Daily Updates - February 20, 2004
Opportunity Status at end of sol 26

On sol 26, which ended at 12:18 a.m. Friday, February 19, PST, Opportunity successfully obtained one final Moessbauer spectrometer reading of the trench, stowed the rover arm, and drove 15 meters (50 feet) to the "El Capitan" area. The drive was Opportunity’s longest yet and required the vehicle and planners to skirt the trench and avoid the lander.

The plan for sol 27, which will end at 12:57 a.m. Saturday, PST, is to first "supersize" the measurements of the "El Capitan" area with the panoramic camera, miniature thermal emission spectrometer, and microscopic imager. The mineralogy and geology teams have requested a minimum of three hours worth of "super resolution" and "super spectral" observations for the science instruments to get the most comprehensive coverage of this interesting site, which has varying textures and layers of dirt and rock.

After a short siesta in the early afternoon, Opportunity will drive 30 centimeters (12 inches) to sneak a bit closer to the rocks in "El Capitan" to get ready for the rock abrasion tool to do its work. After the drive, the Opportunity team plans to take a picture of the martian sky with the panoramic camera and miniature thermal emission spectrometer. If time permits, Opportunity will attempt to aim its cameras toward the heat shield in the far distance.

Over the weekend, Opportunity plans to find the perfect spot to use the abrasion tool and set it loose to grind away on "El Capitan," which will be the first use of the rock abrasion tool by Opportunity.

Opportunity Daily Update Archive