Perhaps Opportunity was trying a trenching operation -- and found the surface unusually hard? Which would be very interesting in itself.

Turning around with one broken steering actuator is something of a ballet.



Doug

This weekends worksite

http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportu...8WP1963L0M1.JPG

Not much of a drive at all - just a bump and a scuff. That's alright... next week will make up for it

Shallow trench, isn't it?

> Well, next week is gonna be exciting!

I think next week will be of "restricted sols". If that's correct, they'll just have time to arrive at Epsilon.

That's fine by me as well... I wouldn't want anything to happen to any of those nice wheels right now.

As Doug suggests, maybe it's harder to dig a trench with a bum steering actuator.

arrrf just thinks that oppy breaks down at the edge of Victoria,
without throwing a glance, that there gives me shivers

There is also something of a polyganality in the bright(ish) drifts in Oppy's drive direction in the left image. The surface is lightly scalloped in the drive direction, with small ripple-like features that are smaller and have very different sets of orientations and morphologies from the dark-sand ripples we've been driving on.

I think what we're seeing ahead of us in this image is a suggestion of the jumbled blocks that eroded away to leave this flat surface.

I also think that the large polygons in the dust "above" Oppy in the left image may argue for a surface coating of ice, or of a water table high enough to keep the surface of the annulus damp, *after* the ejecta blanket was emplaced. I'd think that you would need a dessication process to account for the polygonality, which assumes water (liquid or ice) either on or in the surface...

-the other Doug

You are thinking of desiccation cracks. However at least on Earth they are never on such a large scale. I would suggest polygonal ground instead, This is ubiquitous in permafrost areas on Earth where the surface layer periodically thaws and freezes. Or even more likely we are seeing surface traces of a more or less polygonal fissure pattern in the underlying bedrock.

tty

I have searched in order to explain about what is polygonal. I found a useful explanation that might be of interest for others non-geologist man.

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/msss/camera/i...5_02/index.html

Rodolfo

A new update from MER Rovers JPL, August 25

The team planned a trenching activity for sol 919 (Aug. 25, 2006) to prepare for a robotic arm campaign during the weekend.

This weekend Oppy will take many panoramic pictures (forwad and rear directions and then observations of sky and ground with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer during the Odyssey pass.

Lately JPL is taking much about Odyssey that before haven't done so. What is up? I suppose that Odyssey was on verge of having trouble and JPL were working hard to recover the control of Odyssey as transporder of comunications between MER and JPL. The Odyssey WEB page has no fresh news but after long intervals. Any comments ?

Rodolfo

New status report at MER mission home

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html

Wow! There is a lot of good information in that 8/25 update...more than usual. Thanks, Rodolfo. It looks like we have a lot of MIs to look forward to next, according to the tracking site.

By the way, there are a lot of things that can create polygonal patterns in the soil. We need to put these features in context with other similar things we've seen along the way.

True, they make also a short comment on the "ZERO_SEC_MSL" Sun images we discussed some days ago.
I hope next reports will be detailed too!

PS: Oppy just reached 9Km milestone

I logged in to post that and you beat me! You're not my friend anymore and now I will walk into a corner and pout!

Noo! pls!
I promise I will miss to claim the even more significative 10Km milestone, if you are quick enough the privilege will be your!
(9Km, a 2 hours promenade for a men...!)

Not going looney and proposing the brine-splat BS, but I wonder if polygons could not be related to the emplacement of a wet evaporite ejecta. The polygons to have the look of frost polygons or patterned ground. Maybe we'll have more answers/puzzle-pieces soon. Looks like a good weekend for doing science at this stop!

--Bill

The thing that I find most surprizing about the polygons is their similarity to the bedrock fractures we've seen everywhere in the etched terrain. Here they are covered with a veneer of soil, but we've even seen that before in the areas where some kind of sapping or subsidence process causes the underlying fractures to show through the soil. To me, that suggests a bedrock surface below the soil here that might very well be pretty much the same as that which Opportunity has been driving over since the beginning of the mission. I was really expecting something different.

Off topic note: Jim Bell has been the guest blogger on Emily's blog this week, and in my opinion, he has been the best one so far. His latest piece is on a subject that is near and dear to the hearts of many of us space exploration enthusiasts, "Giving Away the Data." Don't miss it.

I noticed that Oppy has taken an awful lot of hazcams showing the arm in the same initial unstow position.
Three 1024x1024 front haz pairs and a single 512x512 pair

And from the PC tracking site they are named:



And as of now the many planned MI's haven't shown up...

Could be an azimuth motor stall or?

Thanks for highlight, Tom, is a very interesting reading.
Best parts are: "I feel that all of us involved in space exploration are privileged to have been entrusted with taxpayer dollars to do the best possible science. We have an obligation to share both our successes and failures openly and honestly with the general public." and "I think it's unfortunate that some missions, like the Hubble Space Telescope and the European Mars Express orbiter, don't share all their data as quickly. Heck, it's (partly) my tax dollars at work, too... ".
We all know the "ESA PR disaster" issue, is good to know that Jim has exactly our thinking on this!

The drama continues. As of the early hours of 27 August (or late morning in Europe) the still-life of the IDD hasn't changed.

--Bill

oh no, please !! ... not *that close* to Victoria

ok, in the mean time, for a little consolation , here is a colorized MI image of blue pebbles on red sand, taken on Sol 910:

don't panic don't panic don't panic ...
Nice colorization, Bernhard, this help me to relax a little!

We know the IDD to be a bit of a troublemaker, so I wouldn't worry.

Doug

sweet colorization Bernhard

Nico

Again on SOL 921 no movement

I think that from now on this is going to be a "Genie out of the bottle" situation with regard to releasing images. Now that a segment of the public is accustomed to real-time photo releases, the "data hording" crowd that Jim talks about will really hear it from taxpayers -- at least in the case of imagery. Bet they aren't too happy with him these days.

There seems to be some movement of the arm, but is this "before" or "after"?


http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...8ZP1131L0M1.JPG

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...8ZP1131R0M1.JPG

That movemnt is caused by the changing perspective due to viewing left and right hazcam images.

Weren't there clues in the pan cam tracking data labels for the hazcam images the last time the IDD had problems?

The weekend has all been planned friday so they won't have had time to take action on this yet. So Oppy presumably just did take the hazcams whether or not the IDD has done any work.

The hazcams are named:



So obviously it was intended to document some work with the IDD. We'll see monday if this just is a motor stall and they'll quickly resolve it. Probably means Victoria is delayed a few days if they're gonna redo the weekend campaign

The arm did move a small distance from its end-of-drive unstowing postion.

Before

After

The arm was lowered ever so slightly, and it looks like the instrument package was turned a little bit. That was the last movement it did, so I guess that triggered the motor stall.

Thanks for posting that link, EGD (may I call you "Egad!"...? ), and damn well said by Jim Bell: science needs to have free and open access to information in order to work efficiently, period. Professional jealousy as described is nothing more than a fear that somebody else is smarter or faster...bah!

Of course, one exeception: If the primary workers find something really good, then of course they should have the right to keep the data confidential until they can publish...after all, they worked for it. I just don't think that blanket blackouts of data are ethically correct...plus, I WANNA SEE PRETTY PICS!!!

Wow, this is cool! How'd you do this? Is this real color information or "just" colorization?

Marco, Nico, ugordan
thanks for the nice words about my latest color image

... sure hope this was not Oppy's last MI image to colorize, though



Basically it's a synthetic greyscale colorization, but based on a palette of colors derived from "real" multi-filter-pancam images of the same area ... in this case, however, I deliberately increased the color variance
to emphasize the nice contrast between the red sand and the blue berries (which would in reality be more
of a blue-grey than blue) ...

Sol 922 Today

3 days to Epsilon starting on Sol 923 or 924

3 or 4 days at Epsilon for Pictures and if they find something interesting then another few more days

2 days then to Victoria with 1 very cautious day to approach the rim of Victoria
Don't want to slip slide away do we

My guess is about Sol 933 at Victoria

Also where has Ustrax been??? Is he hiding in Victoria thinking it's an abyss (Ultreya) having a party without us?

So Happy Trails to Oppy to come

Probably have to delay that if they are gonna diagnose the IDD and possible redo the trench campaign we missed during the weekend.

If the IDD *has* stalled again, we're probably just gonna sit here for 90-110 sols, running one tiny test of the motors per day (four days a week), while people who should know better squander Oppy's remaining useful lifetime being overly cautious... *sigh*...

-the other Doug

If that were the case, i think they would drive to the rim of the crater and do any tests there while making a monster pancam mosaic of Victoria Crater.

See at the topic: Pool: Arrival at Victoria
The first ones bet on Sol 920 and the last with the sol 1,500.

Now we are Sol 922 for Oppy. Then the two first are gone of game.

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...ost&p=65146

Rodolfo

Thanks for the reminder, Rodolfo...I'll be quite happy to lose this pool (sol 1237 was my guess!)

That's for sure, Sunspot. Although IDD work is important, there is a lot to be learned from color Pancam sequences, and much, much more will be learned by moving along the traverse. The ad nauseam stay at Overgaard killed any thing more than a cursory look at the Halfpipe Formation. The Rover engineering team knows more, but it would seem that this terrain is smooth enough to travel with the IDD arm flapping in the breeze.

IMO, of course.

--Bill

Yes that would be great. But I'm afraid, if it is a serious problem with the IDD, then it's going to be rather like dvandorn wrote in reply #388 above

... no, seriously: this time I think the IDD issue will be resolved within a couple of Sols ... and the
final run to Victoria continues soon ...

Of course, arriving at Victoria dragging a broken IDD that was ripped off whilst driving with it deployed would be just wonderfull

The sun is rising, the power situation is good, we never looked at tha annulus around Endurance with the IDD....there isn't THAT much of a rush to be honest. If we spend a week, two weeks here ( and we are all speculating far beyond what is healthy in that respect ) then we arrive at Victoria with a couple of weeks more improvement in Whrs

Personally - I think as long as we get to the edge of Victoria with a pan taken and downlinked before solar conjunction, then everything is on target for a sensible Victoria strategy decision during conjunction.

2 or 3 days of IDD trouble and it's like 4 wheels just fell off. Relax people...relax

Doug

I'm with Doug/Sunspot, we cannot wait ONE HUNDRED SOLs knowing whe are only 200m from Victoria! Especially considering the imminent blackout due to conjunction...
My hope is that, if problem is similar to the one encountered near Erebus, they know best strategy and solve it within a week.
And I hope to hear Ustrax voice from the abyss when we arrive!

We CAN...we just don't want to

You guys are a bunch of panic merchants. We don't know what, if anything, is wrong - and we're already at the "THEY CAN'T STAY HERE FOR WEEKS" phase. Seriously seriously seriously guys.....stop the panic and criticism of things that havn't even happened yet.

Doug

Doug's right - don't panic yet guys!

We were warned before that the dodgy sholder motor could stall on occasions with only one winding. I'm surprised this hasn't happened more often. More than likely the IDD will be recommanded sucessfully in the next sol or so and then we'll be off again only a few sols later than planned.

There is no evidence yet of anything more serious - be positive!

James

Absolutely correct, no question about that !

My postiong above was never meant as panic-making, and I took dvandorn's original comment only from the humorous, ironic side: Of course neither of us seriously thinks we will spend 100 Sols here ...

Isn't it sometimes a nice thing to ironically make light/fun of situations like this: rather the opposite of making panic but a means to take things easier

But I understand the danger of misinterpretation of such posts and apologize for anyone who may have interpreted this as "panic making"

-> just edited my post to make the irony/humor more clear

... please be more forgiving when in dout about the tone of such posts: in dubio pro reo !
it's so difficult to express humor/irony in alectronic form, yet alone in a foreign language

Ok, no panic for the moment but... I really need to go quickly to WC! (I said VC, oops my mistake!)

I'm back, thanks for waiting!
We can move on...