After successfully maneuvering into position and collecting additional scientific data from the top layer of the ring of light-colored rocks inside "Victoria Crater," Opportunity drove even farther into the crater's interior. Opportunity is in excellent health and has been receiving an average of 655 watt-hours per Martian day from the rover's solar arrays (100 watt-hours is the amount of energy needed to light a 100-watt bulb for 1 hour). On Oct. 12, Opportunity successfully stowed the robotic arm and "bumped" a short distance to a second target on Steno (a location by the craters interior). At the new target, nicknamed "Hall," Opportunity acquired an extra-large mosaic of stereo (3D) microscopic images. A typical microscopic image mosaic consists of 5 to 7 frames. In this case, Opportunity acquired 18 frames at multiple focal distances to help eliminate dust in the images. Opportunity also spent 17 hours and 45 minutes collecting compositional data about Hall with the alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer.
No comments:
Post a Comment