Getting close to the steeper slope down off Cape Tribulation now.

Phil

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Approximate location after the sol 4686 drive.

Phil

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Oops, a bit off track with the last drive. Here's an update to sol 4688, tiptoeing down the slope.

Phil

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Nearly at the bottom now, 27 m on sol 4691.

Phil

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And another 14 m on sol 4693.

Phil

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Almost 40 m on sol 4695, and we are off Cape Tribulation and on the plains again!

Phil

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A very small move on sol 4699 - this map has some corrections to locations on the hill based on the recent JPL map update, but I am having some difficulty reconciling sources.

Phil

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Update to sol 4705. Wherein I make the preposterous assertion that Opportunity drove over 130 m. I dare say Curiosity could do the same if it didn't have those awful bunions.

Phil

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We trundled another 19 m south on sol 4706.

Phil

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Tootling along at a fine old clip on sol 4708, covering 63 m, and at this rate we will be looking down the valley in only a week or so.

Phil

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36 m south to the edge of that little crater on sol 4711.

Phil

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I've updated recent positions and added today's drive, sol 4716. Not much to go on, but taking the distance from Midnight Planets suggests this location.

Phil

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Sol 4718, a 32 m drive and we are almost there. Next time we should be looking down the slope.

Phil

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OK, we are looking down the slope a bit. But the curve of the slope still hides the main part of the valley.

Phil

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Time to switch to a larger scale base map for the valley campaign.

"The valley campaign". Now there is an appropriate title for a new thread.

On the move... sol 4730 - we just moved north and east for a better view into the valley.

Phil

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Apparently we drove 43 m south on sol 4734 - I will catch up with a big map update at the end of May as I am embarking on a big move.

Phil

7 Mars years. Wow!

Back in the saddle again - did i say saddle? I meant harness. (virtual Mars bar if you know where that's from)

So here is an update to the current photo location as of sol 4735.

Phil

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Another drive on sol 4746, exploring the area at the top of the valley, the so-called 'spillway'.

Phil

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Two rovers on the move today! Here's an update to sol 4752, just a 1 m drive to the west to look at the ground right where the wheels were previously.

Phil

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Back on the move, just about 6 m so far. But at least things are working.

Phil

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Update to sol 4767 with a few corrections from Larry Crumpler's map. I'm working on a special base map including reprojected panoramas for a close-up view of this area.

Phil

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updated to sol 4769 with a correction to the last position.

Phil

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OK, big new map for the walk-about. I have had trouble reconciling sources of data, but I think this is correct. The drive on sol 4766 was supposed to be 18 m, but was stopped by a failure of visual odometry after 14 m. However, the mobility map shows only about a 5 to 6 m drive. My impression is that the extra distance was taken up with back and forth movements as the visodom software tried to find something to focus on. Information here comes from Larry Crumpler's latest field report (Thanks Larry, much appreciated) and the images themselves. I hope to add more reprojected panoramas to the background as they become available.

Phil

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The Sol 4766 drive had a weird VO failure. We were forced to point the camera at the tracks since there's nothing else nearby to track. At the time of the drive, it meant the shadow of the rover was the most prominent visible feature which VO diligently tracked. This resulted in the vehicle thinking there ws no progress and this stopped the drive after about 14 meters but the incorrect VO updates poked the vehicle position to only about 6 meters. So, the true vehicle motion was indeed 14 meters. This is not really a mistake, it is just a combination of limitations we have to deal with (lack of flash file system and low power levels pushing the drive late in the day plus the lack of features). Sometimes we just run out of sugar to put in the lemonade, so to speak.

Paolo

Thanks, Paolo. I assumed (being a cartographer) that the map at THIS LINK was correct and the reported distance was wrong. But it was the reverse. Here is a corrected version. Oddly, the incorrect version put the current position exactly on the Station 4 point shown on Larry Crumpler's map, which is one reason I thought it might be correct. Conclusion - never trust a cartographer.

Phil

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Another drive on sol 4774 to approach the north margin of the trough.

Phil

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Haha, actually our estimate of distance and position for that drive came from Tim Parker, our own version of Phil Stooke on MER and MSL. So we *do* trust cartographers more than telemetry.

Paolo

It's just this cartographer you have to be wary of!

A nice 30 m drive on sol 4779 brings us right up to the old tracks near the expected entry point, as described in Salley Rayl's Planetary Society update. I have added the sites Larry Crumpler showed on his slide.

Phil

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A 13 m drive on sol 4781 brings us over the lip and down a bit into the valley, I think. I would like to see a few more images to be confident of that.

Phil

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It's Buy One - Get One Free week here in the Opportunity Route Map thread. Two updates in one day. Let's hope Curiosity doesn't do anything any time soon.

Phil

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A post-conjunction drive for Opportunity on sol 4813.

Phil

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There was a very small move on sol 4814, mostly a turn but moving a little bit ahead to the NW.

Phil

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Another 10 m down the slope on sol 4816.

Phil

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Sol 4831 - we moved 25 m down the valley to another lilypad (north-tilted surface, good illumination for power generation).

Phil

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Sol 4834, a move of about 4 m uphill and to the south a bit, presumably to look at an interesting target - it might be for a better tilt, but it doesn't look like that to me, bearing in mind I don't have a DTM in front of me.

Phil

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On Sol 4831 we had to drive blind for power reasons and we missed the lilipad. Sol 4834 was a short drive back to correct the end of drive position. I was not in the sequencing room today but I guess thy will start taking more PANCAMs of this area next.

Paolo

As we know, zombies stagger around groaning "brains... brains..." (at least, the ones in the Simpsons do). As a cartographer with, for the time being, sufficient little gray cells, I stagger around groaning "names... names..." . And thankfully Larry Crumpler's latest 'Field Report from Mars' contains some names for me to put on the map. So here is an update with many corrections to names in Perseverance Valley.

Normally I rely on the PDS Analysts Notebook to tell me exactly where names of targets and features are, after the fact. The name part of the MER Notebook is in a sad state at the moment, but notes in the mission documents often help. So do target names in the Pancam records, if I can identify the specific features. That is also sometimes a problem, as we see in this area where the same name, Santa Fe, has been used for two different targets on different sols (noted on the map). So thanks Larry for the update, it is very useful.

Phil

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PS the 45 km mark had not really gone unremarked, but with no recent rover movement it had not made it onto my map until now.

If the names are moderately flexible, then instead of the bland "Conjunction Location" shouldn't that be Conjunction Junction?

You may be right!

A drive uphill on sol 4874, back to a prominent groove which was imaged a few sols ago. Although it's close to my 45 km marker, you should be aware that the marker is only approximately located.

Phil

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I am ignoring the small move on sol 4883, which was uphill about 40 cm and down about the same amount resulting in no net change to speak of. On sol 4885 we moved about 3 m downslope again. This map has a few minor corrections to the path.

Phil

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Another 3 m or so downslope on sol 4890. EDIT - no, I plotted the vector backwards, they went back uphill. Map correction will follow very shortly. EDIT - now corrected!

PS thanks Fredk for pointing out my mistake.

Phil

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Here is the final result of that mapping I was illustrating in the other thread. The surface images (after a few additions) were roughly fitted to HiRISE features... NOT with the benefit of a detailed DTM, just warping to match features reasonably well. Now the detailed movements can be plotted more reliably. LOcations here are fixed by locating rover wheels in the hazcam views.

Phil

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A drive on sol 4907 to another part of the rocky outcrop.

Phil

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We drove again on sol 4922, nearly 15 m further down the valley.

Phil

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Strolling down the valley again on sol 4934... towards a very interesting-looking area with a divided channel and a bar or island-type structure.

Phil

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No new drive yet but a new close-up map of this area.

Phil

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As Fredk said in another thread, we are taking the northern route around the elongated feature in the channel. The new pictures suggest it is a rock outcrop which diverted flow rather than a depositional feature (bar), though it has since weathered until it may no longer be a positive relief feature.

Phil

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Update to sol 4968, with a drive to the north to look at some rocks.

I noticed that the scale on the previous version of this map was incorrect - it had been pasted in but not rescaled properly. This should be good now.

Phil

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