There's another "Resolution" pancam mosaic planned to be shot during this weekend stop (MIs too).
We're about 20m from the position where the previous pancams pointing to Endeavour were taken, but I suppose it would be no problem to stack the next pancams with the previous ones in an attempt to enhance the features at the horizon. Who wants to try it?

I love these shots too - especially as I have the luxury of two biggish screens sitting side by side that are perfect for long expansive photos!! To me, there is an awesome severity about Mars - so similar to us and yet not.

Great work as usual MHoward
Stu, I love your anaglyph of Resolution, it's trully a hole

And my version of the panoramic of the site :


It's my first QTVR for Oppy :

Beacon's still there in the center of this image: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...E0P1979L0M3.JPG
I wonder if it could still be seen "shinning" at a particular time of the day from where we are.

Oppy finds a new way to communicate her behavior. She's sending (h)eart(h)-like features (see top of this image): http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...E0P2290R2M1.JPG

("It's my first QTVR for Oppy :")
Ant 103 : How nice ! This is a great QTVR : thanks to you we are on Mars ! And a nice "premiere" much appreciated
(votre travail est toujours aussi apprécié et vous nous permettez là une belle évasion martienne, d'autant + appréciée que je suis toujours sur "LUNE", presque épuisé en France, mais édité bientôt aux US...)

Resolution in 3D... that really is "quite a hole"...

http://stugallery.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/resolution-in-3d

Easter Island anyone..?

Click to view attachment

Since we are on the theme of percieved shapes, isn't this a
Picasso drawing of a Koala bear eating a slice of Melon?
(image center)
Also there are some really nice new MI images of what looks like corroded blueberries..

They have a very organic look to them (even though I know they are not)..

actually looks like oppy decided to do a little sight seeing on her own

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

"Due to an unanticipated interaction.... Opportunity did not drive backwards toward its goal. Instead, the rover drove forward some distance..."

Yikes! If that had happened during the circumnavigation of Victoria crater, while backing away from a precipice!

Yikes indeed! I still like my explanation better...

When we were driving around VC we had a triple layer of safety including monitoring of the tilt and position of the wheels. The limits we were using would have stopped the rover right away in case of unexpected change in rover attitude. When driving straight towards the crater rim the commanded motion was always less than the distance to the rim, and we were defining areas that were considered by the flight software as impenetrable.

These limits are implemented even on the plains but are quite a bit looser to allow for climbing small ripples. Moreover, the areas that are really rover obstacles or that can potentially be a danger to the rover are much far apart.



Palo

Are the blueberries back?
http://207.7.139.5/mars/opportunity/micro_...E0P2956M2M1.JPG
Click to view attachment

Surely the onboard software would have cut the drive short, had it been heading for a precipice. Still, this one must have caused some red cheeks at the JPL... And, yes, that drive direction was pretty difficult to explain. If it was due to human error it's the first blunder I recall seeing in five years of Rover operations, so that is a good performance by any standard.

What I meant to say is that we try to have several layers of safety checks which are set tighter when the situation is more precarious.
I won't comment on the cheeks.

Paolo

The raws for the first Resolution pan (another much larger and closer pan is currently being taken ) are all down. Here is my version:



James

Nice job! I had a go at that pan and it seemed unusually difficult to get a good result, due I guess to the difference in contrast between the various JPG images. I'm particularly impressed that you managed to keep the horizon detail without losing the foreground detail.

Wow. The dunes are disappearing

Yes indeed, and they don't appear to be particularly dispersed, do they? More randomly distributed, I'd guess.

-- HDP Don

Hi,

The view of Resolution Crater in color, only the horizon view.


And the last RAT, colorized with color pic taken the same sol (1833):


http://www.astrosurf.com/merimages/opportu...-2009.html#last

James, very good pic, especially with the tracks of the rover on the sandy dunes .

I found this comment from Scott's blog eerily prescient:

"Opportunity is driving today. Only a few sols out of their crater and they're going to break our one-sol drive-distance record: 48m tomorrow, or so. And they'll better that record on future sols. Before long, they'll set a record we have no hope of breaking."

Was this just a comment on some planned drives to Endurance, or did he know even this early about long term plans to hightail it across the plains to Victoria? I wonder...

Speaking of driving.... Soon?

Just look at Meridiani and Gusev. There's no way that Spirit was ever going to match one hard days drive across to Endurance.

> Speaking of driving.... Soon?

Nothing on the weekend's plan for this side of the planet.

Mid week at the earliest. The transmission is kind of sticky and we have trouble engaging the reverse.

Paolo.

What is this supposed to mean?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humor

What isn't funny - is your full inline quote. I've cleared it up for you.

Hoped so

Just got uncomfortable with that sticky wheel and all.

Yes, maybe some smileys would have been appropriate. It was a joke hinting at all this time sitting still and the 1820 drive.
So, here are the smileys:

Paolo

From the latest Planetary Society update, some more details about the sol 1820 drive:

Lots of big berries and apparent dessication cracking in the bedrock. During the traverse has Opportunity lost elevation to around Eagle / Endurance crater levels?

I'd say the RF lubricant may be ok by now

Hey, hey! It's OK to be a back seat driver but not an armchair mechanic.

Not so fast ! It's been only three weeks of rest by now ...

I've just checked the pancam web to look for any indication of leaving this area during the weekend.
None for the time being, but it looks like the big 360º "Resolution Pan" has already finished so we might be leaving soon. Perhaps it will be time to move to a new thread...

Which gives a mossbauer intergration, if it were deployed for all three weeks (which it hasn't been) about 1/2 as strong as one done in 8 hours on Sol 1.

The old girl has to take her time, unfortunately.

Yes and that's ok for the aged lady After all it's like a miracle that she is still functional at all after all those years !

Question to the Rover Experts/Driver: Now that she has to take more time with the driving tasks too (i.e. with the worn RF wheel 50 m/sol plus resting sols as opposed to 100 m/sol) are there plans to do the more time consuming tasks like weeks-long Moessbauer integrations somewhat less often, i.e. only every other routine sampling stop or so ... in exchange for more driving Sols ?
(At least that's how I interpreted the "Endeavour-Strategy" as communicated at the beginning of the year when we left Victoria and made some very impressive progress during the first couple of weeks)

Oh my god. One of Opportunity's solar panels fell off and is in the dirt.

See pancam!

l.o.l.

looks remarkably dust free at least

Seriously, I can't quite figure out the perspective and shadowing. That one unshadowed ground region that looks like it touches the solar panel, and the shadow that makes the rest of the solar panel look like the panel is about a half inch off the ground--really wild.

I think you're seeing the the bottom sandwich layer of the solar panel...

Here's a shot (on right) from Spirit's sol 1841 that shows some structure between the two layers.

Click to view attachment

Also, by comparing these two images, you can see that the shadow isn't on the ground, if that's what you were thinking:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...E0P2265R7M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...E0P2265R7M1.JPG
The shadow stays with the panels as the point of view changes (as pancam changes its pointing direction); it doesn't stay with the ground.

Thanks all for the explanations. Just never noticed the solar panels were layered.