The "S" and the "E" are right next to each other on a standard keyboard. The Rover Driver might have glanced up at a television to watch the latest news on Charlie Sheen just as he/she was entering the letter for "drive direction."

Winning!

The view was clear towards the SE from the last stop on the rim:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...JOP1757R0M1.JPG
If there was something about the rim of SM to the SE that they wanted to avoid, they could've gone a bit east then SE.

The drive-direction pancams were looking more or less east, so it clearly wasn't an error. Maybe something caught their eyes to the east that they wanted to do drive-by imaging of.

Edit: in case someone didn't see it, Maxwell confirms that imaging and "craters and junk" determined the decision to drive east.

With the exploratorium back up and running I could finally put my hands on the pictures and "refine" the plots for sols 2547 and 2549. Here's an updated map, including sol 2551 too. The next upcoming drive is today and we might probably cross the 27km mark.
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27kms! That's 45 times the 600metre prime mission goal. Wow! Keep on trekkin'

Ditto. Here's the latest map update.
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10 more kilometers and it can pass Lunokhod 2's record traverse

No doubt about it the Lunokhods are a significant outlier in the history of unmanned spaceflight. Your post prompts a question for posters here. Let's say Opportunity does cover another 10 kilometres. Is anyone willing to put a pin on the map suggesting its likely location?

Not the right place for such a discussion ( I'll ban myself later ) - but basically, Cape York / Tribulation - spend a km or 2 there, then we'd end up 2km south following the rim, I'd guess.

Update after sol 2554.
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... and another one. You may note that we're moving to another picture.
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I notice that the grid in the latest map segment has shifted east and no longer matches the grid pattern of the previous segments. For example, the 27km point is now on the eastern (right-hand) side of its nearest longitude grid line rather than on the western (left-hand) side of that same line.

Is that a consequence of moving to the new picture? (Or has there been an adjustment to the positions of the endpoints of the last few drives?)

Endpoints moved - changing from estimates to observed locations as the pictures became available. The grid is pure geometry - that's what you line up with the previous view.

Phil

Sol 2558.
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One more update; sol 2559.
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That makes around 500m / week --> only 3 months to reach Cape York.
(I know, I know I shouldn't be doing this kind of math.)

Moved odometry related posts to the main thread.

Sol 2560.
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... and sol 2561.
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Keep roving....
Sol 2562.
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I had made a comment in the other thread several sols ago that this dark terrain that Opportunity was crossing was fraught with fractures, and that it appeared to be a dangerous place to drive. I am relieved to see that our girl skipped right through it with nary a care.

In retrospect, most of the cracks were apparently filled with sediment and not of concern. Some of the scariest ruts were niftily avoided by Oppy's expert drivers, as we have all come to expect.

I see more fractured terrain ahead.

...steady as she goes, Scotty, steady as she goes...

Sol 2569.
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Here's yet another map update (sol 2572), this time including the Nth Km mark crossing. Awesome!
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Sol 2574.
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One more update; the last one for this long weekend.
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I've updated the route map with the data already available for sol 2579 and also adjusted the position at sol 2576 with the help of the navcam pictures.
Two additional driving sols like these ones and we're there.
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Can the blue line in GM be adjusted to the new proposed route?

I've been hoping somebody would step up and do this, because it really isn't very hard, but I just haven't had time. Post it here or email it to me and I'll include it in the route map.

Here's a rookie attempt:

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Thanks, bluemars1! I've added it to the route map, in the "Opportunity Calendar Dates" layer. If you download Eduardo's latest kml it should show up automatically. (I did find that I had to quit Google Earth and restart it in order for my updates to show up when I re-added Eduardo's route map.)

BTW, I realized you updated the "Calendar Dates" too. Great!

Sol 2581.
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Wow, what's the shortest calendar time for a kilometer for the MERs? Opportunity is really hauling these days. I'm guessing we recently set the record.

Check this thread.

Unashamedly off-topic, but this seems an appropriate place to say it. I hope and trust no-one will mind if I say, on behalf of all of us here on UMSF who use your fantastic maps and charts to let us walk alongside Oppy...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TESH!!!!

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Thanks, mate!

Still waiting for the "ground truth" to confirm this position but, according to the currently available data, this should be Opportunity's site after sol 2583.
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I'm attaching the big picture too.
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Many Happy Re-draws

Sol 2585.
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Back on topic, this is my latest map update. It's for sol 2586.
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Admin: A few posts above this moved here.

Some data from today are already available, enough to plot this preliminary map for sol 2587.
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Sol 2588.
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Sol 2589.
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Here's another update; sol 2593.
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Sol 2594.
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Here's a map update after sol 2595.
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Incredible!! Every day the rover drive more than 100m!!!
Keep going Oppy!

What is also incredible is that this topic's got 200 pages, nearly 3000 posts and nearly 800.000 views

This mission put the bar very high for the next ones.

Another map update; sol 2596.
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I'm still waiting for the pictures to confirm it but anyhow, here's a plot on the map for sol 2599.
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Map update up to sol 2600. Note also that the position for sol 2599 has been slightly adjusted.
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