Opportunity takes extensive imagery to decide where to go

4943-pancamFCOpportunity Status Report: Opportunity is continuing her winter exploration of “Perseverance Valley” on the west rim of Endeavour Crater.

The rover is positioned upstream of a fork in the flow channels. The team is collecting imagery to decide which fork, the north fork or the south fork, to explore next. To support that decision, extensive imagery is being collected on almost every sol.

On Sol 4941 (Dec. 17, 2017), the robotic arm was used to collect a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of a surface target within the work volume of the arm. The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) was then placed on that target.

With the upcoming holidays, the rover will remain in place for a while. This will allow multiple sols of APXS integration on this target. Late on Sol 4942 (Dec. 18, 2017), Opportunity collected a twilight panorama using the Panoramic Camera (Pancam) color stereo imager. [More at link]

Above is a composite of false-color images (Holger Isenberg) taken by the rover’s Pancam on Sol 4943, December 20, 2017. Click image to enlarge it.

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