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Larry Crumpler • May 24, 2013

Field Report From Mars: Sol 3317- May 24, 2013

• Since sol 3308 Opportunity has been driving south

• On sol 3315 Opportunity reached the end of Cape York; now driving in the "plains"

Opportunity finally started driving south from its location on the outcrop where it had been since solar conjunction. Below are a couple of maps showing the current location (red circles) and the position on the outcrop (light blue circle) before it started the drive south. Downlinks have been poor for various reasons. So there is not a lot of image data down yet from all the driving this past week.

Sometime soon, within about 800 m (probably within two weeks) Opportunity will surpass the all time off-Earth distance driving record originally set by the Russian Lunakhod rover in 1973. Opportunity moved into second place within the last couple of weeks when it exceeded the Apollo 17 distance record.

Opportunity's traverse as of sol 3315
Opportunity's traverse as of sol 3315 Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Larry Crumpler
Opportunity's traverse as of sol 3315 (with geologic units)
Opportunity's traverse as of sol 3315 (with geologic units) Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Larry Crumpler

Here is the odometry countdown........

Opportunity odometer readings as of sol 3310 vs. Lunakhod
Opportunity odometer readings as of sol 3310 vs. Lunakhod Image: Larry Crumpler

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