Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Opportunity Navigation Camera image at Sol 4924.
Credit: NASA/JPL

NASA’s Opportunity rover has been reconnoitering the Red Planet since landing on January 25, 2004 – and now has 28 miles on its odometer.

Now in Sol 4,926, the veteran robot is 4,836 Sols past “warranty.”

Winter exploration

At present, Opportunity is continuing its winter exploration of Perseverance Valley on the west rim of the Noachian-aged Endeavour Crater.

Opportunity Rear Hazcam image acquired on Sol 4923.
Credit: NASA/JPL

Opportunity has been carrying out science duties, including collecting a Microscopic Image (MI) mosaic of a surface target, and then placed its Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) for a multi-sol integration.

Valley photo shoots

While the APXS was integrating, Opportunity continued to collect extensive color panoramas of the surrounding terrain. These image data are part of a complete digital model the rover is assembling of the entire Perseverance Valley.

Opportunity Panoramic Camera image taken on Sol 4924.
Credit: NASA/JPL

With the in-situ (contact) science complete using the APXS, the rover drove on Sol 4922 (Nov. 27, 2017) about 46 feet (14 meters) to the next lily pad (energy favorable location) down the valley. Here Opportunity will continue the extensive image collection and take advantage of any surface targets under her feet.