Opportunity is continuing her winter exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of the Noachian-aged Endeavour Crater.
The rover is investigating a site where there is evidence of scouring, by wind or otherwise. On Sol 4890 (Oct. 26, 2017), Opportunity bumped uphill about 13 feet (4 meters) to reach some targets of interest to the science team.
Because of the steep terrain, the left rear wheel popped up as a wheelie. Before another further motion or robotic arm use on the rover, the wheelie will have to be relaxed.
An atmospheric argon measurement with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) was also performed. Because energy is still a challenge during this deepest part of the winter, Sols 4892 and 4894 (Oct. 28 and Oct. 30, 2017), were recharge sols.
On Sol 4893 (Oct. 29, 2017), the rover performed a small motion to relax the right-rear wheel back onto solid footing.
This allowed the rover to use the robotic arm on Sol 4895 (Oct. 31, 2017), to collect a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of a surface target that was followed with the placement of the APXS on the same.
As of Sol 4895 (Oct. 31, 2017), the solar array energy production was 354 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.421 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.587.
Total odometry is 27.99 miles (45.04 kilometers).
Opportunity spends the week imaging Perseverance Valley
Opportunity is continuing her winter exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater.
Although winter conditions are constraining activity, rover energy production has improved slightly, and more of the earlier relay passes from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are helping, as well.
Opportunity has been able to avoid having to dedicate any sols to battery rech … read more
