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Opportunity Continues South with New Mobility Software
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 09, 2005 After a busy week of driving with new mobility software, Opportunity continues to be in excellent health. The rover has traveled 450 meters (just over a quarter of a mile) in 6 sols. Opportunity took a couple of breaks from the trek south to use the tools on its robotic arm for investigating of a rock called "Russet" and to image a crater triplet. Atmospheric opacity has been stable, with tau hovering between 0.85 and 0.90.
Sol-by-sol summaries On sol 381 Opportunity took one microscopic image of Russet, stowed the arm and bumped back for some remote sensing of the same target, then went for an approximately 60-meter (197-foot) drive to the crater "Jason." Sol 382 was the second sol of a two-sol plan. Opportunity performed two hours of remote sensing. The plan for sols 383 through 385 contained a first-time activity: to drive on all three sols over the weekend. On sol 383 there was a record-breaking 105-meter (344-foot) blind drive, in which the rover follows a route determined in advance by rover planners, followed by 72 meters (236 feet) of autonomous navigation, in which the rover chooses its own route around any obstacles it recognizes in images taken along the way. Sol 384 continued with 104 meters (341 feet) of autonomous navigation. Finally, Sol 385 completed the plan with an additional 109 meters (358 feet) of autonomously.
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