We'll take care of things. I've not done much since I've been in such agreement with your route maps that I've not been able to add much. Have a good holiday!

--Bill

Here is my estimate of Oppys position for sol 807 based on the pancam tracking data.

Click to view attachment

James

And again for Sol 808

Click to view attachment

James

Hola Tesheiner! You missed 5 sols... pero me parece que no faltaba sol en espana
James did very well indeed : he put Oppy back on YOUR track so, one more week holiday for you must be fine

Well done, JC, looks like we are very close to the halfway point to the hem of Victoria's apron. (Or should we call it her robe-of-state? )
Tell us when we reach that milestone so we can all have a nice cup of tea to celebrate.

Halfway from where?

Roughly looking at the map I think were pretty much halfway between Payson and 'Corner Crater' already, pretty good progress! At this rate we should be on the apron by sol 870ish by my reckoning.

Not looking good for my Victoria prediction, here's hoping that Corner Crater is be interesting enough for a primary mission length stop!

James

Yup, I'd say "Corner Crater" is a very good guess for the aim-point. Indeed that blue line is looking better and better as a predicted path. I would go there first, though maybe some PI is frantic to take a look at those dark plumes to the east. But our real aim-point is down below the surface. Going down is the shortest route to our destination.

I'm still on "recovery mode", climber.
And yes, "no faltaba el sol". Sunny and warm days, but only the kids were brave enough to jump into the water.




James, Thanks a *lot* for keeping the route map up to date.

did you n otice that we're only 2 victoria diameters from the rim?

Route map, updated to sol 809.

Click to view attachment

Welcome back Tesh (and many thanks for your continuing work).

Now that we can see the ground ahead of us, your cautious faint blue line through the dunes, which looked reasonable from the orbital image, looks unnecessarily timid. It is truly amazing how different the view is from the ground. Opportunity can probably just plough straight over the ripples that currently confront her.

Once we get past that zone a new "detail window" on the route can cover Corner Crater....

Oppy is coincidentally at a point part of my "proposed path". That was the starting point of a route segment I thought would be quite tricky and difficult due to the "bigger dunes" seen on the MOC image.

And those "bigger dunes" are actually an optical effect ; what I thought were the dune shadows are really those cobble fields which can be clearly seen on tosol pancam images.

Edited: Joffan, believe me! I didn't read your post when writing mine, actually yours wasn't there yet.

Great minds think alike

Tesheiner--

I'd concluded the same thing: those horrendous ripples are actually dark cobble patches that look like shadows. After the discussion about dark cobbles last week I've started marking cobble fields on a new image overlay and most of the big ripples were false alarms. I'll post that image this weekend once I double-check it.

The terrain does look like it will be getting a bit dustier for a short time going downhill. This makes sense: it's the Venturi effect-- increase the effective depth of flow by lowering the land surface, the velocity decreases and the suspended/saltating material drops out.

--Bill

No problem, the least I could do.

Thank *you* for keeping it up to date for every other sol!

Welcome back,

James

We are very lucky to have these continous updates - the pans as well. Thanks to all contributors!

Phil

Another update to the route map -- sol 810 --, probably the last for this week.
BTW, it looks like I'll have to shift the background map again sometime during next week.

Click to view attachment

Hee hee! Tesh, looks like you might also have to switch to a single green line instead of separate yellow and blue lines! Well done!

I think JPL is cribbing off of Tesh.

Maybe off Dilo, as well! Notice the recent reference:

Just whose image are they talking about? I haven't seen JPL's version!

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/pre.../20060505a.html
More updates, and...yes...JPL's very own stretched Victoria, courtesy of Tim Parker.
Giddyup, boys! NASA's catching up with us. What can you image gurus do to stay ahead of them?

Oppy has entered into the second radiated wave of outcrop from Victoria Crater, see the below map.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/pre...-A810R1_br2.jpg

That JPL's map has shown two interesting and updated measurements: Victoria Crater: 730 meters diameter and small and bright mini-crater: 35 meter diameter.

Rodolfo

A nice nod in there to Philip Stooke.

It's nice to see this coincidence between the actual route and my guess path. And speaking of future paths, I'm pretty much convinced the rover will follow that hypotetical route towards the small outcrop south of the current position (it can be seen right at the center of sol 810 "drive-direction" pancam mosaic) and then to the bigger one at SSE near the bottom side of the route map. At/after that point we should have a glimpse of the rover drivers' intentions; a) follow the "cyan" line towards "Corner Crater" (I must include that name on the map...) and approach VC by the NW or b ) try an eastern detour taking advantage of the rocky terrain then SSE again and approach VC by the north.
Frankly, I'm still with option a); I think they won't miss the opportunity to have a look on Corner Crater.

Click to view attachment

great Phil...

Ah, I see that the JPL kids are catching up with us.

But seriously, it's great to see that either they are following what we have been doing here, or this has been a case of parallel development. Phil deserves his nods-- the first time I saw his vertical exaggeration technique I thought that it was absolutely brilliant. After a year of using it, I still think it's rather neat.

I'll agree with Tesheiner on the route to Victoria: Oppy will use the outcrops as stepping stones and likely head towards Corner Crater, which will be a great close-in preview of shallow subsurface conditions, even though the look will be of the ejecta jumble. And don't forget, Oppy will be passing near that large Anatolia feature, so we need to stop for a peek.

This is a wonderful example of a team effort spanning the globe.

--Bill

It's nice to know I'm appreciated... now if my kids would do the same!

Phil

Yes we need to get going! But are we all boys?

Is there a clean (without roadmap or directions) version of THIS fantastic image of Victoria Crater?

--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Toma B @ May 8 2006, 06:01 AM) </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
Is there a clean (without roadmap or directions) version of THIS fantastic image of Victoria Crater?
[/quote]

That's a darn good question. While I've been too busy lately to go looking I would assume the fine folks around here have already found the highest res photos of Victoria and her surroundings available (only MGS comes to mind for now with this quality).

Maybe Mike Caplinger can answer? Where did this come from? Are higher res products available to NASA, JPL, et. al. internally? Is this part of some as-yet unreleased cPROTO effort?

There may have been a cproto image taken since the last MGS MOC data release - it's an astonishingly good image!

Doug

I asked about an un-annotated version this new image of Victoria in another thread and didn't get a nibble and I've looked at JPL/MGS/MOC/MSSS for it and haven't had any luck finding it. This image would be a great planning resource for us.

--Bill

I know this is somewhat of the topic but if I understand things correctly...
When MRO becomes operational in autumn this year, we should see 2x the resolution of this VC image in color...?!?!?
Or am I wrong?

Paging Mr Caplinger. Mr. Caplinger please pick up the nearest white courtesy phone.

--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Toma B @ May 8 2006, 03:46 PM) </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--> I know this is somewhat of the topic but if I understand things correctly...
When MRO becomes operational in autumn this year, we should see 2x the resolution of this VC image in color...?!?!?
Or am I wrong? [/quote]

Well - MC might argue otherwise... but...

Technically, yes. The sampling resolution of HiRISE is approx 30cm per pixel in each dimension, whereas the best MOC resolution is 50cm downtrack and 150cm across track. For every pixel MOC takes in CPROTO observations, HiRISE should take about 8 pixels (and more like 25 for a normal MOC observation) But - there is the limiting resolution of the optics, the atmosphere, the stability of the spacecraft, the quality of the TDI process and so on and so forth.

My personal estimation is that the real 'pixel power' of the camera will be something like 50cm per pixel - and so we should see an increase in resolution by perhaps 2, or 3, or maybe even a little more over MOC using HiRISE, and perhaps 4 times over non CPROTO observations - with, of course, the near IR, Red and Blue-Green filters.

This recent image reminds us more than ever that MOC, despite it's age on orbit, and age since being designed and built, is a fantastic instrument that continues to produce stunning imagery - and will continue to have a valuable role to play even once HiRISE is in action.

Doug

Mmm, do you all remember that MSSS release in which the rover was seen from orbit at Erebus northern rim? IIRC she was spotted at sol 608's site and that MOC image was quite good but just covering Erebus... or not?

Edited: Found the release note, here: http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/10/24/. The image is S11-00471; not let's see where is the whole pic.
Edited again: On MSSS site, the last release corresponds to S10-xxx pics. No luck.

Ahh - yes, that S11 obs might have Victoria at the bottom - but we'll have to wait 6 months to see it

Doug

Maybe you should ask Jim Bell to help us a little on that...tell him that we really like that image...

Quite unlucky. The S10 release covers up to Sep 2005 while the image we are looking for was taken on October.

Actually - Tim Parker will be yer man for this one - see if we can have an unannotated version of that image posted and we're sorted

Doug

Phil, I got all emotional reading that update...Let me hug you!

Another drive on sol 813. Here is the updated route map.

Click to view attachment

Ustrax wants a hug - Oh, I don't know about that! My British background might not permit it...

Phil

In a couple of Sols Opportunity will reach a small fork in the route. I wonder which of your two proposed routes JPL will pick?

An old proverb comes to mind - "When you reach a fork in the road, take it"

>Ustrax wants a hug - Oh, I don't know about that! My British background might not permit it...

You know these Iberian types, they tend to get a bit passionate. I'd pretend a cyber-hug and go on...



Let's see what the ground looks like at the branch; I'm thinking that down the chute would be quickest.

--Bill

you anglo-saxonic icebergs...

Brrrr!

Phil

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b14/ustrax3/arg.jpg