Next, Opportunity will move closer to Cape Verde to take a high-resolution image of a smaller area in front of the rover.

During the past week, engineers characterized the performance of the rover's rock abrasion tool along the z-axis by comparing voltage and the speed of the actuator at different temperatures.

In the event that the z-axis encoder lines break, as have the encoder lines for the rotate and revolve axes, this characterization will be essential in developing a functional strategy for operating the rock abrasion tool with full, open-loop control.

The z-axis encoder is responsible for moving the cutting head outward into the rock.

Next week's plans call for Opportunity to bump forward to a point only a few meters away from the cliff face to take high-resolution images.

If possible, Opportunity will also conduct scientific studies of an outcrop target called "Nevada" (so named because of a rock next to it which has a shape reminiscent of the outline of the state of Nevada) using instruments on the robotic arm.

Opportunity is healthy and all subsystems are performing as expected. Energy is around 376 watt-hours (100 watt-hours is the amount of energy required to light a 100-watt bulb for one hour). As of Sol 1578 (July 2,

2008) , Tau (a measure of darkness due to atmospheric dust) was at 0.413 and the dust factor (a measure of the proportion of sunlight penetrating dust on the solar arrays) was at 0.771.

Sol-by-sol summary:

In addition to receiving morning, direct-from-Earth instructions via the rover's high-gain antenna, sending evening UHF data to NASA's Odyssey orbiter for transmission to Earth, measuring atmospheric dust with the panoramic camera, surveying the sky for clouds with the navigation camera, and monitoring dust accumulation on the rover mast, Opportunity completed the following activities:

Sol 1574 (June 28, 2008): Opportunity began acquiring "dusty," super-resolution images of targeted portions of the outcrops exposed in the Cape Verde cliff dubbed "Alpha," "Bravo," "Charlie," "Delta," and "Echo." To do this, the rover compensated for dust accumulation on the right side of each lens by taking images using only a subset of available pixels. On this particular sol, Opportunity acquired dusty, super-resolution images of "Alpha" and "Echo."

Sol 1575: Opportunity acquired dusty, super-resolution images of Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo using the panoramic camera. The rover also acquired six, time-lapse movie frames in search of clouds using the navigation camera.

Sol 1576: Opportunity acquired more dusty, super-resolution images of Echo with the panoramic camera and took images of Cape Verde in shadow at 2:30 p.m. local Mars time and at 3 p.m. local Mars time.

Sol 1577: Opportunity acquired dusty, super-resolution images of a target dubbed "Foxtrot" with the panoramic camera and characterized the performance of the rock-abrasion tool along the z-axis at warm temperatures. The rover reacquired five dusty, super-resolution images of Cape Verde and Bravo.

Sol 1578: Opportunity characterized the ability of the z-axis encoder to move the cutting head of the rock abrasion tool outward at cold temperatures and reacquired dusty, super-resolution images of Alpha.

Sol 1579: In the morning, Opportunity surveyed the horizon with the panoramic camera. The rover measured argon gas in the Martian atmosphere using the alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer. Opportunity also acquired a 27-by-1 panel of images of Cape Verde at dusk with the left-hand lens of the panoramic camera.

Sol 1580 (July 4, 2008): Opportunity acquired a 27-by-1 panel of images of Cape Verde at dusk with the right-hand lens of the panoramic camera.

Odometry: As of sol 1580 (July 4, 2008), Opportunity's total odometry was 11,723.94 meters (7.28 miles).

Related Links
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News