Opportunity is located on the rim of Endeavour crater, about to leave the rim and get back on the plains of Meridiani.
The rover is not leaving the crater, just setting up for faster progress south along the rim toward the next major scientific objective, the gully now less than a kilometer away.
Opportunity completed the last in-situ (contact) measurements on Sol 4638 (Feb. 9, 2017).
The rover collected a Microscopic Image (MI) mosaic of the surface outcrop and then placed the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on the same for a multi-hour integration.
On Sol 4640 (Feb. 11, 2017), Opportunity drove about 92 feet (28 meters) to the southwest, just at the edge of the plains of Meridiani.
The geologic formations at the rims edge exhibit extensive scours and grooves.
So, the science team is collecting extensive Navigation Camera (Navcam) and color Panoramic Camera (Pancam) panoramas at this location.
The rover also benefited from a cleaning event of dust off the solar arrays sometime around Sol 4637 (Feb. 8, 2017).
As of Sol 4643 (Feb. 14, 2017), the solar array energy production was an improved 484 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.816 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.716.
Total odometry is 27.36 miles (44.03 kilometers
Opportunity passes 44 kilometers of surface travel after 13 years
Opportunity is located on the rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover is making progress towards the next major scientific objective, the gully less than a kilometer south of the current location.
The rover has been driving on most planning sols. On Sol 4631 (Feb. 1, 2017), Opportunity traveled just under 85 feet (26 meters) to the southwest.
The drive was followed with the collection of … read more
