26 Jan 2009 (Source: Jet Propulsion Laboratory) OPPORTUNITY
UPDATE: Post-Solar Conjunction Hangover - sol 1716-1742,
November 20 - December 17, 2008: As soon as Opportunity came out
of solar conjunction - a period when the Sun passes between
Earth and Mars and prohibits communication - engineers
discovered that the rover's computer memory was a bit too full
for comfort. They spent the first two days after conjunction
minimizing data generation on Mars and planned to spend another
two days doing the same. The purpose of the slowdown was to give
Opportunity a chance to empty out some of the large number of
"sent" data products. In this case, the memory situation
involved the data product limit, not the data volume limit. In
the event of an excess of data volume, the rover automatically
deletes data. An excess number of data products, on the other
hand, can cause a rover fault. Such a fault occurred on Spirit,
Opportunity's twin on the opposite side of Mars, shortly after
landing. The potential for such a fault