* Astronomy

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RE: The Opportunity rover

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Image taken by the Opportunity rover on Sol 2301

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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

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OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Opportunity Has Two More Drives - sols 2287-2294, June 30 - July 07, 2010:

Opportunity drove twice, tested the autonomous exploration for gathering increased science, or AEGIS software, and collected an atmospheric argon measurement over the past week.
The rover drove on Sol 2288 (July 1, 2010), covering about 71 metres in a simple zigzag pattern to the east. Over the 4th of July weekend, Opportunity performed two more tests of the AEGIS autonomous pointing software and collected an atmospheric argon measurement with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS). On Sol 2293 (July 6, 2010), Opportunity drove again heading east and covering another 71 metres.
As of Sol 2294 (July 7, 2010), solar array energy production has improved to 359 watt-hours, atmospheric opacity (Tau) was 0.226 and the solar array dust factor is 0.577.
Total odometry is 21,550.77 metres (21.55 kilometres).

Image taken by the Opportunity rover on Sol 2293

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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

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Anniversary of Mars Exploration Rover B (Opportunity) Launch. (2003)

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Image taken by the Opportunity rover on Sol 2286

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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

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OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Opportunity Keeps on Driving to Endeavour Crater - sols 2280-2286, June 23-29, 2010:

Opportunity continues to make good progress toward Endeavour crater as solar energy levels improve.
On Sol 2281 (June 24, 2010), the rover completed over 70 metres, driving east/southeast. On Sol 2283 (June 26, 2010), the rover headed 57 metres to the northeast to avoid some large ripples. The rover drove again on Sol 2286 (June 29, 2010), covering over 70 metres to the east.
As of Sol 2286 (June 29, 2010), solar array energy production has improved to 354 watt-hours, atmospheric opacity (Tau) was 0.295 and the solar array dust factor is 0.577.
Total odometry is 21,408.21 metres (21.41 kilometres).

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NASA Mars Rover Seeing Destination in More Detail

Mars rover team members have begun informally naming features around the rim of Endeavour Crater, as they develop plans to investigate that destination when NASA's Opportunity rover arrives there after many more months of driving.
A new, super-resolution view of a portion of Endeavour's rim reveals details that were not discernible in earlier images from the rover. Several high points along the rim can be correlated with points discernible from orbit.
Super-resolution is an imaging technique combining information from multiple pictures of the same target to generate an image with a higher resolution than any of the individual images.
Read more

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Image taken by the Opportunity rover on Sol 2281

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Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University

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OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Opportunity Completes Three Drives This Week - sols 2273-2279, June 16-22, 2010:

Opportunity has been making good progress toward Endeavour crater with three drives in the past week.
On Sol 2274 (June 17, 2010), the rover completed over 60 metres driving due east. On Sol 2276 (June 19, 2010), the rover made a small J-turn to avoid a ripple and then headed 72 metres east. With this drive, Opportunity has passed the distance for a half-marathon (21,097.5 metres).
The rover drove again on Sol 2279 (June 22, 2010), covering over 70 meters (230 feet) to the east/southeast.
As of Sol 2279 (June 22, 2010), solar array energy production has improved to 320 watt-hours, atmospheric opacity (Tau) was 0.257 and the solar array dust factor is 0.5585.
Total odometry is 21,209.69 meters (21.21 kilometres).

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OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Return to Driving Anticipated - sols 2261-2266, June 03-09, 2010:

The pancam mast assembly (PMA) azimuth error from Sol 2257 (May 30, 2010), is still being resolved on Opportunity, although with a likely explanation in hand.
Diagnostics were run on Sols 2259, 2261, 2262 and 2265 (June 1, 3, 4 and 8). In every case, the diagnostics indicated a healthy PMA azimuth actuator. Further investigation now suggests that the miniature thermal emission spectrometer (Mini-TES) is the origin of the PMA symptom and that the PMA was just waiting on a signal from the Mini-TES that never arrived. Anomalous symptoms were observed from the Mini-TES earlier on Sol 2250 (May 23, 2010). Investigations are underway on the instrument. Meanwhile, final checkouts are being performed to return the PMA to normal use and to resume driving.
As of Sol 2266 (June 9, 2010), solar array energy production was 287 watt-hours, atmospheric opacity (Tau) was 0.465 (Sol 2256) and the solar array dust factor improved to 0.589.
Total odometry is 20,862.01 metres.