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Opportunity Drives for North End of Cape York

The location can be found on the rim of Endeavour Crater

Nov 21, 2011 11:43 GMT  ·  By
This is the northern part of Cape York, on the rim of Endeavour Crater
   This is the northern part of Cape York, on the rim of Endeavour Crater

After arriving at Endeavour Crater in mid-August, the NASA Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity is currently heading for a feature called Cape York, which oversees a large portion of the crater. The location will provide favorable conditions for the robot during the Martian winter.

The explorations rover uses solar power to function, and the northern end of Cape York provides the necessary tilt to ensure that it will constantly receive sufficient amounts of solar power during the prolonged winter months.

While moving towards its planned parking spot, the rover is also conducting science on a light-toned vein called Homestake, which criss-crosses the rocks near its current location. Opportunity's robotic arm is now prodding the feature, learning more about how it formed.

At this point, the machine's odometer shows 21.25 miles (34.2 kilometers) traveled distance. It is producing about 295 watt-hours of electricity, even though it is plagued by a solar array dust factor of 0.489, and an atmospheric opacity of 0.774, SpaceRef reports.