Opportunity Continues Rock Studies
Opportunity is located at a place named "Matijevic Hill" (named in honor of Jake Matijevic) at the inboard edge of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater.
The rover just finished collecting an extensive color Pancam panorama, called the "Matijevic pan" and is now conducting extensive in-situ (contact) investigations.
On Sol 3146 (Nov. 29, 2012), Opportunity using the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) performed a grind of the surface target "Sandcherry."
This was followed with an image mosaic collected by the Microscopic Imager (MI) and then a placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) for an overnight integration. On Sol 3151 (Dec. 4, 2012), the rover moved just 9 inches (23 centimeters) to reach some new surface targets.
As of Sol 3151 (Dec. 4, 2012), the solar array energy production was 536 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.866 and a solar array dust factor of 0.599.
Total odometry is 22.02 miles (35,429.86 meters).
