Opportunity is continuing her winter exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater from a location in the north fork of the local flow channel.

Color imaging of light toned bedrock and nearby streaked rocks occupied the first few sols.

The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) argon integration was done on Sol 4974 (Jan. 20, 2018). A short 3 foot (1 meter) drive on the next sol positioned the rover at the light toned outcrop and some missing images were retaken.

On Sol 4977 (Jan. 23, 2018), the robotic arm was used to collect a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of a surface target within the work volume of the arm.

The APXS was then placed on that target. Also on that sol, the latest version of the flight software was copied over the older fallback version in preparation for a flight software update, later in the year.

Additional dust cleaning has raised solar array energy production to 644 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.423 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.839.

Total odometry is 28.02 miles (45.09 kilometers).

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Opportunity gets dust cleaning and passes 45 kilometers of driving
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 23, 2018
Opportunity is continuing her winter exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover has moved along the north fork of the local flow channel. However, before moving, the rover spent several sols completing stereo, color panoramas and performing some targeted 13-filter imaging. On Sol 4968 (Jan. 14, 2018), Opportunity drove about 23 feet (7 meters) ... read more

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

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