New Chances to going back for closer look at grooves seen in images

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Opportunity is wrapping up the exploration ‘Marathon Valley’ on the rim of Endeavour crater.

On sol 4452 (Aug. 1, 2016), the high terrain walls of the valley prevented the low elevation Odyssey relay pass from returning any rover data.

The team, aware of this, planned Opportunity’s drive to the next sol.

On Sol 4453 (Aug. 3, 2016), the rover bumped about 19 feet (6 meters) closer to an exposed outcrop, not before taking some more color Panoramic Camera (Pancam) panoramas of ‘Gibraltar II’.

Then, over the next two sols, Opportunity continued with more Pancam panoramas of Gibraltar II and an outcrop contact from the closer vantage.

With the plan now to leave the north side of the valley, the rover headed southeast on Sol 4456 (Aug. 6, 2016), with a 102 feet (31-meter) drive.

Mid-drive Pancam imaging was collected. After the drive, the mid-drive imaging showed interesting ridges or groves that the science team is very interested in going back to examine.

As of Sol 4457 (Aug. 7, 2016), the solar array energy production is 607 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.706 and a solar array dust factor of 0.677.

Total odometry is 26.77 miles (43.08 kilometers).

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