Opportunity Status for sol 2158-2165: Opportunity is located near the very young crater "Concepcion." The rover has been investigating the ejecta material around the crater, with some rocks exhibiting a dark rind. On Sol 2158 (Feb. 18, 2010), Opportunity continued the in-situ investigation of the rock target, "Chocolate Hills."
The robotic arm (IDD) was used to collect a Microscopy Imager (MI) mosaic of the surface target "Dano" before placing the Moessbauer (MB) spectrometer on the target "Tears."
On the next sol, the robotic arm was retracted from the rock and a panoramic camera (Pancam) image was taken, before the Moessbauer spectrometer was placed down on the target Dano.
On Sol 2161 (Feb. 21, 2010), Opportunity drove away from Chocolate Hills rock and headed toward one of Concepcion's dramatic ejecta rays. The rover drove about 12 meters (39 feet) towards some rocks exhibiting the interesting dark rinds.
A 4.6-meter (15-foot) closer approach was performed on Sol 2163 (Feb. 23, 2010). Because the terrain would not permit a closer approach for in-situ work, Opportunity drove away on Sol 2165 driving 8.6 meters (28 feet) further along the crater's ejecta ray.
As of Sol 2165 (Feb. 25, 2010), the solar array energy production was 278 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.396 and a dust factor of 0.481. Total odometry is 19,360.14 meters (12 miles).
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