Odd thought I've just had...I wonder how different I would have done things if I was in charge of the rovers

I think I might have gone " do we really need another full filter sequence of a patch of random ground? " and taken more pictures of where we've been ( Pancam images of tracks behind us, particularly at Meridiani ) and I think some long time lapse images of the Southern Basin from the summit showing sunrise to sunet if it was doable with the power.

Other than that though, taking into account the power, time and data budgets, I don't think I'd have done very much very differently. At this point, Wolff will be screaming for a Sky hemisphere but hey

So - in terms of what was taken and when - what would you drop, what would you do different - remember, for every image you would have taken, you have to think of a frame you wouldn't to free up the data budget. Also take into consideration power etc - no late night obs when you're low on Whrs etc.

Doug

Somewhere along the way it would be nice if Spirit had pushed a rock over so we could examine the soil underneath. Most of the rocks haven't moved (i'm guessing) in millions of years. I wonder if the soil under a rock differs substantially from the soil that's been wind blasted for that time.
Of course, the trenches the wheels dug do a similar thing but those holes always look so messy.

I'd have taken fewer photos of those frakking sundials...

(Yes, I know they're essential for calibration, etc but I mean, come on, enough already... !!!!!)

I confess that as a one-time engineer I would have gone to have a look at Spirit's backshell on the rim of Bonneville, but of course that means OBE we would have come up short before Home Plate. Of course I think I would have spent less time at various locations on the way to the summit.

Don't knock the cal target or atmospheric\sunshots - they provide the data that allows the real analysis of the other raw pictures. There are plenty of them but the data they provide is definitely of the type that there is no such thing as too much IMO, especially since Tau changes throughout the day as does the spectrum of the ambient lighting.

One thing I'd love to have now would be a per sol standardised set of zero loss fixed (short) exposure Pancam L1 (clear filter) shots taken at the same local solar time every single sol looking directly ahead, at +- 90deg and directly behind. Those would have been criminally expensive in terms of bits and downlink budget (hmmh ~3.5Gbits, yep waay too expensive) and of almost no scientific use but they'd be great raw material for Aldo's movies.

For something more practical and with hindsight I'd have pushed for a few more examples of a series of all-filter shots taken at relatively short intervals (say 1-2 hours or so) throughout a single Sol of some of the more interesting targets (e.g. the long shots of Burns Cliff, Colombia hills from the approach, the home plate area from Husband hill summit). These would have been "temporal panoramas" rather than literal ones - we're talking about a handful (4 or so of appropriate locations) and a cost of say 400 Mbits in total. I'm at a loss though as to what to drop in their place so thankfully I didn't have to be on the planning team....

Me, I'd have drawn my initials in the sand when nobody was looking - using an excuse like Engineering Flats, see?

Bob Shaw
(Up two, right one, down one...)

Fair enough... and I did say that I know they're useful... but come in, if you're going to take so many pictures of them, at least make them interesting... stick a photo of Keira Knightley or Kate Beckinsale on there...

I would have taken a movie of the dust devil that cleaned Spirit' solar panel.

Now THAT




is genius

Doug