Mars Exploration Rover Update - April 26, 2005

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

OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Continuing Southward - sol 438-442, April 26, 2005

Opportunity keeps driving southward and studying new locations despite
a
disabled right-front steering motor. Opportunity has driven about 110
meters (361 feet) without use of that motor. The miniature thermal
emission spectrometer began returning good data again. That instrument
was in use when the rover stopped operating for a software reset on sol
440. The rover continues making scientific observations while engineers
diagnose the cause of the reset.

Sol-by-sol summaries:

Sol 438 (April 17, 2005):
Opportunity made remote-sensing observations.

Sol 439:
Opportunity performed a 13-filter panoramic camera observation to study
soil in a trench that was scooped by a wheel when the rover turned to a
good communications orientation after its sol 437 drive. Opportunity
followed the camera observations with an 80-meter (262-foot) drive
south.

Sol 440:
The team's plan was for Opportunity to make remote-sensing observations
and then drive farther south. Panoramic camera imaging and some
miniature thermal emission spectrometer observations were successfully
completed. A miniature thermal emission spectrometer observation was
underway when a software reset occurred at approximately 12:45 Mars
local solar time.

Sol 441:
The team prepared a recovery plan responding to the software reset the
sol before. The plan included transmission of data acquired prior to
and
during the sol 440 event. Some of this data was returned during a
downlink through the Odyssey orbiter on sol 441. Additional data were
requested for transmission on sol 442 in hopes of pinpointing the cause
of the software reset. Opportunity is otherwise healthy.

Sol 442: The team told Opportunity to perform remote science and study
the surface at its present location while the engineering evaluation
continued.

As of sol 442 (April 22, 2005) Opportunity's odometry total is 5,306
meters (3.30 miles).