More along the "Route 66" genre...

Opportunity into day 1200! Spirit 2020! May they keep rolling along

Floyd

Are you sure about that?

Wow, my typing is worse than usual. I guess that should have been 1220 not 2020 for Spirit. Of course the Spirit number is in the wrong thread, so no one should have noticed.

Shine on.

You'd probably talk about vision, Floyd !
Like your smilies, Right eye is 20 while left is 12 (what about mine?)
"Oppyfully", they are still both at 20-20

This is the beacon as seen by the navcams on sol 1201.
http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportu...3OP0704L0M1.JPG

Nothing really special or new, but I would like to remark the fact that this shot was taken less then six hours ago by a rover on another planet.

On our first visit to this area I hoped they might try to drive around the back of the Beacon, as in this image:
Click to view attachment
That would presumably get us up close to some serious outcrop. It looks drivable based on the orbital view, but of course it may be too steep to drive very far back there.

We're almost at Duck Bay! This has been a wild ride.

Sol 1202: Duck Bay is again on the horizon!

Do you still remember "Sputnik"?
Click to view attachment

And "Cabo Frio"?
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Ah.... remember... remember...
It's like to see an old friend or thing like this.

Here is a quick stitch of today's pancams.
Remember that Cabo Verde (*) has a downward slope so it's not yet visible from the current position. But based on the overhead view (see latest map on it's thread), Verde's tip is almost inline with Cabo Frio's tip and the entrance to the cape is inline with Sputnik.

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(*) Sorry, but I can't say "Cape" Verde.

Sol 1203: We are back at Cabo Verde!

See these old tracks from sol 959.
Click to view attachment

Very nice! Hopefully we will soon get the official word for the ingress.

I guess we'll have to close this thread very soon since it has been completed

250 sols later, and we see the very same view of the far rim as we first glimpsed. Indeed the same rocks and soil nearby. How many years before we noticed a change? 100 years for a rock to roll down a cliff? 100 000 years for a large section of cliff to fall away? Would this view still be recognizable in 10 000 000 years?? Could I be feeling a poem coming on, Stu?
I suggest we use this thread until either we reach the entry point at Duck Bay, if we're going in, or we hear that we are not going in. And I started the thread!

I don't suppose it's worth a new thread, but some rover temperature data here. Highlights include summer temperatures above 30 C for Spirit, and this ominous line: Have we heard about this already?

Absolutely

That temperature data was pretty interesting. Thanks for pointing out that surprise. I wish they would do more stuff like that. I don't recall hearing anything about the increased amp demand from Oppy's right front wheel, previously. What a coincidence.

Problem is - all of those temperatures ( less so for the array temp - but certainly for the camera temp ) are going to be contributed to, significantly I would have thought, by the thermal conductivity from the WEB or nearby electronics. If that solar array temp sensor is in the centre section, then it's basically sat on top of the majority of the electroncis. I know the WEB is insultation - but heat still gets out. Ditto the hazcam temps - the electronics of the camera itself will have a contributory effect I would have thought. There's not quite enough info to know just how much of that is rover and how much of it is Mars. Very cool graphs - but not sure how much to read into it.


Doug

Sol 1204: Opportunity moved to a point near the southern edge of Cabo Verde and started taking an LBS pancam mosaic of Duck Bay.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment
(navcam mosaics)

It's my impression from the presantation that these temps have already been through the thermal models and are Mars temperatures. They don't say that directly but they wouldn't be very meaning full if they weren't.

Here are a bunch of long baseline stereo anaglyphs of Duck Bay. These are perspective views, combining Pancam L7 images from Sol 1204 and 1206. The slideshow is nice, if your browser supports it (flickr is improving...).

Compare the lovely black heat absorbing temperature of a solar array....and the 'in the shade' temp fo the Hazcam. They're almost identical - because they're both bolted to the same WEB. This 'air' temp also gets a good spike when the web heaters kicked in at the depths of winter. I'm still waiting for more info on them - but I think a FHAZ temp is a FHAZ temp - not an air temp. The point they're trying to make isn't about Mars - it's about what the rover components have to deal with - the hottest they get because of spacecraft operations, and the coldest they get at night.

Doug

Here is Duck Bay as seen from Cabo Verde in this B&W 6x2 pancam mosaic taken on sols 1204 and 1205. Cabo Frio can be seen on the left of the picture.
Click to view attachment

Anybody else nervous?

I'm not nervous. This is not a first for Opportunity.
I wonder if the feeling on the MER team is that the
entry point into Victoria looks any more difficult than
that into Endurance.

Well...it could be worse. You could have, for example, thousands of hard, tiny BB-sized spheres under your wheels as you gingerly roll forth. ...Wait a minute!?

Andy

Hell no - Endurance was a cake walk





Doug

It's still too early to be nervous.
Remember that the latest plan included imaging Cape St. Mary in super-res. I would say (my 2c) that we still have one or two weeks before getting nervous.

It 'll be fine as long as we keep to the side of Duck Bay closest out current viewpoint, and avoid the rock steps created by the strata outcrops. The only slight worry is the possibly loose nature of the entry threshold. In general, I think it's well within the rover's capabilities....

Well, it looks like the imaging campaing at Cabo Verde's southern side is finished. Not it's time to move to the NE side and take some shots of Cape St. Mary.
This is the 6x1 navcam mosaic taken on sol 1210.
Click to view attachment

Is that Duck Bay to the right of that picture?

Absolutely

Sol 1211 was another driving day and we are right at the NE edge of Cabo Verde.
Watch your step little rover!

Click to view attachment

FWIW, we are almost exactly at the same spot as on sol 959.
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...OP1214L0M1.HTML

Edited: ... and if anybody wants to remember, this was the thread discussion during those days.

sol 962 colorized MI panorama:




Perhaps looking for changes to this very interesting rock after 8+ months?

Hey horton, a few sol.. oops, days ago, I've made the same

Are colors always so much more ...er ...passionate in France?

Beautiful (if familiar!) view looking across to the Beacon tosol. Now we have much more of the cliffs of St. Mary in full sun. In this sol 1211 navcam we can see our easternmost rim position, on Tierra del Fuego, from less than two months ago (circled in white):
Click to view attachment

Opportunity's position on Sol 1211...

Geographer: Keep an eye on the "Opportunity route map" thread. Tesheiner's maps are very useful for orientation.

Cool, Michael!

I'm pretty convinced they'll do that.
Here's the rat hole seen on the latest hazcams from sol 1211.
Click to view attachment



Good catch, fredk!
I used your same picture (hope you don't mind) and included some other features. I think we can even see the lump#2 at Cape St. Vincent; we should confirm/disregard that with a pancam shot on that same direction.
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I don't mind at all! Just imagine the fun we'd have if they drove right on top of the beacon - we could map out our entire journey around the rim so far!

Bit more detail today... all those luvverly, luvverly layers...

Click to view attachment

As I recall, that sol 962 RAT was the first one they did after reaching the rim. Personally, I'd be really surprised if they looked at it again. But who knows what they might have seen in it the first time.

These new views of St. Mary in the new light are pretty amazing, aren't they? The detail visible in these pancams of the sunlit cliff nearly took my breath away. Well, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but it's a night and day difference.

It looks as if they timed the side trip perfectly to bring Opportunity back to the target when it would be well lit, as will be Oppy's panels. What a surprise. Apparently they are doing a 2x1 pancam superres as well as the LBL stereo, so it may be a few more sols before they take the plunge. It's a weekend, too.

I think it is time for us armchair planetary explorers to fasten our seat belts. I'm guessing they will enter Duck Bay, investigate Cape Verde, and then round the cape to get to the St. Mary cliffs.

I took a closer look at that trip today, and I am not as confident the Opportunity team would try to round the cape. It looks possible though, if they are careful.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The final leg on the drive back to Duck Bay has started!
Good bye Cabo Verde! See you soon, but next time from inside the crater.

Looking back at Cabo Verde on sol 1214.
Click to view attachment