Daily Updates - March 26, 2004
Opportunity Status at end of sol 60

On sol 60, which ended at 10:44 p.m. PST on March 25, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity had a quiet day continuing its research around the exterior of Eagle Crater.

Opportunity changed tools from the Moessbauer spectrometer to the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer around 11:30 Local Solar Time. In addition to the tool change, Opportunity took a comprehensive color high-resolution panorama with the panoramic camera. The rover team dubbed it the "Lion King Panorama" because it is a look around Opportunity’s domain from a high vantage point -- much like the view from "Pride Rock" in The Lion King movie. The large panorama essentially filled the remaining flash memory volume onboard the spacecraft, requiring a plan for sol 61 that minimizes data collection. The miniature thermal emission spectrometer also collected remote sensing data.

The wake up song for sol 60 was "The Circle of Life" by Elton John in honor of the Lion King panorama.

The plan for sol 61, which will end at 11:23 p.m. on March 26 PST, is to drive north to an area with dark material.

Opportunity Daily Update Archive