that's a pretty good route map!

There is an unfortunate inverse correlation between what the geologists find interesting, and what I find interesting. I want to see new vistas, while they want to find something new and interesting that they can spend weeks analyzing to death.

I want new vistas too, but I have to admit I've been very, very spoiled this past few months... new vistas every day or so... time for the scientists to have their fun now!

Go get that bright band Oppy!

Click to view attachment

Curious: they seem to have pulled the 20-second simulated rover animation that was posted on the briefing page before the teleconference. I wonder why.

I just noticed that also. too bad .

anyway, some of you have wondered where these links can be found.

for that, check out the NASA Press release page
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/index.html

otherwise, that was a very informative press conference
and a news summary has appeared at space.com
http://www.space.com/news/070628_opp_victoria.html


ken

Mods - please let me know if this isn't kosher -

I shrank it from 30 MB to 540K using QuickTime Pro! Seemed like such a huge file for such a short movie...

Opportunity Movie (MP4)

According to the those speaking at the conference
sand = bad

They couldn't have an animation of Oppy driving on sand, that would be putting the animated Oppy at unnecessary risk.

Thanks for the summaries and comments, people. Even though I couldn't listen to the briefing, with your help I was able to read the high points and still make it to my 1:30 meeting.

lyford: That amazed me. I downloaded the original 30 MB animation and your <1 MB version. I saw little difference. They now have a new version posted that is over 7 MB, but it's quality is quite inferior to your small file. It is also curious to me that they posted an animation of the rover entering the crater and cruising non-stop, straight down toward some of the most treacherous terrain, without even turning toward the bright transition between relatively intact bedrock and the pre-impact surface.

If they enter where we expect them to enter, they will need to only go down a short way and turn to the right to investigate the "bright band." That is the safest initial target of interest.

You guys want vistas? Just wait. The geologists and the photographers should be satisfied.

I'm not sure how to interpret the comments that the little rover is fearful of certain, far away cliffs. Do they intend to go there? I do like the potential, post Victoria plan. It's the most logical choice for an old robotic geologist. No matter where it goes on it's journey of exploration, skillful scientists will make useful observations, and talented photographers will find new vistas. That seems to be the way it works.

3D of "Bright Band"

Click to view attachment

I was amazed by your movie too lyford, especially after downloading the original mega-file on dialup last night...!! Thanks for that.

I'm not worried about a 'vista-drought' now at all... just one look over Oppy's shoulder as she scoots towards Bright Band will give us all a moment, I'm sure!

By the way, thanks from me too to everyone who posted during the teleconference. My audio was phasing in and out like some message from the Delta Quadrant while I was listening, so you all helped fill in the gaps.

I'm still trying to understand the planned entry point based on what is written here and from the animation on the NASA web.

Is this the idea?
Click to view attachment

Or enter at a point between Sputnik and the sol 952 site?

My intepretation is this

Green marks the entry path. That's my understanding too.

So that's more or less the same site as of sol 952.

Just 'left' of it, if that makes any sense.

What I don't understand is that they picked an ingress spot further away from the current rover position than they had too. In fact, the spot they picked requires going over the lip of a dune. Again, that doesn't seem necessary if they had chosen this area marked in red.

Click to view attachment

Again, green arrow points the area of entry as understood through the conference yesterday.

Slope too steep there perhaps - too close to the cliff edge w.r.t. shadowing solar and comms.

Doug

Well, the slope is not too steep. As for being too close to the cliffs, that would only be true if they were going straight down. I think the reason might be simply because that a straight line is not necessarily the the fastest way to the target. If they went down the area I marked in red, then they would have to traverse the slope for much longer of a distance to get to the intended target. That means a very slow pace on the slope.

The way the MER team intend to go maybe longer in over all distance, but they will have only to go half the distance to the target on a slope. Much of the travel will be quick on flat surface. That is the only reasonable argument for ingress placement that I can think of. Plus, doing the toe dip in and out at that particular place might make it easier for rover to get out again through compression of the soil at that spot. I guess that I'm answering my own questions.

I think you have the right idea, MII. I know that during the telecon yesterday, SS made several statements about how they were planning a very specific route that addresses rover safety above all. He said that they would *not* deviate from this route in order to go after interesting-looking targets, but that they may stop *along* this route to look at interesting targets of opportunity.

Whatever the rationale, this route has been selected to maximize the safety of the rover and to get it to the bright-band exposure that is the top scientific priority of entering the crater. Any deviation from this pre-selected route will come only from rover safety concerns, methinks...

-the other Doug

For those who missed the press conference, a telephone replay is available until July 2.

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jun/H...ria_Crater.html

Most of the information has been well summarized in this thread, but it's always a pleasure to admire how clearly SS speaks about rover operations and science, and how well he communicates the enthusiasm of the team. I can't think of anyone else in his league.

TTT

Surprisingly on the SPACE-MULTIMEDIA site, that usually has provided only manned spaceflight topic, is it now available - for good I guess. As well the last NASA audio teleconference for the Dawn mission.

One thing is not clear to me in what was announced. Do they feel that the bright band is as deep as they can go into the crater to keep the rover safe? That would be very disappointing if they were not able to continue further downslope to get to older layers of exposed rock.

Brian

It's a case of 'see how we go'. The white band is the only target so far - they have no specific goals beyond that simply because they can't really tell what the terrain is like after that until they get closer to it.

It's probable that there may be a few tens of metres further exposed rock that is easily navigable beyond the white layer. However, if beyond that it's just sand, then they're not going to try 12 degree sand slopes, they're a death trap (see the trouble they had near Wopmay rock in Endurance - many sols of churning and wheels up to the hubs and beyond in sand)

It all depends on what the terrain offers when we get closer. If it's just a tiny bit of sand on top of solid rock, it's doable...otherwise it'll be a case of going as far down as they can, and then coming back out again.

Doug

...perhaps doing the same on other "ramps" where different layers may avail themselves - if navigation is difficult here.

BrianL: That bright band is the safest, pre-impact bedrock they can reach. They will probably be able to go deeper than that, but as others have noted, further safe roving will depend on rover observations.

That Space-Multimedia site was a godsend. I was able to download the audio and listen to all of it. Squyres' performance was as amazing as it always is, but everyone else did just as well. That teleconference was one worth waiting for.

I am really excited that Steve noted that Opportunity would be traversing the first ever, good, vertical slice through an ejecta blanket, and did not want to waste the opportunity. I think this is important.

Sorting out the origin of the bright band, and whether it is due to the past atmosphere working down, or the past groundwater working up sounds like a good idea to me.

As for post-Victoria explorations, I can buy into a journey across the plains, looking at eroded craters for flowing water evidence and exotic cobbles along the way. It sounds like a good plan to me.

Hi All,

Just before Oppy heads into VC, I thought that I'd share a little SFX image.
The version here includes an inset image from the full-res version which is 6600x2418 and 16.5mb.
The full image is available here for download.

Click to view attachment
This is just a thumbnail version, see the link above.

I think that the scale is about right.
Thanks to Doug for the MER model used as the base for this image.
Can't wait until we see the real descent next week.

Enjoy
Astro0

...awesome as always, Astro0! Thanks!

Yeah, it's very well done, Astro0.

Stunning pic Astro! Time and time again you've given us all wonderful "almost like being there watching" views, and I want to say thanks.

Thanks Stu. Time and time again your prose takes me there too

BTW, if anyone would like the full 16.6mb version which at 100dpi would print out nicely at 168x62 centimetres (or 52cms without the title block), then I'd be happy to email it to you if your inbox can handle the file size. Unfortunately, I just don't have the space on a server to put it online for download. If anyone can host the image, that would be great.

Thanks for the feedback.
Astro0

You too Oppy?!
Together with the Dawn launch it will turn my birthday this year into something to remember...
Not mentioning non space related happenings...

Very beautiful picture Astro0 !

Could you tell me where did you find the photo of Duck Bay? The colors are wonderful.

Thank you

Neo56

I'm not sure it will happen that soon. The dust storm at Meridiani was pretty nasty, with tau being close to double of anything previously seen by Oppy, and power levels were way down. I think things are improving right now though, once Oppy gets past standdown... whew...

Suggest you upload it to sendspace and post the link here...

>once Oppy gets past standdown.

Pando,

Do you mean that the dust storm has delayed the schedule for entering Victoria discussed in the press conference last week?

TTT

EDIT: Just noticed the news release on the jpl site concerning the delay caused by the dust storm.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/features.cfm?feature=1411

By my reckoning that means Tau at around 3.5 leading to power dropping from around 680Whr/sol to 340Whr/sol.

Ouch.

Astro0, I have a suggestion for your image. You should adjust the colors and contrast of Opportunity to match the landscape; i.e. make it redder. As it is, Oppy doesn't fit in at all, and looks like you just pasted it into the image (which you did, but it shouldn't be so obvious). A simple levels adjustment can work wonders.

That "ripple" looks a bit, um, big, dontcha think..?

Click to view attachment

This is terrible news... I was wondering why they hadn't made any further progress towards entering the crater lately.

Neo56,
The base image was from the Pancam website.
It's the Cape Verde panorama linked here.
The image was cropped and enhanced for the final SFX image.

Astro0

Yeah, that was close - tau of 3.3, and 402Whr... Looks like Oppy got lucky due to the cleaning events prior to the latest dust storm.

Nah, if you're really motivated to get to the other side, just keep those wheels churning till you break through it. I don't think it's deep enough to hang her up on her belly.

Just

Brian

I thought the low activity was due to the US holidays.
It wasn't until this morning that I knew about the press release and the issues with high tau / low power.

Have a look to these two fhazcam images.
The first one was taken on sol 1216 at 12:44 right after moving on this site, while the second one is from yestersol, sol 1223 at 11:21. The local times are not exactly the same but quite similar and the shadows seen on the first one almost disappeared on the second picture.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

This could be the end of Opportunity.

We're at a low of 400whrs (175 more than Spirit at its worst), with the atmospheric opacity improving. Reports of death are premature.

But - any sol could be the end of Opportunity to be honest. I don't think this dust storm makes it any more or less likely.

Doug

Thanks for that, Tesheiner. I made an animated gif with this 1217 frame and this 1223 frame. They are only 9 minutes apart in local time, and you can just make out the shadow of the right wheel in the 1223 view, but the shadow of the deck is almost invisible. This really gives you a good sense of how dusty the sky must be. Note that the arm has moved between these frames.
Click to view attachment

Reports of impending doom are definitely premature - the Dust storm is clearing so power levels should climb back up into the 600+ range over the next few weeks so long as there are no more storms.

I was very interested to see that my model of the amount of diffuse insolation noticably underestimates the amount of power available when Tau really rises to high numbers - at the stated Tau=3.3 and the current dust loss of 16% my model predicted 360Whr vs the 402Whr that Pando reported.

Assuming that 12% error holds for higher Tau values then Tau would have to rise past 5 and stay there for Opportunity to be in real trouble.

Nice dust storm to calibrate the model.

They should try and get some sunset/sunrise pictures, could be very colourful?

That was actually from the press release that Tom Tamlyn posted earlier