* Astronomy

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RE: The Opportunity rover

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OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Making Progress Toward 'Victoria' - sol 789-797, Apr 21, 2006:

Opportunity is healthy and making good progress towards "Victoria Crater." The rover remains on a restricted schedule, driving only every other day. Last weekend, the rover stopped for some brief robotic arm work, to characterize the outcrop between "Erebus Crater" and Victoria Crater. Next week Opportunity is back to a normal schedule, and engineers hope to get the rover moving every day.

Sol-by-sol summaries:

Sol 789 (April 13, 2006): The plan was to drive to outcrop about 26 meters away. However, the drive stopped about 10 meters short by a slip check.

Sol 790: Opportunity conducted untargeted remote science.

Sol 791: The rover did some robotic arm work including: taking microscopic images and using the rock abrasion tool brush. The rover attempted a short alpha particle X-ray spectrometer integration; however it failed due to a sequencing error.

Sol 792: Opportunity drove about 35 meters over an outcrop and crossed a few ripples.

Sol 793: The rover conducted untargeted remote science.

Sol 794: Opportunity drove about 30 meters towards Victoria Crater.

Sol 795: The rover conducted untargeted remote science.

Sol 796: After taking pre-drive images of the target "Fort Leavenworth," the team plans to drive about 27 meters down a trough, with ripple crossings at the start and end.

Sol 797 (April 21, 2006): Opportunity did untargeted remote sensing, systematic ground surveys with the panoramic camera and miniature thermal emission spectrometer.

As of 794, Opportunity's total odometry was 7,334.56 meters.

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Sol 795

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As the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity continues a southward trek from "Erebus Crater" toward "Victoria Crater," the terrain consists of large sand ripples and patches of flat-lying rock outcrops, as shown in this image. Whenever possible, rover planners keep Opportunity on the "pavement" for best mobility.

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Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

This false-colour image mosaic was assembled using images acquired by the panoramic camera on Opportunity's 784th sol (April 8, 2006) at about 11:45 a.m. local solar time. The camera used its 753-nanometer, 535-nanometer and 432-nanometer filters. This view shows a portion of the outcrop named "Bosque," including rover wheel tracks, fractured and finely-layered outcrop rocks and smaller, dark cobbles littered across the surface.

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Traverse map for Sol 766

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OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Hopping Toward 'Victoria' - sol 785-790, Apr 18, 2006:

Opportunity is in a restricted planning mode this week due to each sol's downlink coming too late in the Earth day to allow planning of a drive for the next sol. The team built three drives this week and Opportunity drove 83.2 metres. The general drive direction is southeast to avoid a large dune field due south. As of sol 788, Opportunity was estimated to be 1,557 metres from "Victoria Crater."

Sol-by-sol summaries:

Sol 785 (April 9, 2006): On sol 785 Opportunity drove 58.9 metres south. After the drive, the panoramic camera and navigation camera made observations in the drive direction. Activities also included atmospheric remote sensing during the afternoon's communication relay session with the Mars Odyssey orbiter.

Sol 786: This sol's activities included a panoramic camera systematic ground survey, panoramic camera imaging of magnets, rearward looking navigation camera imaging, and two sky-and-ground observations with the miniature thermal emission spectrometre.

Sol 787: After targeted pre-drive panoramic camera observations of an outcrop, Opportunity drove 7.5 metres to the top of a dune. Imaging of the new location and atmospheric sensing during the afternoon Odyssey pass followed the drive.

Sol 788: The navigation camera took rearward-looking images for a mosaic. The panoramic camera checked the clarity of the atmosphere and surveyed the ground systematically. In the afternoon, the miniature thermal emission spectrometer made sky-and-ground observations.

Sol 789: Opportunity drove 16.8 metres.

Sol 790 (April 14, 2006): Planned activities included untargeted remote sensing.

As of 789, Opportunity's total odometry was 7,327.53 metres.

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Sol 791

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Sol 783

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Sol 784

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OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Ripples and Outcrops - sol 778-784, Apr 07, 2006:

Opportunity is healthy and is continuing to drive toward "Victoria Crater." Thanks to talented rover planners and sturdy construction, the rover covered a distance totalling about 170 metres during the week. The scenery has been beautiful and consistent: lots of ripples sprinkled with a dash of outcrops.

Sol-by-sol summaries:

Sol 778 (April 2, 2006): Opportunity drove 25.3 metres and used its navigation and panoramic cameras to image the area after the drive. The rover also observed the atmosphere.

Sol 779: The rover took 13-filter panoramic camera images to survey the ground near it. The miniature thermal emission spectrometer observed the sky and ground.

Sol 780: Opportunity drove 58.4 metres, took navigation and panoramic camera images of the post-drive area, and conducted atmospheric and remote sensing.

Sol 781: The rover drove 32 metres, used its navigation and panoramic cameras to image the post drive-area, and conducted atmospheric remote sensing.

Sol 782: Opportunity drove 45 metres, used its navigation and panoramic cameras to image the post-drive area, and conducted atmospheric remote sensing.

Sols 783 and 784 (April 7 and 8, 2006): These sols' plans are for targeted remote sensing.

Total odometry: 7,249 metres as of end of sol 782.