Opportunity has been moving toward a candidate patch of rock outcrop in preparation for a rest of the mobility system over the coming holiday. There continues to be concern with the elevated motor currents seen in the right front wheel.
On Sol 1920 (June 18, 2009), Opportunity drove backwards about 63 meters (207 feet) south. The right front wheel currents were elevated but were not divergently increasing. After a few sols, Opportunity drove another 7 meters (23 feet) to a nearby outcrop.
Robotic arm activities on surface targets with the microscopic image (MI) and the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS) were performed on Sols 1924 and 1925 (June 22 and 23, 2009).
Further drives are planned to reach a large region of rock outcrop. Also, the week saw further implementation of the miniature thermal emission spectrometer (Mini-TES) mirror dust mitigation. The Mini-TES shroud is left open overnight to see if the environment will clean the elevation mirror.
As of Sol 1924 (June 22, 2009), the solar array energy production was 450 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.480 and a dust factor of 0.530, indicating that 53 percent of sunlight hitting the solar array penetrates the layer of accumulated dust on the array. As of Sol 1926 (June 24, 2009), Opportunity's total odometry remains at 16,639.71 meters (10.3 miles)
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