Opportunity is only halfway down in "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour crater, pursuing several scientific hypotheses as to the origin of the valley including both water and wind erosion.

The next objective is to investigate some tabular rocks up close that are of interest to the science team. On Sol 5074 (May 3, 2018), Opportunity backed up about 6.07 feet (1.85 meters) to set up for an approach to the tabular rock targets. On Sol 5076 (May 5, 2018), the rover moved forward just over 9.8 feet (3 meters) in an approach to those rocks.

At this new location, Opportunity collected both Navigation Camera (Navcam) and Panoramic Camera (Pancam) panoramas to establish the context. An atmospheric argon measurement was performed overnight by the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS).

Sol 5079 (May 8, 2018) began the in-situ (contact) investigation of the tabular rock target called "Inde." The robotic arm (IDD) was used to first collect a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of the target, then the APXS was placed on the same for a multi-hour integration to measure the elemental chemistry.

As of Sol 5079 (May 8, 2018), the solar array energy production was 667 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.619 and a solar array dust factor of 0.776.

Total odometry is 28.06 miles (45.16 kilometers).

Related Links
Opportunity
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more

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Opportuity Mars rover looking for a path of less resistance
Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 25, 2018
Opportunity is continuing the exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater, pursuing several scientific hypotheses as to the origin of the valley. The rover is positioned about halfway down the approximately 656 feet (200-meter) valley near an apparent flow stream island. Opportunity is finishing up some in-situ (contact) investigations of local outcrops. However, tabular rocks a few feet upslope have become of great interest to the science team. On Sol 5053 (Apri ... read more