Opportunity Status Report, August 22, 2017: Opportunity is located in “Perseverance Valley” on the west rim of Endeavour Crater.
The rover has been staying in place collecting extensive Panoramic Camera (Pancam) stereo panoramas. Now that we are in the valley, the objective is to extensively document the local morphology (how things look) at each location so that a 3D digital elevation model of the entire valley can be constructed. Opportunity is well underway in that objective at this fist station within the valley.
Winter is being felt by the rover as power levels continued to be constrained. Sol 4826 (Aug. 21, 2017), had to be a recharge sol with no science activities to build battery charge for the next plans activities. This will be a regular occurrence through the rest of the winter.
As of Sol 4827 (Aug. 22, 2017), the solar array energy production was 307 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.683 and a solar array dust factor of 0.518…. [More at link]