Mars Exploration Rovers Update - November 4, 2005

ttp://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html

SPIRIT UPDATE: Spirit Imaging "East Basin" - sol 647-654, Nov 04, 2005:

Sprit is healthy. The team operated in "restricted sols" from sol 647 to

654. (Restricted sols occur when the timing of the communications pass from the Odyssey orbiter is too late in the day to gather vital location and health information about the rover after it executed recent commands. The team back on Earth must wait until the next sol to find out where and how the rover is.)

The team planned two long Moessbauer integrations and drove 34 meters (112 feet). On sols 653 and 654, the team planned targeted remote sensing of the "East Basin." This is one of the last opportunities to image it before the basin is no longer in sight.

Spirit also completed three overnight observations. The team returns to standard planning sols the week of Nov. 7, intending to continue driving downhill.

Sol-by-sol summaries:

Sol 647 (Oct. 28, 2005): Spirit performed a 22-hour reading with the Moessbauer spectrometer and made night sky observations.

Sol 648: Spirit performed a 23-hour Moessbauer reading.

Sol 649: Spirit drove 18 meters (59 feet).

Sol 650: Spirit performed remote sensing and made night sky observations with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer.

Sol 651: Spirit drove 16 meters (52 feet).

Sol 652: Spirit performed untargeted remote sensing and made night sky observations.

Sol 653: Spirit performed targeted remote sensing of the East Basin.

Sol 654 (Nov. 4, 2005): Spirit performed targeted remote sensing.

As of sol 654, Spirit has driven 5,143.63 meters (3.20 miles)

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OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Dusting Off and Getting Back to Work - sol 631-634, Nov 04, 2005:

Having weathered a recent dust storm, Opportunity is back to business. Energy levels are on the rise as the rover prepares for its next investigative campaign.

Sol-by-sol summaries:

Sol 631 (Nov. 2, 2005): With images of the rover's current location in hand, rover planners were able to plan a drive of just over 39 meters (128 feet), which brought Opportunity to the edge of a large stretch of outcrop.

Sol 632: Opportunity drove about 5 meters (16 feet) to a target called "Olympia."

Sols 633 and 634 (Nov. 4 and 5, 2005): The two-sol plan is to kick off the robotic arm campaign at Olympia. The plan includes grinding a target called "Kalavrita" with the rock abrasion tool, inspecting the target with the microscopic imager both before and after the grind, and using the panoramic camera to take images for a mosaic. Output from the solar panels on sol 633 was 528 watt hours.

Opportunity's total odometry, as of sol 633, is 6418.07 meters (3.99 miles).

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baalke
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