Spirit: More soil studies and extraction tests -- Opportunity: On the move again
Fri Jul 17, 2009 at 19:12 UTC
Spirit, positioned on the west side of Home Plate, has been continuing her ambitious science campaign of remote sensing and in-situ (contact) science using all her payload elements.
On Sol 1963 (July 11, 2009), the robotic arm (instrument deployment device, or IDD) retracted the rock abrasion tool (RAT) from the surface where it had been positioned by an earlier placement. The rover then performed a RAT calibration, collected a stack of images from the microscopic imager (MI), and replaced the RAT on the target to do a seek-scan procedure for locating the surface.
On Sol 1965 (July 13, 2009), a RAT brushing was performed on the target. At the completion of the RAT brushing, the IDD was swung out of the way. On the next sol, an MI mosaic was collected of the brushed target and the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS) was placed for an overnight integration. On Sol 1967 (July 15, 2009), the IDD positioned the instruments over another target and collected an MI mosaic before placing the APXS.
The rover is continuing nighttime activities to increase the depth of discharge in the batteries for battery health and maintenance.
The surface system testbed (SSTB) rover extraction testing in a simulated-Mars sandbox at JPL continues. Several extraction tests have been performed with more to be conducted in coming days.
As of Sol 1967 (July 9, 2009), Spirit's solar array energy production is 944 watt-hours. Atmospheric opacity (tau) is 0.398. The dust factor on the solar array is 0.844, indicating that 84.4 percent of sunlight hitting the array penetrates the much-reduced layer of dust on it. Total odometry remains at 7,729.93 meters (4.80 miles).
Two sols earlier, Opportunity drove 94.55 meters (310 feet) south-southwestward before stopping when the rover detected that its wheels were slipping more than the limit that engineers had set for the drive. That Sol 1865 (April 23, 2009) drive created the tracks that enter this scene from the left and ended with wheels on the left side of the rover partially embedded in the ripple. On Sol 1866, Opportunity began to back away from this potential trap, but moved only about 28 centimeters (11 inches). On Sol 1867, the rover backed up 3.7 meters (12 feet) before taking this picture. Subsequently, Opportunity proceeded on a path avoiding the ripple where the wheel slippage occurred.
For scale, the distance between the parallel wheel tracks is about 1 meter (about 40 inches). This view is presented as a cylindrical projection with geometric seam correction. High resolution image. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Opportunity began the week positioned over exposed outcrop collecting in-situ (contact) science data and resting the right-front wheel's actuator. On Sol 1942 (July 11, 2009), Opportunity began moving again with a 67-meter (220-foot) drive. The right-front wheel motor current showed some improvement from the actuator resting and extra mobility heating.
The rover performed another long drive on Sol 1946 (July 15, 2009), covering over 70 meters (230 feet). Again, the right front wheel currents showed continued improvement. The shroud of the miniature thermal emission spectrometer (Mini-TES) continues to be left open on scheduled sols to allow the environment to clean putative dust contamination from the elevation mirror.
As of Sol 1946 (July 15, 2009), Opportunity's solar array energy production is 414 watt-hours, with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.476 and a dust factor of 0.520. Total odometry remains at 16,850.66 meters (10.47 miles).
| Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory | |
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