Using the parallax calculator on this pair of Pancams from the latest position (4400)

left eye
right eye

I got 145 +/- 10m as the distance to the heatshield. A sol's drive, perhaps.

I didnt think it would be THIS far - but the Parallax calculator says that, using these two images

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P2356R1M1.JPG

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P2356L7M1.JPG

That the heatshield is still 165 +/12m away, and the main feature is 3.8m across ( the size is about right )

Using Navcam images..

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P0705L0M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P0705R0M1.JPG

It reports

object distance: 122.5 m, one-pixel error: 40.834 m
object dimension: 271.2 cm

Pancam range is just about within the Navcam error - although navcam error is huge at that range.

I'd trust the Pancam report though

Doug

The 'feature' of imapact and leftovers is a lot larger than we thought - there's a little bit of heatshield way off to the left. From there, to the main heatshield - is about 20 metres ( using the L7 frame that catches it - I make it only 132m to the heatshield )

Doug

So which Sol do they plan on reaching the Heatshield on? Anyone on the science team that's been waiting months to get a closeup look at it must be tearing their hair out by now. LOL

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/oppor...eld_041221.html

“For the scientists, it may be a chance to look at the deepest fresh hole in the ground that we'll ever see on Mars. For the engineers, it's an unprecedented chance to see how a heat shield performed during entry through the martian atmosphere. There's something for everybody,” Squyres told SPACE.com.

Maybe its a christmas Present!


I'm curious about Dust collection on the heatsheild.
If it's clean like the rover than we assume it was wind and not dustdevils the cleanned the solor panels.

It might have been conditions specific to being inside the crater that caused the cleaning?

i..e we have a small carpark at work that's surrounded by 6ft walls on all sides but about 10 feet of gap. In slight winds, at the right angle - it can get one hell of a whip up of leaves going on in there - bin bags circling up to 100ft or more

Doug

Any chance the nighttime frost helped in any way with the cleaning?

It was a thought - and I'm sure Geoffrey will have thoughts on this - but to me, the way the dust has been 'grouped' around features bolted onto the instrument deck - would suggest wind involvement

Doug

I had wondered about that as well, especially since the frost images were released (and were dated back near the sols where the cleaning events were first reportedly happening.) I can't wait to hear what tales those MI's have to tell. Were the events strictly wind based, or frost based, or both? Was there dust clumping due to frost formation, and if so what structure did it leave behind? If there was a clumping due to frost being formed, would those structures then be more prone to releasing dust into the wind once the frost went away? Is it even vaguely plausible to have a highly transient liquid film either when the frost was deposited, or when it evaporated/sublimated away? Hopefully the panel MI's and/or heatshield investigation will help to start answering these questions.