Opportunity rover timeline

This is the Timeline for MER-B, Mars Rover Opportunity of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission.

First color imagery from MER-B

During the first two weeks of operations, announcements of Mars Exploration Rover-B Opportunity activities were made at daily press briefings at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, usually held at 09:00 PST (12:00 EST, 17:00 UTC). The briefings typically discussed achievements during the most recently completed sol (a Mars solar day, see below) and plans for the upcoming sol.

By mid February 2004, as both Opportunity and its partner rover MER-A Spirit were in regular operation, daily announcements were usually made in the form of a short release, issued shortly after the rover's latest workday was complete. Press conferences were still held but at a rate of one or two per week.

The following chronology uses the dates of announcements. References to "this morning" or "tonight" are often in reference to JPL local time (PST).

Contents

1 Sols and Local Solar Time

2 2003

3 Most recent reports

4 week starting 2004 April 12

5 See also

Sols and Local Solar Time

A day on Mars is called a sol, and lasts 24 hours 39 minutes 35.244 seconds. The sol on which Opportunity landed is designated Sol 1. The local time of the event was in the early afternoon, or at 13:33 according to the landers Local Solar Time timekeeping system used by the MER team. (When referring to MER-A, however, Sol 1 means its landing date, which is offset 20.5 sols ahead of Sol 1 of MER-B).

The Local Solar Time system used by both Spirit and Opportunity is a hybrid timekeeeping system created by mission planners at JPL and is specific to each lander. The LST clock ticks away at a rate appropriate to the mean length of a Mars solar day, but the clock for each lander is offset from the mean solar time at the landing site and the zonal mean solar time. Instead, the clock for each lander was initialized with the goal that at the middle of the lander's nominal mission duration, the lander's Local Solar Time would roughly align with local true solar time. For Opportunity, the approximate date of that alignment is March 12, 2004. Unfortunately, because of the way this LST timekeeping system was defined and initialized, the difference between LST-A for MER-A Spirit and LST-B for MER-B Opportunity is nearly but not exactly an integral hour; it is instead 12 plus 1 minute and 10 seconds.

2003

Missing image
Mer-b-final-launch.jpg

Opportunity's launch

June 8 - NASA announced that Mars Exploration Rover B would henceforth be known as "Opportunity". Its companion probe MER-A would be known as "Spirit". The names were selected by means of an essay contest open to American school children; the winning essay was submitted by Sofi Collis of Arizona.
June 16 - Following Spirit's delayed start, Opportunity's first launch attempt was postponed a day to June 26.
June 21 - Due to problems found with the cork insulation on the Delta II launch vehicle's first stage, launch was postponed until at least the 28th.
June 28 - The launch scheduled for 11:56:16 pm EDT was threatened to be scrubbed due to strong winds in the area. The U.S. Coast Guard then noticed a boat that had ventured too close to the coastal launch site, so NASA delayed the launch 41 minutes until the second launch window of the night at 12:37:59 am EDT. However, with only four minutes until launch, the second attempt was scrubbed when it became apparent that upper atmosphere winds were too strong. Upon inspection after the launch attempt, the mission management team decided to delay the launch until at least July 3rd to repair a 1/4" thick band of cork insulation on the first stage.
July 3 - In order to perform tests on a liquid oxygen tank, launch was delayed until at least July 6th.
July 6 - The launch attempts scheduled for 10:43:16 pm EDT and 11:26:02 pm EDT were scrubbed due to the failure of a battery cell associated with a component of the launch vehicle's flight termination system. The battery had to be removed and replaced.
July 7 - At T-minus 7 seconds, the launch for 10:35:23 pm EDT was put on hold due to an indication that the fill and drain liquid oxygen fuel valve on the second stage did not close properly. The launch team reset the countdown clock and started a procedure to recycle the valve three times. The valve behaved properly. Upon the second launch window of the night, at 11:18:15 pm EDT, Opportunity was launched successfully from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. The entire launch window had lasted through July 15.

Most recent reports

The most recent week's reports will appear here, with older reports from 2004 January 12 archived in these articles:

Opportunity rover timeline for 2004 January - landed, stood up, rolled off the lander
Opportunity rover timeline for 2004 February- hematite measurements, El Capitan, spotted heatshield and parachute
Opportunity rover timeline for 2004 March - Deimos and Phobos transits, past water evidence
Opportunity rover timeline for 2004 April

week starting 2004 April 12

April 12 (Sol 78)

sol 78, Apr 12, 2004: Opportunity Stands Down for Flight Software Update

Opportunity began a four-sol stand-down on sol 75, which ended at 8:58 a.m. PST on April 9, 2004. During this time, the rover will receive a flight software update that should make its remaining martian days even safer and more productive. The upload will run through sol 78 with a rover re-boot on sol 79, Tuesday, April 13.

Opportunity is currently parked near the trench it dug on its 73rd martain sol. It will remain there for the duration of the flight software update. To keep the battery charge high, engineers are not planning to integrate the rover spectrometers on a target in the trailings of the trench during the flight software update.

The flight software update package includes three key changes. First is an update to the autonomous navigation software that will allow both rovers to travel longer distances autonomously. The current autonomous navigation software sometimes gets stuck when it detects a hazard that it can't navigate around. The new version will allow the rovers to turn in place to find the best possible path.

The second part of the flight software update will allow the rovers to recover more easily from an anomaly like the one that occurred on Spirit's sol 18. Although operational processes and software have already been updated to prevent something like this from ever happening again, engineers have included additional safety nets in the software that would allow the rovers to autonomously react to a similar anomaly and recover to a more stable state.

The third portion of the update is specific to Opportunity and is intended to mitigate against energy loss associated with the stuck heater on Opportunity's instrument deployment device. The fix allows rover planners to put the rover in a deep sleep mode, where the batteries are totally removed from being able to power the stuck switch. Therefore, with no power reaching the stuck heater switch, the Opportunity rover battery will not be drained. Rover controllers will not initiate the deep sleep capability on Spirit unless it becomes necessary.

April 14 (Sol 79)

sol 79, Apr 14, 2004: Opportunity Wakes with New "Brainpower"

Waking up to the Ramones' "Teenage Lobotomy," Opportunity began operating with new flight software on its 79th sol on Mars, which ended at 12:16 p.m. PDT on April 14.

Yestersol, the rover took daytime readings with its Mössbauer spectrometer on "Jeff's Choice" -- a soil target in the tailings of the trench that the vehicle dug on Sol 73. This sol, the rover performed a free-air integration of its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer. This procedure measures the effect of the Mössbauer's radiation source on the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer's sensor, allowing the science team to subtract out the Mössbauer influence for an accurate calibration.

In the coming sols, Opportunity will examine the trench with its microscopic imager and alpha particle X-ray spectrometer.

April 15 (Sol 80)

sol 80, Apr 15, 2004: A Taxing Day at the Trench

Opportunity spent sol 80, which ended at 12:55 p.m. PDT on April 15, examining the trench it dug on sol 73. The rover's microscopic imager got close-up views of the targets called "Jeff's Choice," "RipX," "Jack Russell," "Beagle Burrow" and "NewRipX" in the trench.

The navigation and panoramic cameras shot images in Opportunity's drive direction toward "Endurance Crater."

The rover's spectrometers gathered data at several of the soil targets. Atmospheric data was collected by the miniature thermal emission spectrometer and panoramic camera.

In the coming sols, Opportunity will make its way to "Fram Crater," a waypoint on the path to Endurance Crater.

April 17 (Sol 82)

sol 81 & 82, Apr 17, 2004: Record-Setting Drive

Three days after switching to new software with mobility-enhancing features, NASA's Opportunity shattered the record for a single day's driving on Mars. The rover covered 140.9 meters (462 feet) during its 82nd sol on Mars, ending at 2:15 p.m. PDT, Saturday, April 17. That is about 40 meters farther than either the best previous one-day drive, by Opportunity two weeks ago, or the total distance covered by NASA's smaller Sojourner rover during its entire three-month mission in 1997.

The first 55 meters (180 feet) were done as a "blind" guided drive based on images acquired previously. Speed during that session averaged 120 meters (394 feet) per hour. For the rest, Opportunity used autonomous navigation, watching for obstacles, choosing its own path, and averaging 40 meters (131 feet) per hour. After the drive, the rover took forward-looking images for planning the next drive.

On the previous martian day, sol 81, Opportunity awoke with its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer on a soil target called "Beagle Burrow" inside a trench the rover had dug on sol 73. The rover removed the instrument arm, stowed it, then backed up to image the trench before driving toward a crater nicknamed "Fram Crater." Opportunity then completed a 7.5-meter (24.6-foot) drive to a trough to image a rock outcrop within it with the panoramic camera. After a bit of guided driving, the rover set out using its autonomous navigation. The sol 81 drive totaled more than 40 meters (131 feet).

Nearly reaching the second of four waypoints on the way to Fram Crater, the rover imaged its new surroundings to identify any future driving hazards. An afternoon nap preceded sol 81's final science session, atmospheric observations with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer and the panoramic camera.

Rover controllers devoted sol 82 to driving after some morning atmospheric observations and a quick look back with the panoramic camera. The record-setting run took three hours -- a good time for a marathon. It brought Opportunity to within about 90 meters (295 feet) of Fram Crater. It also took Opportunity over the 600-meter threshold, a criterion that had been set for at least one of the Mars Exploration Rovers to achieve in order for the mission to be called a success. Opportunity has now traveled 627.7 meters (0.39 mile). Spirit passed the 600-meter threshold two weeks ago.

Rover wake-up music for sol 82 was "I Would Walk 500 Miles," by Less Than Jake (originally by the Proclaimers).

For sol 83, ending at 2:54 p.m. PDT, Sunday, April 18, another drive day is planned for Opportunity, with a goal of getting the rover close to Fram Crater. Scientists then plan to use Opportunity for some investigations of that location.

Opportunity rover timeline

Sols and Local Solar Time

2003

Most recent reports

week starting 2004 April 12

See also

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