Well... that got such a good response that I will post my Spirit map in a similar format... maybe later today, and in the appropriate thread.

Phil

Very very nice new map!!!!

Thanks!!!

Phil, a very nice and descriptive Spirit transverse.

I would like to suggest you to include the traveled distance in meters at every sol points so that I can update weekly an outlook about the probably arriving date on Victoria Crater according to the present peace advancement. That kind is good for Oppy instead of Spirit since it is in cruise stage.

Rodolfo

Phil:

Great maps - they really bring out just how far Opportunity has travelled.

Bob Shaw

Lovely map Phil hopefully it will get a lot longer and it will eventually be nice to scroll down past Victoria.

Roy F

What a stroll down Memory Lane! The map detail adds to the warm-and-fuzzy feeling.

The coordinates are set on a 100m grid with the lander at the origin. Do you have secondary control points to the south at Erebus, etc, or are you placing the individual maps on a best-fit basis on the grid?

--Bill

Fantastic Phil! Pour yourself a Labatt's on me!

Bill asked about the grid.

All I'm doing is placing a 100 m grid over one of the map-projected MOC images, after scaling it to the pixel size I want to use. There is no more control than that, nor is any more really feasible given the available information.

Somebody suggested adding lat-long coordinates. I could, but the location of this area (or any place on Mars) relative to the lat-long grid is still uncertain. I'm not up to date with the uncertainties - somebody might look that up for me.

Rodolpho suggested adding distance labels. I think I'll leave that for somebody else!

Phil

I don't think that reads exactly as you planned

oo-er matron

oo-er matron is right! If I had that Labatt's I could think of better things to do with it than pour it over ElkGroveDan. I live in the home town of Labatt's, in London Ontario... but unfortunately I'm more of a wino myself.

What I didn't say about the maps is that they are a sort of proof of concept thing for a future atlas of Mars exploration. Each 500 m square would be one page, with room for a bit of text. Places which needed extra detail - like Eagle crater - would get additional maps like those I posted elsewhere in this MER section.

Phil

Great map Phil. Thanks! I look forward to seeing your Spirit route map also.

This is what Phil was referring to.

Mike Caplinger has been involved in some work to reduce that uncertainty.

The uncertainty seems to be 0.004deg or around 250m unless someone has improved on that in the meantime.

An updated route map after today's (sol 781) drive.
As already noted, Oppy is moving quite fast and was almost at the bottom of the map's background image, so it was time to shift the picture up. Here is the result.

Click to view attachment (335k)

Rushing in where angels fear to tread, don't we have more precise initial positions for the rovers from delay/doppler measurements on the direct to earth links and the Odyssey relay passes. (No, I can't find the references). As I understand it, this ties the rover's landing points pretty well to the defined rotational coordinates of Mars and to inertial space.

Relating those positions to points on the ground is another matter.

Waiting to be corrected once more.

Steve, you are basically right. The other tie between surface features and inertial space is MOLA. But overall it may not be much more accurate than the few hundred meters already quoted. That may improve with later analysis but I'm not sure how much of it has been done yet.

Phil

MERB UHF Tracking data
http://anserver1.eprsl.wustl.edu/anteam/merb/merb.htm

I've whacked some of that into Excel in the past, it's interesting to watch the signal drop out during occultation by things like the LGA, PCMA etc.

Phil - do you know of a scale for your 2k x 2k endurance map? I've finally got round to trying to overlay the mobility plots onto it and I'm not quite sure how accurate I'm being

Doug

what you think from this> http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/n...FWP1907R0M1.JPG
Sol 776 nav cam
is that small crater?

FIN Mars, look at the dedicated thread:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...indpost&p=49130

Route map, updated to sol 782.

Click to view attachment

way to wictoria?

Note that the entry paths to the crater by the northern rim have a southern slope.
Even if Oppy is almost at the equator, I fear those slopes would be "no go" due to the same reasons Spirit is currently looking for a "winter's quarter".

The raised rim near the approach will be NW facing, and the ramps down into the crater will be south facing - ish...so there's a slope for every season

Doug

I would expect they will go right up to the edge wherever they can along the north side, get some good sun and take a -lot- of images of the rim and inner bowl. Then they will plot a route around to the south side that keeps the rover flat or north-tilted before finding an entry path.

This descent path was named "Boat Ramp" by the MER team a year ago...

And I'm sure there is no doubt that once we start down it we will be 'launched' into Victoria Crater. The only uncertainty is whether we will conclude the launch right-side-up or upside-down.
Can we tell the slope of the inside walls now? Presumably when we get there.

A geologist acquaintence who works on the MER project referred to the camp who favors entering Victoria at all costs as the "Thelma and Louise crowd". He actually counted himself in this group.

I remember seing a presentation by Tim Parker that described Victoria as a suitable 'end of mission' location. It's a sad thought - but it's a sensible proposition - you could spend a year inside Victoria alone - a couple of nice pans from around the interior - a fitting end. There's nothing that realistically could be pinned to the map as a suitable location after Victoria to be honest.

Doug

A agree too but, "what if" Oppy is still around after they decide that they know enough about VC ? When we 'll get there, we'll have to start a new pool "How long will we stay at Victoria"

I think the trip in will be a one way trip

I doubt they have a problem with the trip being one way. Remember this from before Oppy entered Endurance.

And once Oppy begins to have the mobility problems of old age, she could park in the crater and do repeated doppler measurements -- as did the previous landers -- to pinpoint her location. But this time, there'd be a better tie to the geodetic control grid since her location would be precisely defined in terms of a crater easily visible in the orbital imagery (even before HiRISE )

If Opportunity is still healthy after we explore Victoria and we get her out of the Crater. Where could she go from there? Is there any other interesting targets nearby for her to go to? Does anyone have any shots of the area south and to the sides of Victoria?

There's a detailed pic of the landing ellipse area and the area surrounding it here:

MSSS 25m Oppy Ellipse

If I'm looking at this picture right, there isn't anything too obvious past Victoria, just more etched terrain and sand. There is a crater bigger than Victoria some distance to the west, but it looks pretty far, a further distance than Oppy would have to go if mission planners decided to drive from Victoria back to Endurance. (Now that would be a different idea, the rover could go back to inspect its tracks and traces and see how much erosion happened if any, but I don't know what else would be gained from that, going back to already explored terrain).

I have wondered in the past about whether Oppy would leave Meridiani Planum altogether and find a totally different terrain type, but I have to think the answer is no on that once since from the maps I've seen on the NASA websites, the landing ellipse is kind of in the middle of Meridiani Planum.

There is a fair bit of useful work to do out on the etched terrain plains once we're done inside Victoria. For example, we've bypassed some interesting dark debris piles -- not just scattered cobbles but more -- one at Erebus and one a few days ago. We could sample more of those. Some will be bounce-rock like ejecta, some from the same source, some from other sources, some will be various meteorite types, not just an iron like heatshield rock.

Note that once MRO is in mapping orbit and has taken several (both stereo and same-view shots co-added for better S/N and supreresolution) HIRES pics of the Opportunity site, there will be much better fine-detail information on rover-scale targets out on the plains in the vicinity of Victoria.

Note we may spend the winter in Victoria on the southern slopes, get back onto the plains, and go down the boat ramp on the northwest for a second look inside the crater.

I agree that there's nothing obvious that's bigger-and-better-but-wait-THERE'S MORE!!!!! after Victoria. Time settle down and start work on the garden.

Idea to drive back and look to the aged tracks is intriguing but I suspect only new paths will maximize possible scientific return!
I suggest two possible paths (East and West direction), both heading to some relatively close paleocraters and relative outcrops... eventually, going outside etched terrain, Oppy should be able to cover loong distances (relaxing navigation parameters too) and return to the landing area (see red path). I would like to see also the parachute/shell that we saw only by long distance from inside eagle...

That's my new Meridiani route map ...

About 460 meters behind the landing ellipse, 1,500 meters to go.

There is a very large crater about twice further than these two craters, to the southeast. See Google Mars link. If we drive 200 meters a week, we can get there in half a year.

At this locale along the route Oppy is at the highest point topographically as well as stratigraphically. She ought to pick a "typical" outcrop and take a couple of Sols to MI, RAT and MB the evaporite. Once she reaches Victoria and later is able to continue her trek, that route ought to be chosen to go up (if possible) or down (most likely) within the section, since that will tell us as much as possible about the history of Meridiani.

--Bill

Bill:

Yes, too true - not least because Opportunity is making too much progress at present, and I want to win the pool (I chose Sol 900)!

Bob Shaw

Oppy is moving with the utmost celeritude, is she not? I've seen several interesting features in the acme of the section zip by that it would be great to document them for future study. Oppy is making great progress, and unless The Suits in Ithaca know something we don't, she needs to stop and "smell the roses".

--Bill

If the girl is still going after Victoria, the mottled terrain to the E/SE might have additional startigraphic detail in it.

Yeah that crater looks interesting. Imagine the view from that canyon-looking ridge on the southeast part of the crater.

Check out the broader perspective from Pando's post in the following thread:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=657

And check out all those enormous craters on the west side.

Few previous soles Oppy has crossed many ripples in a stright line. No problem of much sleepage , watch the following picture, Oppy has crossed at least 8 ripples.



The sand on that etched outcrop zone is somewhat compact and not so groovy besides these ripples are small and have smooth slopes.

Rodolfo

More accurate landing ellipse version ...

Call me crazy, but this is what I think should happen assuming Oppy never dies.

You're crazy.

(well, you did ask)

Seriously - you're talking 6+ x the current traverse distance. Even with a grad-student-controlled 3 wheel drive rover in 5 years time - that's just not going to happen.

Doug

Well if we are going to be crazy, I think a drive to the South Pole would have a lot of scientific worth. We could check out Arthur Clarke's "banyan trees."

Call me crazy.

That map might be useful for MSL and I would say, poor to MER be obliged to break every parts trying to arrive at ...

Rodolfo

Ha! I saw that coming! Believe me I don't expect Oppy to go further than Victoria and I've said that repeatedly. The discussion was brought up as to "what next after Victoria". Let's just get back to Victoria - I think we've digressed enough.