Opportunity is continuing her winter exploration of Perseverance Valley on the west rim of Endeavour Crater.
The rover continued with several days of collecting color, stereo, Panoramic Camera (Pancam) panoramas of the surrounding terrain.
Then, on Sol 4934 (Dec. 10, 2017), after a sol of recharging, Opportunity drove about 28 feet (8.4 meters), approximately east, down the valley to a modest energy lily pad. Beyond this point the channel features of the valley split into a left and right fork.
The team will collect more imagery from this location to inform the decision as to which fork in the road the rover should take.
As of Sol 4934 (Dec. 10, 2017), the solar array energy production was 408 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.406 and a solar array dust factor of 0.620.
Total odometry is 28.01 miles (45.08 kilometers).
Mars Rover Team's Tilted Winter Strategy Works
NASA's senior Mars rover, Opportunity, has just passed the shortest-daylight weeks of the long Martian year with its solar panels in encouragingly clean condition for entering a potential dust-storm season in 2018.
Before dust season will come the 14th Earth-year anniversaries of Mars landings by the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity in January 2004. Their missions were scheduled to last … read more
