Opportunity is continuing the exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater.
The rover is positioned about half way down the valley. This past week the rover exceeded 5,000 sols (or days) on the surface of Mars.
To commemorate Sol 5000 (Feb. 16, 2018), Opportunity for the first time used the Microscopic Imager (MI) on the end of the robotic arm (also called the Instrument Deployment Device, or IDD) to take a self-portrait mosaic "selfie."
The rover continues to collect extensive stereo color Panoramic Camera (Pancam) panoramas and Navigational Camera (Navcam) panoramas from the current location.
A beautiful sunrise color Pancam image was taken on the morning of Sol 4999 (Feb. 15, 2018). An atmospheric argon measurement using the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) was collected on the evening of Sol 5001 (Feb. 17, 2018).
As of Sol 5004 (Feb. 20, 2018), the solar array energy production was 653 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.407 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.850.
Total odometry is 28.03 miles (45.12 kilometers).
