ZX81. With a wobbly RAMpack.

2293 is another driving sol

...and so is 2295

Thanks for the updates !

BTW.: While the approximate limit of 70 meter per driving sol is well known (as explained, for example, in the latest MER report)
I'd be interesting to know what is currently the limiting factor that determines if a given sol can be used for driving ?
Is this drive-every-other-sol pattern that we see now still the same that we saw due to the "restricted sols" in the past or are there also other constraints
(possibly related to wheel-current, energy-reloading etc.) ?
If we were out of restricted sols, would it then be still be (theoretically) possible to use every non-weekend sol for driving ?

Here's the most recent view of the horizon with a bit of a stretch. Some spots on the distant landscape behind the crater... should try to find them...

Phil

Click to view attachment

Phil-O-Vision^TM makes everything look like the Grand Tetons !

Yes, and it makes me wonder if Giacometti suffered from the same problem.

Phil

Phil's Image reminded me of a place in California called The Trona Pinnacles

It's in The High Desert Area of Southern California and parts of The area looks like Mars.

Here is an Image I found from that area:

2299... another drive sol!


Let's hope the exploratorium gets fixed soon so we can actually see all this new terrain.

How many drives has Opportunity made since the last picture update on the JPL website? - sol 2293

Admin advice - Go back one page in this thread and find out. Also the Oppy Map thread is a good guide. Seek and ye shall find

Yup, and according to the tracking site it was another not unsurprising 70m ESE

And another one tosol (2300!)...

Pics are back! It looks like it's been a bumpy ride:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...P0P1996R0M1.JPG
New MI's from the IDD work too.

Looks like the road to Vostok.

Isn't it just. It's like that James Caird, Naturaliste etc area, just going backwards. It'll be like Anatolia and Fram before too long.

(sorry Doug, I know this was probably answered years ago, but searching didn't get me to an answer)

Looking at the tread marks, it looks like they stop and dig in on a regular basis -- what causes this? Does the rover stop after every wheel rotation?

There's only another km or so of regular ripples like this ahead of Oppy. After that it's 1.5km of patchy terrain (bare rock/ripples/filled in craters), and after that she'll be out on the flats!

It's a cleat on each wheel - used to bolt the thing down to the lander. Each time the wheel turns, it just leaves that inprint behind.

hmm, so those cleats provide clues of their own as Oppy rolls along. Also 'splains why they're offset left vs right

I've read that they are also used to measure, on occasion, how far the rover has rolled (by imprints in the sand as viewed in the photos), and that use was anticipated when designed.

Which looks to be a carbon copy of yestersols. 70m ESE according to the tracking site.

Some new 3D views on my blog...

http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/...-images-at-last

Click to view attachment

Driving east on 7075-aluminum wheels ...

Click to view attachment

Here is the cleat on the machined wheel
One function is bolt down access to secure the MER to its ride; the other is visual odometry
(Wheels made by Next Intent, San Luis Obispo, CA)

I know it's getting rather late in the rover mission now, but is it worth considering a FAQ for (non-Spirit-extraction) questions like this? For everyone who posts a question like this, I'm sure there are many readers who wonder but don't post. I'm sure we could come up with a good batch of questions.

I guess the real question is: Volunteers?

...and 2301!

No doubt this helped:



http://twitter.com/MarsRovers/status/18558575893

Has a dust devil ever been confirmed to have dumped dust onto a rover?

Dust storms dump dust, but dust devils only raise it. Most of these cleaning events are probably just gusts, not really dust devils.

Phil

Gotcha on the gust factor.

If the devils only raise the dust, does it only fall during the storms? I guess I'm wondering if there are "dirtying" events, separate from the big storms.

Dust is being put into and dropping out of the atmosphere all the time basically. DD's are especially good at picking it up. Major dust storms kick up more dust and then, as they clear, dump that dust back down again.

At first, that image of the real CNC Machined wheel you provided looked a heck of a lot like ScooterLords rendered wheel. Damn did he do a good job!

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...t=0&start=0

And visual confirmation of the recent cleaning event... Sol2299.

--Bill

Judging from the dust streaks, the gust looks like it came from the East.

Tim Parker has posted a new route map updated to 2300:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/tm-...B_Sol2300_1.jpg


Looking to the east there's a patch of rough-looking drifts, so I would imagine a detour to the south will be coming up very soon.

Phil

Scott @marsroverdriver had some interesting Oppy comments on Twitter last night

#Opportunity is 40% of the way from Victoria to Endeavour. I have an idea to speed up our drives as much as 30%. Discussion tomorrow.

#A 30% speedup would shave 2-3 months off our trip to Endeavour -- maybe even more than that. Worth a try! Phyllosilicates, here we come!


Like that kind of talk

Good catch, Bill! I didn't even bother checking the pics, since usually Oppy's cleaning events have been pretty subtle. I can't wait to hear the numbers on this event.

Edit: here's a before-and-after comparison:
Click to view attachment

Anyone have the latest power numbers? Are we back up to 900 WHrs yet for some midnight astronomy?

I doubt we're anywhere near the 900's. We were in the mid 300's last week, and the message described it as a "little power boost". But visually it's pretty impressive. We should hear some numbers in this week's Oppy update...

There are some interesting outcrop exposures in that rough area though, and the area seems to have been peppered with impactors.

Right, but there are outcrop exposures in safe places as well.

Phil

Power up to 492 watts
http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/mission/status.html#opportunity

The comparison to a "100 watt light bulb" is rather misleading though, isn't it?

I would prefer something that says "The rover can operate 80% of its instruments for 4 hours, or drive for 3 hours". Telling me how long a light bulb would operate gives me no clue as to how to relate it to rover operations.

It tells people what the number actually means. It's the opposite of misleading.

And what that amount can let the rover do is self evidence by reading what the rover has actually done.... specifically
"With the extra energy from the Sol 2298 cleaning event, Opportunity was able to perform back-to-back drives on Sols 2299 and 2300 (July 12 and 14, 2010), each over 70 meters (230 feet)."

Furthermore - there are many issues besides Whrs that dictate what the rover can and can't do on a given sol. To state Xhrs of driving would be very misleading- because other factors means they can't necessarily do that every day.

I wonder if the cleaning event has helped to clear the dust off the MiniTes? There might be a reluctance to check this though in view of the MTES/Pancam handshake issue that led to a command sequence abort.

That's really impressive for winter! The dust factor leapt from 58% last week to 70%. The best we could do now would be with 100% dust factor: with everything else the same, we'd get about 700 Whrs.

Any theories on what this might involve doing?

Scott has updated his twitter;

"We are "go" to try the experiment that, if it works, drives Opportunity to Endeavour up to 30% faster (maybe even more). Pedal, meet metal."

Sunspot,

My first reaction was that I noticed his twitter discussed moving faster but not further, however, his latest twitter would suggest it is further (as well as possibly faster).

I do find 30% a staggering amount of improvement but I have already learnt to believe pretty much anything is possible where these rovers are concerned. After all, what's 30% when you have surpassed your longevity by 2450% ! It will be very interesting (and frustrating) if the RF wheel current would be affected (and thus negate the 30% proposed boost) in anyway by whatever Scott has in mind

I look forward to the experts on UMSF giving us their opinions.

However they try it, a successful experiment would, I don't think it's too much to suggest, rewrite all the rules yet again on this mission.

Neil

Scott Maxwell's response to someone's query about what the new technique entails:

I love the innovation and the attitude!

Please forgive the reiteration of an oft noted truth: It is such a treat to not only be fellow travelers on Mars, but to also have a glimpse of the innovation (and to borrow from Mike Rowe even imitation) that drives our explorers onward.

Thank you SFJCody for your post.


-- Pertinax

There are a million factors afecting how the rovers operate.
At the start they had about 900 watt hours, in midwinter about 240, so 492 is pretty good, enabling two 70m drives back to back, which is what most of us and the rover team wants.