Spirit awoke on sol 92, which ended at 7:18 p.m. PST on April 6, and completed some early morning panoramic camera sky and ground measurements. Spirit also took a look at the capture and filter magnets with the panoramic camera prior to taking a short mid-morning nap. Upon wake-up around 12:30 p.m. Mars Local Solar Time, the rover opened the doors on the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and took 3 images of each magnet. Spirit also placed the Mössbauer spectrometer on the capture magnet and began an integration.
In the afternoon, Spirit completed coordinated observations with the thermal emission spectrometer instrument on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. The observations involved miniature thermal emission spectrometer pre-flight, simultaneous, and post-flight sky and ground measurements. Spirit also collected a panoramic camera opacity observation.
Early on Sol 93, which ends at 7:57 p.m. on April 7, the rover will switch the instruments on its instrument deployment device from the Mössbauer spectrometer to the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer. Sol 93 is the last day for newly planned science observations, as Spirit will be getting a flight software update during sols 94-98.
OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Traveling Around the Trough - sol 72, Apr 07, 2004
"The Wanderer" by Dion and the Belmonts woke Opportunity on its
72nd sol, which ended at 7:39 a.m. PST on April 7. The rover drove around the sinuous trough in a long dogleg pattern. Remote sensing to examine the crevice was conducted on the 50-meter (164 feet) drive to its ultimate position for the sol, at the northeast extreme of "Anatolia."On sol 73, the rover will perform a trenching operation in the soil. During the following sol, the instrument's arm will be placed on the trenched area.
The planned flight software upload will begin on Opportunity's
75th sol.