2010-09-23

Opportunity Sol 592 (Spirit Sol 613)

I've been out for a while because of my shoulder surgery, and now, for the next six weeks, I'll have to drive the rover with my arm in a sling. My right arm is barely usable at all -- can't really type with it. Fortunately for me, we've got a relatively easy sol. Opportunity's parked on some outcrop called "South Shetland," and a couple of meters away is a chunk of dark rock called "Deception." We've just got to bump to it, to set ourselves up for a weekend of IDDing.

And, of course, it's not that simple. For some reason, the downlink was unexpectedly meager, and we missed most of the ultimate FHAZ. Fortunately, Cooper's able to work it out using previous sols' imagery and the penultimate imagery from this drive, so we'll make it. With a small dash of luck, anyway.

I'd cross my fingers for luck, but my right hand's not up to it.

[Next post: sol 619, September 29.]

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Been following your journal for more than 2 years by now. It looks more and more that you guys are being paid to play "Robots" every day :)

And wish I could hint you to call one of the hills by the name of "Varvara's Hill" - but hey, I'm just a fan and you guys are on the roll few million miles away :)