I'm thinking we would have started hearing things of something had gone wrong with one of the wheels?? Maybe

The latest images include soil characterization pancams:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...7M1.JPG?sol2221
It looks to me like they're trying to find out what it is about the soil at this spot that made the RM start to dig in.

Oppy not digging in because of the soil. She's climbing a slight grade to reach the outcrops ahead.

Its the 5 year time warp. Tomorrow Scott will say something about Opportunity getting stuck

...and about Spirit getting more sols than Viking II?

A whole batch of MIs are planned for thisol.

An alternative to the idea of 'study the soil to see why we dug in' might be 'got to stop' (for whatever mechanical reason), 'so might as well look at the soil'

Phil

The soil is rather interesting and they'll spend a couple of sols studying it.

Here is a L257-R721 x-eyed stereo pair. Note the gray tone to the soil rolled by the wheel-- typically, it tends to be a bluish or ocher color.

--Bill

In some of the earlier sol 2219 pancams it almost looks like separate layers just below the top of the dunes, certainly the soil seems less uniformly mixed, can't remember having seen this so clearly before.

Firstly, why not just link to the image at JPL or Expl. ?

Secondly, we've seen that layering in the Meridiani dunes a LOT.

Those layers are normally visible in the images made with the infrared filters like the L2. They have been apparent in many places where the drifts have been imaged with the appropriate filters. Those layers define the internal structure of the dunes/drifts/ripples. The edges of those layers are exposed on the eastern side of the dunes because the last time the dunes were actively moving, the prevailing wind was coming from the East. When wind has been able to move the sediment, the windward side has been an area of net erosion and the leeward side has been an area of net deposition. The dune/ripple moves in a downwind direction in that manner. Sand grains removed from the windward/eroded side deposit as new layers on the leeward side of the moving landform.

Bill touched on this a few days ago when he was theorizing about traction.

It's a good observation, whether it is old or new

New MIs down. Lotsa small blueberries here, might explain the observed slippage/sinking.

On the road again...
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...0M1.JPG?sol2226

Back to "business".
Today's drive was about 25m S.

That's a welcome sight.

Er guys...? Guys..? What's that, over there, on the right..?

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

An excuse for four to six days of wheel rest?

... and in the rear-looking FHazcam, San Antonio shows in the northern horiziin.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...B5P1211L0M1.JPG

Good progress.

--Bill

Hard to tell yet, but there's a multi-filter pancam view from 2220 that shows it at slightly better resolution:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...1M1.JPG?sol2220
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...2M1.JPG?sol2220

(Bill, I think we're just seeing pretty local dunes in that fhaz view.)

Genius...

Slightly better view...

Click to view attachment

Er guys...? What's that, over there, on the left, on the horizon...? An excuse for 4 to 6 months of steady driving?

Meh - just a rock...

Phil

"just a rock..."

Bite yo tongue... Rockses is good.

We're starting to see some differences during this (nominal) eastward journey. Changes in the dune morphology. A slight trend towards smaller Blueberry diameters. And with the last couple of stops, the bedrock has changed. Instead of the usual wind-rounded, polygonal paving stones we are seing finely-layered, freshly eroded surface with angular intersecting fractures. I don't see anything suggesting a buried crater, so this may not be a local change. We'll keep an eye out.

An L257 Pancam from Sol 2224:

Whenever I read "It's just a rock" I always think "But it's a rock ON MARS...!!" Each rock is an amazing thing, a little piece of an alien world that will, in all likelyhood, not be seen, or examined again, for what, another half a century at the earliest? Each rock has its own history, it's own journey, its own secrets, and is where it is for a reason. So personally I'm happy every time I see one of them just sitting there, out in the Big Country desert of Meridiani.

Every rock is a potential treasure chest; we just need to find the right key to open it up

Yeah, yeah, I know. I just wanna drive!

Phil

Patient, you must be. Hills: far away are. Rush, there is not.

Drive we are. But she has to stop every few days to rest the balky motor and replenish the accumulators, so we might as well rest in a useful spot.

--Bill

Rush, there is...

"Gold" ahead in them thar ramparts... drive we must.

From the latest update:

This is puzzling. From the update on the URL you gave (...html#2219), and even removing the "#2219" suffix, nothing is said past SOl 2218 (April 20). Even clearing my disk cache and forcing a new "read" of the page, nothing. Reason it's puzzling is that I've checked that update page every day.



Anyway, glad that the problem was a non-problem.


--Bill

latest update: up to Sol 2226 (April 28, 2010)
sols 2212-2218, April 21-28, 2010: Opportunity's Balancing Act

Seems to work for me.

Still puzzling and still showing the old April 20 update. I'll fiddle with it when I get time...

Thanks!

The new update is there, at the top, but they forgot to change the old sol range in the title. The title says "sols 2212-2218", even though the rest of the update is new.

Scott Maxwell tweeted me some interesting things: "Oppy did fail a slip check, measuring 58% slip. (Limit's 40%.) She's already driven away; IDD work was just during recharge. Slip check failed because she was on ripple's soft side. Surprisingly, west side's softer (looser material) than east side. Had to stop for a few days to recharge anyway, so just went ahead and did some IDD work while we were there."
Why do you think "west side's softer (looser material) than east side"?

Have a look at this post.

Another drive on sol 2228, another stunning low-sun-angle hazcam view:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...0M1.JPG?sol2228

And the sol 2226 drive included some mighty fine dune negotiation:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...0M1.JPG?sol2227

The new Planetary Society update is up.

Not much new this month. Probably the most worthy quotes are some great lines from our Stu:


(Stu, be sure to be careful when you lean on Oppy - she's delicate! )

Today's drive was quite short, "only" 25m, but enough to place the rover next to the rock we saw on the pictures taken two days ago.
Check the map on the route thread and this annotated image. It's the navcam mosaic taken on sol 2226 and the current position is represented by the yellow ellipse. There're no navcam or pancams from this position on today's batch; they are planned to be shot tomorrow.
Click to view attachment

We should be looking forward to the images in the current queue. I'm hoping that they made an L257 and R721 series of the auto-nav save from Sol2226 and, of course, The Current Interesting Rock (sorry, it's in my genetic makeup).

Especially the Sol2226 maneuver. Out in the field, you'll frequently pick up a handful of soil. Roll it between your fingers, squeeze it in your palm, sniff it, look at it closely and get a feel for what it's made of. It's all part of figuring the geology.

Geology is important, since without it, the geography would have nothing to sit upon...

--Bill

"Geology is important, since without it, the geography would have nothing to sit upon..."

Very good!

Phil

Not to mention as a nearly endless source of puns. It would be gneiss if more people appreciated that.

Indeedie, people take it too much for granite.

(sorry, that one's old enough to have whiskers) (twiddling thumbs waitin' for new images to come down)

--Bill

Yeah, that one was definitely a bit shale, Bill.

Ooo, that one was definitely adding basalt to the wounds

Sorry, I'll go now.

Worth a few days' rest to investigate, or scoot right past..?

Click to view attachment

And a luvverly 3D view of the dunes...

http://twitpic.com/1kbmnf/full

This is a beautiful spot, isn't it?

http://twitpic.com/1kc8ce

First thought is "nothing unusual, just a piece of the kieserite bedrock 'round here". Second thought is "why? we usually don't see pieces of this rock sitting alone on the plain". No fresh craters nearby. This rock is finely-laminated, as we've seen in this vicinity recently, but it is slightly bluer than the surrounding rock, which appears to be in-situ. Third thought is that it may be a piece of ejecta from a Meridiani impact many miles away, with the added possibility that it has been recently uncovered by shifting sands.


Image file not loading; I'll edit it in later. Done.

--Bill

Reversing course.