January 8, 2016: Opportunity Finishes Another Record Year, Approaches 12th Anniversary: Perched on the southern wall of Marathon Valley at Endeavour Crater, Opportunity braved temperatures descending well below -100° Fahrenheit [-73.33° Celsius] in December to work the winter science campaign and home in on the remnants of ancient clays. By month’s end, the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) mission wrapped another productive Earth year of surface exploration and just around the corner was its 12th anniversary.
While the human members of the MER ops team tried to get a little rest or catch up on work during the holidays, the veteran robot field geologist focused on the sometimes-tedious detective work needed to zero in on the rocks and soils that are harboring the remnants of clay minerals that the MER team came to uncover. [More at link]