Spirit: Poking 'Cyclops Eye' -- Opportunity: Heading toward 'Block Island' cobble

The embedding of the rover back on Sol 1899 (May 6, 2009) has exposed a subsurface emplacement of likely remobilized minerals with a strong water association.

On Sol 1968 (July 16, 2009), the microscopic imager (MI) collected images for a mosaic of the surface target "Olive." Then, the Mössbauer (MB) spectrometer was placed on target "Cyclops_Eye_4" for a multi-sol integration over the weekend. On Sol 1972 (July 20, 2009), the rock abrasion tool (RAT) performed a seek-scan procedure in preparation for a RAT grind of a surface target. On the next sol, the RAT ground the target "Cyclops_Eye_5" and then the APXS was placed for an integration.

The rover's panoramic camera (Pancam) and miniature thermal emission spectrometer (Mini-TES) continue to collect observations of selected remote targets, including detailed images of the vertical section of the west side of Home Plate.

The surface system testbed (SSTB) rover continues to be used in extraction testing in a simulated-Mars sandbox at JPL. Testing in undifferentiated soil is complete. The test sandbox will be reconfigured to allow testing in differentiated soil. Differentiated soil is what is seen by the rover on Mars.

As of Sol 1974 (July 23, 2009), Spirit's solar array energy production is 935 watt-hours with atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.376. On Sol 1973 (July 22, 2009), the dust factor was 0.819, indicating that 84.4 percent of sunlight hitting the array was penetrating the layer of dust on it. Total odometry remains at 7,729.93 meters (4.80 miles).

Mars Exploration Rover team members on July 21, 2009, tested how altering the order in which individual wheels turn for steering affects how those turns dig the wheels deeper into soft soil. From left: Alfonso Herrera, Vandana Verma, Bruce Banerdt. High resolution image. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech




Opportunity used its navigation camera to take the images combined into this 360-degree view of the rover's surroundings on the 1,950th Martian day, or sol, of its surface mission (July 19, 2009). North is at the top. Opportunity had driven 60.8 meters (199 feet) that sol, moving backward as a strategy to mitigate an increased amount of current drawn by the drive motor in the right-front wheel. The rover was traveling a westward course, skirting a large field of impassable dunes to the south.

Much of the terrain surrounding the Sol 1950 position is wind-formed ripples of dark soil, with pale outcrop exposed in troughs between some ripples. A small crater visible nearby to the northwest is informally called "Kaiko." For scale, the distance between the parallel wheel tracks is about 1 meter (about 40 inches).

The site is about 3.8 kilometers (2.4 miles) south-southwest of Victoria Crater. This view is presented as a cylindrical projection with geometric seam correction. High resolution image. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Opportunity had been driving to the west to go around a large field of impassable dunes on her long way to Endeavour crater. On Sol 1947 (July 16, 2009), the rover drove a little over 70 meters (230 feet) to the west, slightly north.

On the next sol, the rover performed a Mars quake experiment, reading the inertial measurement unit (IMU) accelerometers while stationary. Another westward drive was accomplished on Sol 1950 (July 19, 2009), achieving almost 61 meters (200 feet).

A dark, meter-scale cobble on the surface was observed some 200 meters (some 650 feet) away to the east. This cobble, informally named "Block Island," is unusual in its size. So the rover began to backtrack to the east on Sol 1952 (July 21, 2009) with a 23-meter (75-foot) drive toward the giant cobble. With that drive, Opportunity passed 17 kilometers (10.56 miles) of total odometry.

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. No improvement in Mini-TES performance has been observed so far, but the rover has seen no wind events.

As of Sol 1952 (July 21, 2009), Opportunity's solar array energy production was 493 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.462 and a dust factor of 0.559.

Total odometry as of Sol 1953 (July 22, 2009): 17,005.73 meters (10.57 miles).

Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
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