Aiming For Axel Heiberg

MARSDAILY

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Pasadena CA (JPL) Aug 13, 2004
Opportunity continues its voyage farther into "Endurance Crater" with a near-term drive goal of a rock outcrop dubbed "Axel Heiberg," and a possible later destination at the foot of "Burns Cliff" on the south side of the crater.

Sol 190 - Opportunity completed a 3.4-meter (about 11-foot) drive towards Axel Heiberg. The slope was steady at about 17 degrees and slippage during the drive was about 16 percent, as predicted.

The rover took images for use in planning future drives and made observations with its miniature thermal emission spectrometer. Controllers employed the microscopic imager to help with diagnosing the cause of error messages from that instrument received last week.

Sol 191 - Opportunity successfully drove another 5 meters (about 16.4 feet) closer to Axel Heiberg, leaving about 5 meters (about 16.4 feet) to go. The drive included a short backup at the end to check for uphill-drive slippage, which was within acceptable limits. Deep sleep was used overnight.

The team continues to acquire microscopic imager diagnostic images at different times of day to see if temperature might be a contributing factor to the errors seen from that instrument last week. So far, no more errors have occurred.

MARSDAILY

NASA Develops Robust AI For Planetary Rovers

Moffett Field CA (SPX) Aug 13, 2004
NASA is planning to add a strong dose of artificial intelligence (AI) to planetary rovers to make them much more self-reliant, capable of making basic decisions during a mission.

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