Mössbauer spectrometer.
| Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory | |
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