Tag Archives: Knudsen Ridge

Opportunity: Seeking clay minerals

Posted on April 5, 2016 by rburnham

Sols 4335-6, April 4-5, 2016. After driving back closer to the head of Marathon Valley, where slopes are not as steep, Opportunity’s Pancam has shot a series of filtered images to identify likely outcrop targets to examine closely. The warm-tinted … Continue reading →

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Opportunity report, Sol 4331, by A.J.S. Rayl, The Planetary Society

Posted on April 4, 2016 by rburnham

April 4, 2016: Opportunity Soldiers through Martian March Madness: As March Madness on Earth sent sports fans into their annual kinetic frenzy watching more than 60 American teams battle it out for college basketball’s grandest title, Opportunity was experiencing her … Continue reading →

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Opportunity field report, April 1, 2016

Posted on April 1, 2016 by rburnham

Sol 4333, April 1, 2016; Rover Field Report by Larry Crumpler, MER Science Team & New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science: On this sol here on the west rim of Endeavour crater Opportunity has climbed west and up Marathon … Continue reading →

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Opportunity: Dust devil whirls past

Posted on April 1, 2016 by rburnham

Sol 4332, April 1, 2016. Shooting a where-are-we partial panorama a few minutes after 1 p.m. local time, the rover’s Navcam caught a dust devil out on the floor of Endeavour Crater.  At right, a crop into one of the … Continue reading →

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Opportunity: Pancam pavement scrutiny

Posted on March 31, 2016 by rburnham

Sols 4329-31, March 29-31, 2016. While Opportunity failed to reach its target at Knudsen Ridge because of the steep slope and loose surface, mission scientists have not given up their goal of finding and studying the water-altered clay minerals spotted … Continue reading →

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Opportunity tackles steepest slope ever tried on Mars

Posted on March 31, 2016 by rburnham

NASA’s long-lived Mars rover Opportunity is driving to an alternative hillside target after a climb on the steepest slope ever tackled by any Mars rover. Opportunity could not quite get within reach of a target researchers hoped the rover could … Continue reading →

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Opportunity: Onward… and upward

Posted on March 24, 2016 by rburnham

Sol 4324, March 24, 2016. As the rover works westward and upward in the valley, its wheel tracks (arrowed) show where Opportunity struggled, ultimately in vain, to reach the lowest part of the outcrop of Knudsen Ridge, seen at right … Continue reading →

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Opportunity: Doing donuts in the dirt

Posted on March 22, 2016 by rburnham

Sol 4322, March 21, 2016. While the rover can’t get up the slope of Knudsen Ridge to examine the Pvt. Joseph Whitehouse target close up, the Pancam (in Holger Isenberg‘s color reconstruction) reveals interesting, if subtle, variations in the churned … Continue reading →

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Opportunity: Churned soil, streams of dust

Posted on March 15, 2016 by rburnham

Sol 4315, March 14, 2016. The Pancam (in Holger Isenberg’s false-color version) reveals composition differences among the rocks and soil where the rover’s wheels dug into the ground as they tried to find traction on the steep slope. Click to … Continue reading →

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Opportunity: Slip, slidin’ — on Mars

Posted on March 14, 2016 by rburnham

Sols 4313-14, March 12-13, 2016. Anyone who has driven steep slopes off-road will sympathize. The Hazcam view from Sol 4313 shows that Opportunity may have met its limits for traction on a 30°+ slope made of loose sand, gravel, and … Continue reading →

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