Since I've heard two different sets of landing co-ordinates, one of which is something like 10km from the other, I'd like to get Phoenix located on the surface first, before speculating on connections between MRO images and any feature seen anywhere in the surface images.

The surface is pretty homogenous over most scales, it appears, so I bet you could find "evidence" for cross-connections between features in MRO pics and things seen in the surface pics for just about anywhere in the surrounding 100 square km... In other words, I think it's premature to start identifying things in MRO pics until we have an MRO pic that clearly contains the lander.

-the other Doug

If we're talking about the bright feature in image lg_440, that very much looks like a cosmic ray hit to me, somewhat blurred by lossy compression on the uplink and further by JPEG compression.

Very nice, Gonzz!

Rob, man, you're my new hero!!! Great call for all kinds of reasons; aside from the sheer coolness of it all, you guys now know what an inflated chute over Mars actually looks like!

This will definitely be cited when the prospect of rendezvous in Mars orbit ever comes up. It seems like this operation would be a lot easier against a black sky and with less time-criticality. And seeing the thing you want to rendezvous with is half the problem in getting there.

'chute, man, that's some good stuff. Good days to be a human being.

So here I am in this thread replying to a question posed in the EDL thread because that one is closed. Not sure that was the best way to do it.

Regarding Stu's suggestion - a rock and two low hills. I'm not sure about the rock - looks like an artifact as someone else said. Even if it's a rock, though, I would add this warning. That identification might look good, but it's probably not unique - you might find twenty other similar matches between rocks and subtle mounds. We really need more horizon coverage.

I'm travelling, with limited internet access, so mostly just enjoying the images.

Phil

It happened to me once, and I have the logbook. Only terrifying once you're safely on the ground and have time to think. I'm still terrified, when I think about it.

Good stuff Gonzz, but I think Coleridge got there before you :
A few pertinent stanzas from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner...

The ice was here, the ice was there,
The ice was all around :
It cracked and growled, and roared and howled,
Like noises in a swound !

All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.

Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink.

Prescience or laudanum?

Speaking of moons, Phobos ought to be just above the horizon at the right time of day. We'll probably catch it in some side-looking images even without trying. Deimos will also be low in the sky. Of course, there's nothing but daytime viewing now, so it may be a few months before we get a chance to spot them.

"Prescience or laudanum?"

Laudanum.

Phil

Which website are the latest RAW images likely to appear on first? I'm looking here at the moment: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/..._archive_1.html

Does anyone yet know the proper orientation of the HiRISE parachute image?

I'm trying to make sense of the background striations.

I've been using http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=0&cID=8

Those are JPGs; maybe someone else can provide a link to non-compressed images or at least ones with lossless compression.

Think it's worth waiting another half to see if anything shows up? Not sure I can stay awake much longer after going to bed at 6.30amm this morning!!

I thought new ones were supposed to begin showing up a couple of hours ago. At this point I'm assuming there's been a delay of some sort.

I think they said the Odyssey pass would be around 5-6pm PST ????

Yayyy... images starting to come in http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=440&cID=8

Mostly of the instrument deck so far.

New images seem to be hitting the ground. Deck shots so far.

Quite a few thumbnails of the near-ground

Twitter says: "Science team members (mostly in Tucson) are up and awaiting downlink of new images and data, coming down very soon."

Nice!

http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/images/gallery/lg_458.jpg

New images show a lot more rocks but still no BIG rocks.

Topography on the horizon? Crater?
http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=467&cID=8

EDIT: More topography:

http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=484&cID=8

I'm seeing topography here: http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=484&cID=8

and here:
http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=467&cID=8

Hills? Crater rims? Edge of ice?

Has anyone got a map or HiRes image yet of the plot of where the landers generally is?

great images

Heres the parachute

http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=509&cID=8

Heat shield or parachute?

http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=509&cID=8

Working on horizon mosaic ATM

Somebody throw the Swear Jar my way; I have a pressing need to contribute.

Re: local time at Phoenix site

Seems to be a discrepancy between the Mars time widgets on the JPL and LPL web sites.

JPL
LPL

At 27MAY2008 00:50 UTC, Mars time reported by the two websites:

JPL: 00:55

LPL: 16:53

I love it!

http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/images/gallery/lg_457.jpg

These are mesas about 20 kilometers SSW of the landing site. The larger one is about 200 meters high.

This is so cool.

-Tim.

Here's the DVD:

http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/images/gallery/lg_532.jpg

Some auto-mosaics are starting to show up, here's mine:

Cool! I assumed this was the crater to the east of the landing site until I saw the azimuths in the automosaics.

Some of the rocks here look an awful lot like sandstone:

http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=532&cID=8

Color:

Anaglyph from the new batch:

I'm hoping we'll see the crater, too. There's a 20 meter high rise in the plains east of the lander that might block it, though.


There's also a small crater or pedestal crater about 40 meters tall that should be less than 7 km to the WNW.

-Tim.

More likely to be the backshell, upside down. Could be the heatshield, but only if it's inside is facing the camera and it isn't mangled.

Since all our prior heatshields were mangled on impact, it's probably the backshell. Parachute must be out of sight from the lander.

We're fortunate this time, though. Only Opportunity was able to see it's backshell from the landing site. All other lader backshells/parachutes were out of sight behind intervening ridges.

-Tim.

If you look at lg_527.jpg, it looks like there is a topographic feature near WSW that may match the crater you brought up in the rightmost frame (closer to the camera than the distant peaks).

http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/images/gallery/lg_527.jpg

Looks like a rock got pushed along on the surface in the middle left of this mosaic. It seems to have left a trail

Possibly by thruster blast?

http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/images/gallery/lg_536.jpg

It sure does look like a trail. I suppose it could have been moved by the retro rockets. But it seems to have moved perpendicular to the wind tails behind other rocks.

-Tim.

I guess we'll soon see (hopefully). It seems too far south of west to be that hill. And I don't see anything in the MOLA topography in that direction, until you get to the big mesa.

-Tim.

I am also thinking it may have been ejected by the force of a landing pad on the rocks edge and rolled a bit.

Yep, rolling probably makes more sense.

DAMN... ANOTHER NIGHT WITHOUT SLEEP.... (but loving it).....

Ok folks.... know I've said this before.... but I was 12 when Mariner 4 did it's flyby in 1965.... the images came down at 8.5 bits per second and took days to process ...this is SO mind boggling..... sitting here at my pc and watching these magnificent images pop into view, taken earlier today on Mars as I went about my daily tasks...... and we can all play with them.

There are no words for how I feel...

Craig

But the trail it left really looks more like a slide than a roll. Looks to me like the thrusters angled off of that facet on its right to so that it effectively "tacked" to the left . Neat. Looks like some more sliding/rolling rock activity in the shadowed foreground.

Racetrack playa!

Was there supposed to be another press conference today?

I'm very interested in this anaglyph: http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/images/gallery/lg_540.jpg

It shows the north side of the lander, presumably areas that are accessible to the arm. Most of the surface looks quite flat, but there may be a trough to the left of "sliding rock". That would be exciting if true and if we could dig into the surface there. I'm not sure how the far side of this mosaic compares with the reach of the arm, though...

Sort of makes one wonder if the DVD onboard the MPL will be obsolete by the time man gets to Mars and recovers it

-Dave

No need to wonder...rest assured that it will be...but, they'll find a way to extract the data!

EDIT: Whups! Quick terminology check: you did mean Phoenix & not MPL, right? MPL's fate is unknown, do not recall if it carried a DVD or not.