Looks like they are having qute a bit of trouble getting up close to Wopmay

I understood from the last flight director's update that they had trouble driving up the crater... Looking from the last two sols' front hazcam images, they seem to have got "above" Wopmay and are in position to investigate it. I'm not sure if its quite in the reach of the arm yet, but can't be more than few tens of centimetres.

Stop Press: I had just a look at the most recent images, and there is the IDD extending towards Woppy:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...CLP1111L0M1.JPG

They had rover stability concerns when approaching Wopmay from above. So they revised their plan and approached it very slowly from an angle. The slippage was excessive (more than 50%).

Due to the difficult terrain it took them 6 Sols to position the rover properly so they can reach Wopmay safely with the IDD. They reached the final position on Sol 257.

Total odometry after sol 257 is 1630.00 meters.

Looking ahead next few sols:

259: MI Wopmay; place APXS (deep sleep)
260: APXS Wopmay; Navcam/Pancam imaging
261: Continue APXS on Wopmay (deep sleep)
262: Begin drive to Burn's Cliff

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...DLP1214R0M1.JPG

Opportunity is now aimed directly at Burns Cliff


A nice view of Wopmay:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...DLP1992L0M1.JPG

The rover seems to be making quite a mess of the soil around Wopmay

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...F5P1311R0M1.JPG

I wonder if it will make it up to Burns Cliff..............

I dont know what the hell makes them think they'll get out the crater to the left of Burnsie. They couldnt even get out of Eagle on the first try for goodness sake.

I've got £5 that says they end up leaving by the same door they came in

Doug

This doesn't look like a very safe place to be in. Im wondering if the rover has actually slipped back down slightly and hit Wopmay:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...5P1992L0M1.HTML

I wouldnt want my rover in that particular spot ether - I'd have gone much further clear of it than that

They got v. close to the empty next back in Eagle Crater when traversing from the point-and-shoot routine to the first trenching, but that was only a few degrees, not the 20 or 30 they're using here.

Interpolate from these...





And you can see where the rover is now - very close to the brain



Doug

Are they trying to get into a better position to observe Wopmay or getting ready to move on?

A few new pictures arrived at the exploratorium site, the forward hazcam ones appear to be old though.

WOW looks like the ground is opening up lol...what a mess

Here you can see where the 'mess' is in relation to Wopmay:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P1993L0M1.JPG

Opportunity has indeed slid back down into the crater. I'd say it's time to ditch the brain and move on. Maybe a nice PanCam mosaic of Burns cliff from this position and then back to Karatepe as quickly as possible.

Whoa, this looks scary. Yesterday it looked like they had made up at least couple of metres upwards towards the Burn's cliff. Now they seem to be double that distance further down. Major slippage, I wonder how they managed that. The broken ground underneath the wheels looks bad too.

Sol 262 front hazcam: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...DLP1214L0M1.JPG

Sol 263 front hazcam and navcam towards Woppy:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...F5P1214R0M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...F5P1992L0M1.JPG

Sol 264 (today) navcam showing Woppy:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P1993R0M1.JPG

Sol 255 (9 days ago!) showing the rover further up than now and the cracks visible also in the picture above:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...C3P1990L0M1.JPG

I'm starting to wonder if they actually drove back down on purpose, otherwise it starts to look a bit too hopeful off-road driving.

I agree, time to give up on climbing to Burn's cliff.

antti

Carefull you're not mistaking the day's that images appear at the exploratorium for days of the mission.

They're not the same. The Exploratorium just whacks them online in the order they come down from mars - which ISNT the order in which they're taken - you can decode the file name, or just trust the JPL site and look at images on a sol-by-sol basis there.

Doug

I'm not mistaking the days, I used rawid to decode the dates.

You're quite correct to observe the troubles with Oppy. Here's the latest that will usually take some time to reach us through normal channels:

On the morning of sol 262, Opportunity took a third photometry measurement and a Pancam texture spot of Wopmay, concluding the weekend plan. In the early afternoon, the rover made a final MI of the target Hercules on Wopmay, then backed away as part of a plan to re-approach the backside of Wopmay for possible additional in situ measurements. Navcam imagery of the back of Wopmay was collected in the afternoon, followed by extensive Pancam images the next morning. Unfortunately, due to slippage during the traverse, Opportunity didn't reach its desired vantage point, and the target was not in view.

For sol 263, the decision was made to delete the Pancam imagery without downlinking it, since on board memory was tight and we already have complete coverage of the part of Wopmay captured. The new plan was to continue its drive toward the back of Wopmay, and repeat the imaging observations attempted in the sol 262 plan. But as Opportunity drove toward Wopmay, it encountered a hidden obstacle: a rock buried under the sand that resulted in 100 percent slip for a good part of the traverse. Once the rover was clear of the rock, it continued from a point much closer to Wopmay than anticipated. At the end of the traverse, the rover was uncomfortably close to Wopmay. Rover planners estimate that Opportunity was within 30 cm of Wopmay!

On sol 264 Opportunity backed away from Wopmay. The planned drive was 2.5 meters, the actual drive was 2.57 meters. Opportunity is now in position to begin her drive towards Burns Cliff.

Total odometry after sol 264 is 1638.57 meters.

Looking ahead next few sols:

265: Begin drive towards Burns Cliff
266: Day 1 of 3 sol plan - MI/APXS capture magnets
267: Day 2 of 3 sol plan - MI/APXS capture magnets
268: Day 3 of 3 sol plan - Continue drive to Burns Cliff


So, looks like we're still headed for Burns Cliff, and we narrowly missed the "iceberg"...

Cheers!

Hey where did you get that?.......good to know Opportunity isn't stuck though

30cm.

That's too close!

I think any member of this place would have been able to tell them "umm - guys - you're going to get > 75% slippage around this place, and there's a nice solar-array-height rock that wants a whole piece of MER action right there - are you SURE you want to do this?"

Thanks for clearing up on the RAWID - I wasnt sure - makes me even more worried now really

Hey ho - here's to 150% slippage on the way to Burnsie.

I still say their planned exit point is a total no go They'll back out the way they came, I'm sure of it

Good news though - Oppy's getting almost as much power now as it did at landing. Possibly clumping of the dirt on the solar array, nice tilt angles, and the end of winter.

At this rate - Oppy's got every chance of making it to Victoria - if they're prepared to put their foot down after the heatshield.

Doug

Is the planned exit path in the middle of the top part of this picture?

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...F5P1981L0M1.JPG

If it is, that's madness.

I think, Oppy can't make this stunt, too.

Tom

Yeah i think thats the spot....."Escape Hatch"

Look at the mild slopes around Womp. 15 degrees perhaps - at best. That escape hatch slope is worse - much worse at the end. Go back to the where you were guys - leave by a way you KNOW works. You will at best waste a week, at worse, break something!

Look at the slippage - they've almost dug a trench with the FL wheel!!!




Doug

Time to leave I think, they're going to get stuck.


Maybe they've turned the rover around so they can head back, I sure hope so

That image is from today ( about 7 hrs ago - the end of Oppy's last sol ) - and I cant for the life of me figure out why they're facing that way - ...

AHH - unlESS.....

Part of the three day plan over the w'end includes doing MOSS/APXS measurements on the dust magnets - and they just backed off into a position favourable for power for the weekend while they do that ?

Maybe they're going to try going up to burnsie backwards?

Doug

Doesn't the rover perform the same whether it's driving forwards or backwards?

The flat rock to the left of Wopmay, was that visibly on the surface when they approached? Or was that 'excavated' from their latest driving madness?

I know we spend a good amount of time here talking about "where are they now, what they did when"...I'm an informationally greedy guy. I want virtual rovers on virtual ground. I want a 3d projection of every image. I want 'rovers are here' graphics for every pre and post move position. Oh, and I want a pony too.

Maybe next rover, we'll get 'rover coordinates' to go with each image, and maybe a best guess rover position for each as well. It sure would help in projecting them into a 3d space, which I'm sure they have instantly for internal studies.

Might be slightly different weight distribution perhaps? I dunno. I guess we'll find out next week

Here's that flat rock from the rear hazcam



Doug

I hope we get a batch of hazcam images tomorrow and find out which way they're going lol.

One interesting side effect of churning up all that martian soil is the bright white almost powdery sunstance that appears. Its stuck to the right wheel in particular.

You can see it on the wheel just poking out from under the solar panels here too:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...59P0173L0M1.JPG

OUCH!!!! The left rear wheel seems to be slipping too:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...54P1301L0M1.JPG

Looks like Opportunity isn't going anywhere. ( at least in the direction of Burns cliff )

From here:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/sta...tml#opportunity

........arrrggghh the suspense

Quite a few old images being posted from Opportunity, but nothing recent, still don't know if the rover made it to Burn's Cliff - or got out of that hole it dug lol.

The current mode of operation is not to drive during the weekend. Also Pando's posted schedule only had capture magnet observations for saturday and sunday. Its the morning of sol 268 now, so I guess we will find about the drive tomorrow.

Doesn't look too bad in my opinion. They got well clear of Wopmay once they noticed the problem. Climbing the slope seems to be easy, though as doug has said, it gets steeper towards Burn's cliff. Also there might be more hidden surprises beneath the wheels.

The cleaning of the solar panels is a surprise. I guess Oppy is in no trouble powerwise now.

Latest forward hazcam images, still going up backwards and getting alot of slippage and trenching with the wheels :

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...5P1210R0M1.HTML

.....Weird

OMG!!!!! Look at that right wheel! It's completely buried! Like it just sunk into the ground. I don't know how strong the other five wheels are, but it looks serious.

This soil behaves strangely. It sticks to the forward part of the right wheel without sliding down. Sticky? Or is the rover tilted forwards in the extreme so that forward IS down?

I wonder if there's a Martian breakdown service...

There's no more danger here than as with a trenching operation as I see it. Sure - they're never going to make it to Burns Cliff - but they'll leave the crater the same way they came in I'd imagine.


Doug

There are a few white slab like plates visible in some of the navcam images, perhaps they completely disintegrate when the rover drives over them:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...B5P1908L0M1.JPG

It looks like someone dropped a bag of flour lol

...or salt

I can just see Steve Squyres saying: "Oh that wheel? Yeah, we just decided to schedule an extra trenching operation" (wiping sweat from brow)

When Opportunity drove to Wopmay I think it did it in a 2 part arching pattern, first driving up the crater a little and then back down towards Wopmay. From the forward haz cam image i'm wondering if Opportunity is now positioned back up the crater near where the first part of the drive to Wopmay ended.

If you look to the left in the image I think you can see the tracks leading back towards the rock "Escher" - it would be a fairly simple forward drive back in that direction from it's current location.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...B5P1210L0M1.JPG

If they are still heading for Burns Cliff and driving backwards, at some point they are going to have to perform a 180 degree turn to enable the IDD to be placed on it. That sounds a bit of a risky manouvere as the slope will get steeper and steeper.

Judging by the Sol 268 Rear Hazcam photos and Navcam photos, we're out of the hole finally. Now, as the saying goes: "let's blow this joint"!!!

Rear Hazcam:


Navcam:

Some beautiful clouds taken on SOL 269 from the NavCam:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...unity_n269.html

Not so sure that they're completly 'out of the hole' yet. The right front is dug down pretty well. Looks like they are driving backwards now, here's the front haz from the same time period as the above image pair :

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...B5P1210L0M1.JPG

Actually, that's from a previous sol. Although it was uploaded on the same day, it was actually taken about three or four sols ago. If you look on the main Mars Rover site, rather than exploratorium, they list the images by sol TAKEN rather than sol UPLOADED.

Rear hazcam timestamp 151980654
Navcam timestamp 151980818

front hazcam timestamp 151980588

the front haz was taken about a minute before the rear haz

I stand corrected and beg your pardon.

Based on the latest pancam images, my bet is they giving up going to Burns Cliff. Smart move, I say. It looks like they are "pan caming" the cliff from this vantage point before heading back over to the Karatepe exit where they know they can get out.

I will be so dissapointed if (a) it is stuck in the sand or ( stuck in the crater. I'm really looking forward to the heatshield visit and the drive to Victoria.

Mars Rovers: Still Squeezing Out Science

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/rover...ate_041027.html

Change of scenery

While the Spirit rover is deep in science at Columbia Hills, a change of scenery awaits Opportunity. To date, the rover has spent over 130 sols perusing Endurance Crater.

A first stop is inspecting a piece of Opportunity’s cast off Mars entry hardware that plopped down nearby.

From there, scientists have their eyes set on a huge crater at Meridiani Planum tagged Victoria. "Whether or not we will ever get there…I have no idea," Squyres said.

Victoria Crater is big – six times larger than the stadium-sized Endurance Crater, the feature in which Opportunity is now wrapping up its exploration tasks

I was sorta relieved to read this, but then realized that space.com has published this a little late. Spacedaily or spaceref had this article (based on same Squyres interview) sometime last week.

*Keeps fingers crossed*

Latest forward hazcam:



.......crazy

Further unscheduled trenching it would appear Wonder how many times they'll do it before giving up

Doug

........until they get stuck, if they aren't already.