Opportunity is continuing the winter exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater.

Winter is constraining the available energy, so the project has to rover hop (drive) from one energy-favorable "lily pad" to the next. (These lily pads are locations where the terrain is tilted sufficiently to the north to maximize the Sun's illumination on the rover's solar panels.)

At these lily pad locations, Opportunity has been conducting an extensive stereo survey of the morphology (form and shape) of Perseverance Valley.

These data will be combined from throughout the valley to generate a complete digital elevation model that scientists will use to address questions about the valley's formation and origin.

But even with the favorable lily pads, the rover still has to spend some days recharging where the rover only wakes briefly for communication and sleeps the rest of the day.

For the past period, Sol 4845 (Sept. 9, 2017), was a recharge sol while the rest focused on completing a Panoramic Camera (Pancam) mosaic of the terrain to the east. We also did a robotic arm (IDD) salute on Sol 4847 (Sept. 11, 2017), in preparation for an attempt at an Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS) integration on a ground target.

As of Sol 4848 (Sept. 12, 2017), the solar array energy production was 281 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.548 and a solar array dust factor of 0.506.

Total odometry is 27.97 miles (45.02 kilometers).

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45 Kilometers on the Odometry for Opportunity
Pasadena CA (JPL) Sep 12, 2017
Opportunity is continuing the winter exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. Winter is constraining the available energy, so the project has the rover doing "hops" (drives) from one energy-favorable "lily pad" to the next. (These lily pads are locations where the terrain is tilted sufficiently to the north to maximize the Sun illumination on the rover's so ... read more

Related Links
Opportunity Archive at JPL
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more

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