Spirit: Soil investigation -- Opportunity: Dust mitigation effort

Spirit remains stationary on the west side of Home Plate in the location called "Troy". The rover continues to be busy with an ambitious observation campaign employing both remote sensing and in-situ (contact) science with the robotic arm (instrument deployment device, IDD).

The soil disturbed by the rover's embedding has been the subject of extensive science investigation. Five out of the past seven sols have involved using the instruments on the end of the robotic arm to collect images and composition spectra of five distinct targets. Images from the panoramic camera (Pancam) and spectra from the miniature thermal emission spectrometer (Mini-TES) have also been collected. Extensive nighttime observations have been planned to make use of the abundant energy the rover has right now.

At JPL, preparations are continuing for ground testing with the surface system testbed (SSTB) rover. A special test form has been constructed to hold the new soil simulant that will recreate Spirit's martian terrain. The new simulant has been validated with single-wheel "shoebox" testing by the SSTB rover. Large quantities of simulant ingredients have been ordered and are expected within days.

As of Sol 1939 (June 17, 2009), Spirit's solar array energy production is at 853 watt-hours, with atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.486 and a dust factor of 0.760. Total odometry remains at 7,729.93 meters (4.80 miles).

Opportunity has been stationary this week resting the right-front drive actuator. During this time, the rover is conducting a series of robotic arm (IDD) activities.

On Sol 1913 (June 11, 2009), the rover collected a set of microscopic imager (MI) sky flats to calibrate the camera images. Opportunity also began a mitigation effort for apparent dust on the elevation mirror of its miniature thermal emission spectrometer (Mini-TES). The mirror shroud will be left open to the environment overnight to allow the wind to clean some of the dust off.

On Sol 1915 (June 13, 2009), a Mars seismometry experiment was conducted using the rover's accelerometers. On Sol 1918 (June 16, 2009), Opportunity used the MI to collect images of target "Ios" before placing the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS) for an overnight integration.

As of Sol 1919 (June 17, 2009), Opportunity's solar array energy production is 416 watt-hours. Atmospheric opacity (tau) is 0.466. The dust factor is 0.524, indicating that 52.4 percent of sunlight hitting the solar array penetrates the layer of accumulated dust on the array. Opportunity's total odometry remains at 16,569.05 meters (10.3 miles).

 

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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