Opportunity is continuing the exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater.

The rover is positioned about halfway down the approximately 656 feet (200 meter) valley. Opportunity is continuing the imaging survey at each rover location within the valley. In addition to both Navigation Camera (Navcam) and Panoramic Camera (Pancam) panoramas, targeted Pancam multi-spectral images are also being collected.

On Sol 5012 (Feb. 28, 2018), the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) was used to measure the atmospheric argon. After two sols of targeted imaging, the rover bumped just over 13 feet (4 meters) to the edge of a commonly regarded streamline island within the valley. This was followed with two sols of Navcam imagery to form a 360-degree panorama and some more targeted Pancam images.

On Sol 5018 (March 6, 2018), the robotic arm (also called the Instrument Deployment Device, or IDD) was used to collect a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of a surface target of interest. The APXS was then placed for a multi-hour integration on the same.

As of Sol 5018 (March 6, 2018), the solar array energy production was 682 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.507 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.873.

Total odometry is 28.04 miles (45.12 kilometers).

Related Links
Opportunity Archive at JPL
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more

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Opportunity collects more 'Selfie' frames
Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 07, 2018
Opportunity is continuing the exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover is positioned about half way down the approximately 656 feet (200 meter) valley. The rover started the week well, but things grew to be challenging. On Sol 5005 (Feb. 21, 2018), Opportunity collected a Panoramic Camera (Pancam) color stereo panorama. Using the robotic arm (also called the Instrument Deployment Device, or IDD) on the next sol, the rover collected a few more "selfi ... read more