It's just a 4 x 4 - sorry Stu - if they meant to write Ice - they'd have done a better job of it.

Doug

Actually, it was one 4x4 rasp hole grid followed by another 4x4 rasp hole grid, beautifully interleaved between the first. Compare the image in centsworth's post just above with the image linked to in this post.

Just for the record, I don't think they tried to spell anything...

It all seems to be a cosmic joke to me!

Maybe the trench isn't big enough to spell "Perchlorate?"?

So, the Phoenix team is communicating with us via rasp drill hole patterns?
We must all have Beautiful Minds!

You practical guys just love bursting the bubbles of us hopeless romantics, dontcha...

Oh well, it was a nice thought while it lasted. And hey, it might've given them some creative "Take Hart" ideas...

The time to worry, Stu, is when you start seeing high-speed turtles. ;-)

--Greg

microscope photo, strange thing on the right obviously not air-bag material although a little like the bunny we chased htat came from the MER airbagsClick to view attachment

"Snow Queen" - process of disintegration speeds up.

Sol 73
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

Yes, it's certainly breaking up...

Click to view attachment

Frame 1: Sol 44
Frame 2: Sol 73

O_o if the ice is breaking up like that, what are the odds of scooping some of it up?

Ice cream, straight of the freezer, is hard to scoop up, but leave it out a while and it gets warmer and easier to carve into.
(perhaps not the best of analogies, lolol, I don't even like ice cream).

Is it's position under the lander going to make acquiring it difficult/impossible? Or would you not want to anyway for reasons of contamination when Phoenix landed?

Yes.

I hope that Happy Pan will be significantly better than Peter Pan.

At last we have perfectly focused image of the horizon.
Sol 73 SSI LEFT, filter unknown (probably 2), Az: 96 (E)
Let's compare with out of focus image (Peter Pan).
Sol 28 SSI RIGHT, filter 1, Az: 96 (E)

That's not a focus issue, rather a raw contrast stretch issue.

It is a focus issue, different filters have different focus . The SSI is probably optimised for the blue filter's focus, as are pancams on MERs.

The diopters are optimized for near field studies (i.e. on the s/c deck), most others have good focus at distances such as this. It looks more to me like different filters and illumination angles than anything else.

Could be higher wavelett compression too, resulting in a softer image. The second image is clearly softer though, regardless of any illumination issues.

SSI focus is optimized for 3 to 3.5 m distance, since the main role for SSI is support of digging ops, and it has no role in picking where to drive next. It is still good at the horizon, but not ideal. Sampling is best in the red stereo filters. As with Pancam, the blue filters look sharper, but that is due to aliasing. Super sharp is good for pretty pictures; good sampling is important for good stereo models even if it looks slightly less sharp.

And the new pan better end up higher quality--it costs 10x as much.

What are the estimates of date of it being completely on the ground?

Translation: "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

--Emily

Some new extensions to Cupboard now. They've messed up poor old Dodo-Goldilocks a bit.

Phil

The new pan was sized to take to Nov 15, with various assumptions about available passes and competing priorities. That didn't include retakes of unrecoverable missing data, but there's a lot of slop in the estimate.

Couple of new 3Ds in my Phoenixpics gallery now, if anyone wants a look... Those dirt dumps really are starting to look like moden art now...

Really nice (I think!) view of the scoop actually... well... scooping...

"Down in the dirt"

The Cupboard trench is getting bigger:

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/images/gallery/lg_20646.jpg


Phil

I've just hung some new pictures up on the Gallery walls, if anyone wants to have a lazy, relaxing wander around, maybe to rest their brains after all the stunning Enceladus pics...!

"Festival of Trenching"

"Serene Scene"

Phew! Lengthy update posted here
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001603/

There are lots and lots of new names to cope with, so here is the map I posted with that update. I also edited the topic title to reflect the activity of the sols since 65.

--Emily

With all of these new trenches, what are the odds of Phoenix accidentally snagging up a root?

I'm guessing ... pretty low?

Great update, Emily, thanks! (Yeah, that was pretty huge...have a Mars Bar!)

While I can work out the impulse behind most of the names used by the team, I am stumped by 'Burn Alive' and also I guess by 'Rosy Red'.
Any idea what is the driver behind these designations?

A Witch will burn if you throw water on her ( hence Burn Alive ) - not sure on Rosy Red

Wikipedia: Snow-White and Rose-Red

OK got Rosy Red - but didn't water melt the wicked witch? Haven't heard the water burning witches story but the Monty Python Holy Grail does now ring a bell: A witch! Burn her! Burn her! Curiosity satisfied I can sleep tonight.

In the fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel, the witch is trapped in the oven she used for cooking children, and burned alive.

Might Burn Alive have provided some soil for the ovens of the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer?

Steve M

The new trenches around Dodo and Goldilocks. This began to be like the terrain in the North of France during the First World War


And a color anaglpyh of a nice view of the horizon with Heimdall hills :

See the near fate of Snow White and Rosy Red in http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ptn/ptn18.htm

Rosy Red is currently in/on TEGA, WCL, and OM. Burn Alive was originally (sol 25) the hole left behind when Rosy Red was removed (like Baby Bear vs. Goldilocks), and it has since been expanded. Similarly, Wicked Witch (sol 64) and Sorceress (34) came from Snow White.

Obviously a coded message from the Phoenix team. The perchlorate story was a big cover-up, they have discovered life, and are being forced by the House Whose Color Shall Not Be Named to keep it under wraps.

Hmmm, that explains all the crumbs on the instrument deck.

One of my fave 3D views of the robot arm so far...

Click to view attachment

( Full resolution version here )

That's worth a multitude of "ooo...ahhh"'s Stu, thanks!

Finally got round to looking at your 3-d images stu...bloody amazing! cool stuff

Yes, Stu, your amazing is analgyph -oops- your anaglyph is amazing .

Here is a other view of a probably upcomming pan, on Sol 78 :


And an anagyph version that I recommand


The Tell Tale, we see some dust at the bottom of the miror :

Three gorgeous images there Ant, especially love the colourised Telltale one... one of the clearest I've seen, I think

Reality or optical illusion ?
Click to view attachment
It looks as if several millimetre layer of ice evaporated. These two images of Dodo-Goldilocks trench are taken in similar lightning conditions. Note that the same filter was used for both images.

Those don't look like optical effects to me, looks like a depression was left where the "ice" once was.

End of Polar Summer.

Beautiful image of the midnight sun low on the horizon.
Image acquired at 00:09:37 Mars local time.

Thanks for the good comparison - I wanted to do that myself, so you saved me the effort!

That's got to be significant sublimation, there. And actually it was noticed a couple of weeks ago in this post!

Wow...

Click to view attachment

( alternative version in my gallery here... which is right? Which do you prefer? )

( BTW: for people who enjoy martian anaglyphs... I've been experimenting with more terrestrial scenes, and here are a couple of examples, from a recent trip to Muncaster Castle... rock... tree stump... God bless Stereo-photomaker! )

The sol 79 dig expanded on Upper Cupboard, uncovering another large bright spot like the one next door in Dodo-Goldilocks. Since the arm is mostly obscuring the view, the left eye color has the best angle to see the new exposure. Click through for full frame


Sol 79, 15:03 L1/L2