NASA's Opportunity rover on the surface of Mars has taken a selfie photo, showing itself to be clean and in apparently excellent shape. Opportunity was launched to Mars in July 2003, and arrived on the surface of the red planet in January 2004.
Dust-covered solar panels on the craft show in an image taken in January 2014. The newest interplanetary robotic selfie showed its solar cells are much cleaner now than they were in the earlier photo.
Opportunity is experiencing late-winter conditions right now, and this is the cleanest the cells have ever been during that season.
"The rover experienced a partial cleaning of dust from its solar panels by Martian wind this week, boosting electrical output from the array by about 10 percent following a similar event last week. That is in addition to increased sunshine each day in the Martian Southern Hemisphere's early spring," program managers reported in a mission update.
A increase of energy of around 70 percent produced by the relatively clean solar cells will allow the rover to further explore "Murray Ridge" located at the western rim of Endeavour Crater. The solar panels on Opportunity are now producing a total of 615 watt hours of electricity. Mission controllers will use the interplanetary laboratory to search for evidence of ancient water on the red planet.
On the "Spirit and Oppy" Twitter page, the mission reported "More power to you, Oppy! Energy up 70% thanks to sunny days and 'spring cleaning.' "
On April 5, the Opportunity rover took a panoramic image of the Endeavour Crater.
The $400 million mission was designed to examine the Martian surface for signs of ancient waterways. Geological formations are also the subject of studies by the spacecraft.
The rover is equipped with a Panoramic camera (Pancam) that examines the mineral makeup of local terrain. An Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) can determine the makeup of rock samples at close range, while its Navigational Camera (Navcam) is used for navigation. The spacecraft has exceeded its planned mission life by a decade.
Opportunity had a twin explorer, Spirit, which explored the Martian surface from 2004 to 2010. It stopped transmitting after it got stuck in sand.
"During Opportunity's first decade on Mars and the 2004-2010 career of its twin, Spirit, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project yielded a range of findings proving wet environmental conditions on ancient Mars -- some very acidic, others milder and more conducive to supporting life," NASA officials wrote in a press release announcing the new image of Opportunity.
