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ZL2VAL > ROVERS 08.03.05 11:13l 118 Lines 4850 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 560876ZL2VAL
Read: GUEST
Subj: Rovers status, 7th March
Path: DB0FHN<DB0FOR<DB0SIF<DB0FHK<DB0ACC<DB0EA<DB0RES<ON0AR<ZL2BAU<ZL2AB
Sent: 050307/0852Z @:ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC #:58405 [New Plymouth] FBB7.00g
From: ZL2VAL@ZL2AB.#46.NZL.OC
To : ROVERS@WW
*SPIRIT UPDATE:
Spirit Perched at 'Larry's Lookout' - sol 408-415, March 07, 2005
Spirit's focus on sols 408 through 412 was the spectacular panorama from
"Larry's Lookout." After completing that 4-sol effort, Spirit rolled to
a nearby rock target called "Watchtower" and began examining it with
tools on the robotic arm.
Spirit is in excellent health. Skies are clearing of dust and Spirit's
solar panels are angled at a high northerly-tilt. So, as Mars approaches
the spring season, Spirit has had ample power and a full battery at the
start of each recent sol. Flash memory is also in good shape despite the
large panorama acquired, thanks to good downlinks and data management.
*Sol-by-sol summaries:*
On sol 408, Spirit was unable to uplink due to a communications
transmitter failure.
Sol 409 was a repeat plan of sol 408, and Spirit drove 2.7 meters (8.9
feet) to Larry's Lookout.
Sols 410 and 411 were the first of four days of using the panoramic
camera to acquire frames for a panorama from Larry's Lookout.
On sols 412 and 413, Spirit continued acquiring the panorama and also
made observations with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer.
On sol 414, Spirit moved slightly to put Watchtower into the work volume
for the robotic arm.
On sol 415, Spirit brushed the dust off of an area on Watchtower with
the rock abrasion tool and started an overnight integration with the
alpha particle X-ray spectrometer.
Sol 415 ended on March 4, 2005.
Spirit's current total odometry is 4,161 meters (2.59 miles).
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*OPPORTUNITY UPDATE:
Opportunity Continues South with New Mobility Software - sol 380-388, March
07, 2005
After a busy week of driving with new mobility software, Opportunity
continues to be in excellent health. The rover has traveled 450 meters
(just over a quarter of a mile) in 6 sols. Opportunity took a couple of
breaks from the trek south to use the tools on its robotic arm for
investigating of a rock called "Russet" and to image a crater triplet.
Atmospheric opacity has been stable, with tau hovering between 0.85 and
0.90.
*Sol-by-sol summaries:*
On sol 380, Opportunity placed its Mössbauer spectrometer on Russet for
a five-hour integration, with remote sensing in parallel. The rover then
switched to the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer for an eight-hour
overnight integration.
On sol 381 Opportunity took one microscopic image of Russet, stowed the
arm and bumped back for some remote sensing of the same target, then
went for an approximately 60-meter (197-foot) drive to the crater "Jason."
Sol 382 was the second sol of a two-sol plan. Opportunity performed two
hours of remote sensing.
The plan for sols 383 through 385 contained a first-time activity: to
drive on all three sols over the weekend. On sol 383 there was a
record-breaking 105-meter (344-foot) blind drive, in which the rover
follows a route determined in advance by rover planners, followed by 72
meters (236 feet) of autonomous navigation, in which the rover chooses
its own route around any obstacles it recognizes in images taken along
the way. Sol 384 continued with 104 meters (341 feet) of autonomous
navigation. Finally, Sol 385 completed the plan with an additional 109
meters (358 feet) of autonomously.
Autonomous navigation collects 15 megabytes to 25 megabytes of data per
hour by imaging the passing terrain. (This would allow mobility
engineers to reconstruct what happened if the drive faulted out.) As a
result, flash memory was filled almost to the brim on sol 385, and sol
386 added only 6 megabytes of science data (all atmospheric science).
On sol 387, with a bit more free data volume to work with, and the team
planned an approximately 80-meter (262-foot) drive to end up at a group
of three small craters. The team also told Opportunity to use its
navigation camera after the drive to take images for providing a
360-degree panorama of the craters.
The plan for sol 388, ending on Feb. 25, is to repeat the 6-megabyte
atmospheric-science observations.
Current odometry total: 3014.77 meters (1.87 miles)
-=###=-
73, Alan
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Message timed: 21:51 on 08-Mar-2005, Local time.
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