That is true. When I compare our current driving techniques with the first, say, 400 sols, there is quite a bit more safety checks and protection against all the things Mars has thrown at the rovers. This is without taking into consideration all the workarounds for all the aging actuators.

Paolo

This new view of the hills from today's pancams is a composite of three frames. We're starting to see a bit of detail on the hills.

Phil

Click to view attachment

Are these hills part of the big crater Oppy is headed towards?

Yes

Phil

Left + right, assuming the parallax at that distance is little enough:

Click to view attachment

You can almost hear it..

"Beeep...beeep...'Rover Reversing'...Beeep....beeep."

I am still wondering about the steering of those wheels, picture in last message is a good example of this. I'm aware that (with the exception of the stuck RF actuator) she is steering with all wheels, but how is decided which wheel makes which turn?

In above case the forward wheels seem to have made a nice shallow turn, with the center wheels following, however the left aft wheel seems to have made an almost 90 degree very sharp turn. Originally I thought she was slipping sideways but from the current angle it looks more like this was a deliberate turn, so why was the left aft wheel making a much sharper turn then all other wheels? Is this deliberately to compensate for the stuck actuator on the RF wheel, or did she get stuck first and then the left aft wheel slipped sideways as the right wheels kept pushing forward?

I can imagine that if the left forward got stuck with the right side continue pushing forward, the rover starts turning to left, this should be sensed by the IMU as a course deviation, so it starts compensating for this. Which wheels would it turn, or would it add more power to the left wheels? There is no sign that any attempt was made to turn the left forward wheel after it got stuck, and the left aft seems to have 'followed' the turn and not so much countered it.

Is there a system in place that notes that if you get a course deviation without a prior commanded wheel-steering this is a sign of trouble?

In a 'nominal' car, if you make a sharp left turn, the right wheels make significant more rpm then the left wheels, and the whole construction nicely compensates for this I guess MER does the same but in this case with the right side stuck that was counter active (same in a car, with one wheel stuck and the other side more or less up in the air, it's no use applying full throttle..). Is there is system in place to sense that one wheel is getting stuck, or is this only the slip-check every 20 meters?

What a mess you made, Oppy...!

Click to view attachment

(but we forgive you...! )

No - The FL, RL and RR wheels steer. The middle wheels do not.

We've already heard that slip-checks only occur every 20m or so, so it's not hard to imagine the vehicle getting 'stuck', but driving for another 15m, and crabbing sideways as it continued to push against the front wheels which were no longer making progress.

I think that one of the driving lessons are that the crest has the softest sand than the bottom between crest so the rover must avoid in rolling on that. The higher is the crest, the softer is the sand. I think.

Here's my take on the latest pancam images (6x vertical exageration):
Click to view attachment
The thing is getting bigger...

Laaaand Ho, Captain !