Another cleaning for Spirit, Opportunity right-front wheel issue

On Sol 1820 (February 14, 2009), the plan was to drive forward, away from Home Plate, and turn. The rover was successful in turning about 45 degrees, sufficient to get the wheels out of the soft terrain where they had been digging in. Spirit will next attempt the approach to Home Plate while avoiding some of the soft terrain that complicated previous approaches.

The team continues to track the performance of the rover's accelerometers.

Another small dust-cleaning event on Sol 1820 (February 14, 2009) -- the second one this month -- improved solar-array performance by an additional 10 percent.

As of Sol 1823 (February 17, 2009) Spirit's solar-array energy production improved to 275 watt-hours. Atmospheric opacity (tau) increased slightly to 0.530. The dust factor is 0.306, meaning that 30.2 percent of the sunlight hitting the solar array penetrates the layer of accumulated dust on the array. The rover is in good health.

Spirit's total odometry as of Sol 1822 (February 16, 2009) is 7,572.23 meters (4.71 miles)

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
High resolution image

Spirit used its navigation camera to take the images assembled into this stereo, 120-degree view southward after a short drive during the 1,809th Martian day, or sol, of Spirit's mission on the surface of Mars (February 3, 2009).

Spirit had driven about 2.6 meters (8.5 feet) that sol, continuing a clockwise route around a low plateau called "Home Plate." In this image, the rocks visible above the rovers' solar panels are on the slope at the northern edge of Home Plate.

This view is presented as a cylindrical projection with geometric seam correction.

Opportunity right-front wheel issue

Opportunity is continuing with a series of long drives. The drive on Sol 1797 (February 12, 2009) achieved 111 meters (364 feet). During the drive the right-front wheel exhibited higher-than-usual motor currents. Since April 2005, Opportunity's right-front wheel has had a jammed steering actuator, with the wheel turned inwards about 7 degrees from straight ahead, so it works harder on some drives. On Sol 1800 (February 15, 2009), the rover conducted a series of mobility diagnostic drives to study the right-front wheel. The rover turned around and drove backward about 10 meters (31 feet), turned around again and drove forward about 11 meters (36 feet), and then performed an arc of about 4 meters (13 feet). The wheel currents were monitored.

The plan for the near term is to drive backward to see if that improves performance of the right-front wheel, although backward driving will limit the distance traveled each sol.

As of Sol 1802 (February 17, 2009), Opportunity's solar-array energy production is 567 watt-hours. Atmospheric opacity (tau) has moderated to 0.540. The dust factor on the solar array is 0.589, meaning that 58.9 percent of the sunlight hitting the solar array penetrates the layer of accumulated dust on the array. The rover is in good health.

Opportunity's total odometry as of Sol 1801 (February 16, 2009) is 14,621.57 meters (9.09 miles).

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
High resolution image

Opportunity used its navigation camera to take the images combined into this full-circle view of the rover's surroundings just after driving 104 meters (341 feet) on the 1,770th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's surface mission (January 15, 2009).

Tracks from the drive extend northward across dark-toned sand ripples and light-toned patches of exposed bedrock in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars. For scale, the distance between the parallel wheel tracks is about 1 meter (about 40 inches).

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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