Opportunity is halfway down in "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater, pursuing hypotheses as to the origin of the valley.
The rover is still positioned near some tabular rocks that are the subject of an in-situ (contact) investigation. On Sol 5087 (May 16, 2018), the robotic arm (IDD) performed a "salute" to move it out of the way of the cameras so the Panoramic Camera (Pancam) could take a 13-filter targeted image of the tabular rock target named, "La Joya."
More 13-filter Pancam imagery was collected on the next few days (sols). On Sol 5091 (May 20, 2018), the IDD was used to collect a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of the surface target "La Joya 1" and then place the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on the same for a multi-hour integration. More targeted 13-filter Pancam imagery was collected on the following day (sol).
On Sol 5093 (May 22, 2018), the arm performed a pre-load test on the surface in preparation for a future Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) brush and grind. The engineering team wanted to be sure the rover was stabled on the sloped terrain to safely conduct a RAT grind.
The test results showed the rover to be stable and able to perform any future surface contact activities. Also, a MI mosaic was collected of the surface and the APXS was positioned on an offset target, called "La Joya 2."
As of Sol 5093 (May 22, 2018), the solar array energy production was 664 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.562 and a solar array dust factor of 0.769.
Total odometry is 28.06 miles (45.16 kilometers).
