Tag Archives: Marathon Valley

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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Opportunity: At the outcrop

Posted on March 9, 2016 by rburnham

Sol 4309, March 8, 2016. Good afternoon lighting (about 1:40 pm, local time) brings out details and textures in a two-frame Navcam composite (below). The images were taken after the rover drove about two feet closer to the rocky outcrop. … Continue reading →

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Opportunity report, Sol 4302, by A.J.S. Rayl, The Planetary Society

Posted on March 4, 2016 by rburnham

March 4, 2016: Opportunity Scales Knudsen Ridge and Rocks On: As the Martian winter slowly begins to recede, Opportunity is working away on the steep slopes of Knudsen Ridge at the southern end of Marathon Valley, showing her mettle in … Continue reading →

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Opportunity: Pancam at Pvt. Joseph Whitehouse

Posted on March 3, 2016 by rburnham

Sols 4303-04, March 2-3, 2016. Opportunity is parked at the foot of Knudsen Ridge, where the Pancam is using multi-wavelength images to document the target dubbed Pvt. Joseph Whitehouse. Below is a composite using false-color images by Holger Isenberg. At … Continue reading →

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Opportunity: Studying Pvt. Joseph Whitehouse

Posted on February 26, 2016 by rburnham

Sol 4298, February 26, 2016. As the Navcam shoots a sequence from its study area at the foot of Knudsen Ridge down Marathon Valley to the east (above), the Pancam takes two multi-filtered frames on a target named Pvt. Joseph … Continue reading →

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