Daily Updates - April 5, 2004
Opportunity Status at end of sol 68 and 69

Over the weekend, Opportunity completed its observations at "Bounce Rock" rock and prepared for its trek toward "Endurance Crater."

On sol 68, which ended at 4:00 a.m. PST on April 3, the rover backed away from Bounce, then re-approached the rock in preparation for an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer read on the right side of it. The wake-up tune chosen for the sol was "Got to Go Back" by Van Morrison.

Opportunity made observations with its miniature thermal emission spectrometer during the martian morning. Then it took set of microscope images before backing away from the rock. More images were taken from that vantage point before Opportunity made a 10-degree turn in place and drove the 0.85 meters (2.8 feet) back to Bounce.

On sol 69, which ended at 5:40 a.m. PST on April 4, Opportunity completed its instrument arm work on Bounce. It also examined soil targets with its microscopic imager and Moessbauer spectrometer. The wake-up song for the sol was "Little Maggie" by Tom Adams, chosen for the soil target named "Maggie."

In coming sols Opportunity will make progress in a 750-meter (nearly a half mile) drive to Endurance Crater. The rover team plans to make pit stops along the way at scientifically interesting sites and will pause other activities for a few sols while the rover gets new flight software.

Opportunity Daily Update Archive