# Presentation: 434740

## Mars Exploration Rover Mission

**Mars Exploration Rover Mission**

**Month in Review **
**July 1, 2006 - July 31, 2006**

**Spirit               and Opportunity **

**Notes:**
Alt tag:  This image is a title graphic with artistic renderings of two rovers slightly angled toward each other, perched on the top of a globe of Mars.

## Spirit is enduring the frigid Martian winter, and is collecting about 284 watt-hours of electrical energy

**each sol from its solar array.  **

***Panoramic camera, July 31, 2006 (sol 916).  NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell***

**A hundred watt-hours is the amount of electricity **
**needed to light one 100-watt bulb for one hour.**

## To conserve vital energy, 

**Spirit has been parked during the Martian winter.  **

***Panoramic camera images. July 2, 18, and 29 (sols 887, 903, and  914).  NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell***

**Spirit is collecting scientific data and hundreds of images**
** ****to combine into the most detailed 360-degree panorama**
**of the Martian surface.**

## Spirit’s rock abrasion tool was coated with dust

**after it uncovered successive layers of soil **
**to understand how it formed and was altered. **

***Panoramic camera, July 8, 2006 (sol 893).  NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell***

## Engineers ran the rock abrasion tool brush in reverse 

**to dislodge the dirt and return the tool to normal operations.  **

***Front hazard-avoidance camera image, July 19, 2006 (sol 904).  NASA/JPL-Caltech***

## The mission team has also spent the winter transmitting

**200 sections of new computer code to both rovers.**

***Spirit navigation camera image with photorealistic model of the rover.  NASA/JPL-Caltech***

**The rovers will switch to the new flight software soon.**

- Special-Effects Image

## Opportunity is closer to the Martian equator than Spirit,

**Opportunity is closer to the Martian equator than Spirit,**
**and has been driving through the winter months.**

## Over the last 50 sols, the team noticed a gradual cleaning 

**of Opportunity’s solar panels (most likely from wind).**

***Navigation camera, July 21, 2006 (sol 885).  NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell***

## Opportunity’s solar panels are now producing

**just over 500 watt-hours per sol.**
** **

**Opportunity has nearly twice as much energy as Spirit.**

***Front hazard-avoidance camera,  July 27, 2006 (sol 891)  NASA/JPL-Caltech***

## Opportunity has been busy studying a target

**informally named “Joseph McCoy.”**

***Microscopic imager,  July 22, 2006 (sol 886).  NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/USGS***

**The rover is using its mineral detectors to find out**
**how this rock, and ultimately Mars, has changed over time.**

## Opportunity “scuffed” the soil on its way to “Beagle Crater.”

***Panoramic camera, July 27, 2006 (sol 891).  NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell***

**Scuffing helps scientists and engineers analyze **
**how the wheels interact with the soil, which reveals **
**clues about the soil’s physical properties.**

## COMING UP

**COMING UP**

***Traverse Map, July 19 (sol 883). NASA/JPL-Caltech/OSU/MSSS***

***Navigation camera, July 1 (sol 886).  NASA/JPL-Caltech***

**Spirit will continue investigating its winter haven area.**
**Opportunity will drive toward “Beagle Crater.”**

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