Amnesia Event Slows Down Opportunity Robotic Arm Work

Opportunity is within ‘Marathon Valley’ on the west rim of Endeavour Crater.

The plan ahead was for Opportunity to use the robotic arm to place the Alpha Particle X-ray spectrometer down on a target for a week while the project conducted a weeklong test and readout of Flash memory.

However, a Deep Space Network problem prevented the rover’s plan from being radiated, so the rover executed run out plans on Sols 4184 and 4185 (Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, 2015).

On Sol 4186 (Nov. 2, 2015), commands were sent to the rover to enable the use of Flash memory and to spend the week returning science data already in Flash memory.

Although those commands were successful, the rover experienced an amnesia event on Sol 4186 (Nov. 2, 2015). As contingency, Flash Bank 7 readouts were performed instead. On Sol 4187 (Nov. 3, 2015), the rover successfully mounted Flash and began the return of the science data.

The plan for the balance of the week is to continue with the return of science data from Flash.

As of Sol 4187 (Nov. 3, 2015), the solar array energy production was 344 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.472 and a solar array dust factor of 0.574.

Total odometry is 26.48 miles (42.62 kilometers), more than a marathon.