Opportunity Status Report, June 13, 2017: Opportunity is at the top of Perseverance Valley on the rim of Endeavour crater.
The rover experienced a left-front wheel steering actuator stall on Sol 4750 (June 4, 2017) leaving the wheel ‘toed-out’ by 33 degrees. On Sol 4752 (June 6, 2017), the rover backed up with an arc to allow investigation of a terrain-related stall. On Sol 4754 (June 8, 2017), the left-front wheel was commanded to steer inward to straight at four different voltages along with other diagnostics.
The wheel failed to steer (zero change in encoder counts) at any of those voltages. To verify the steering diagnostic, a similar steering test was run on the left-rear wheel (known to be good) on Sol 4756 (June 10, 2017). That test of the left-rear wheel performed nominally with the wheel steering as expected, verifying our test procedure. The project is continuing the investigation of the left-front steering actuator stall. Further diagnostics are being developed along with ground testing plans.
While Opportunity’s mobility status is under evaluation, the rover continues to collect an extensive Pancam panorama called the “Sprained Ankle Panorama” of the surrounding area along with targeted 13-filter Pancam images of high-value targets… [More at links, false-color Pancam image by Holger Isenberg]