Opportunity Sol 508 (Spirit Sol 529)

This is one of the simplest days I've had in a long time: just a tool change from APXS to MB, continuing our exploration of the soil near Purgatory Ripple. And I'm not even RP-1 (Jeng is), so I just have to review it.

Yawn.

One-way light-time to Mars has been falling. Right now it's eight minutes, twenty-seven seconds -- we're just about equidistant from Mars and the Sun. A big Isosceles triangle in space. 8:27 -- that's 507 seconds, one less than the sol number we're planning. That's the first time those numbers have crossed. "The rovers haven't been this close to Earth since December 2003," Steve remarks.

The CAM goes smoothly; another one down. "One more day and we hit the gas!" Steve exclaims. "I can't wait to get outta here!"