About a 1 m drive on sol 4975 to interesting rocks on the edge of a smooth depression.

I realize now how much I have come to rely on Midnight Planets. I hope its current difficulties will be resolved. It's an amazing resource, and I would say a model for how JPL might structure its rover image sites in future.

Phil

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Luckily http://curiosityrover.com/ is back in operation again.

No move, but an updated map. Locations of many named features are still uncertain to me at this stage.

Phil

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We had a drive of a few meters on sol 4990, backing out of the rocky area we were just looking at. My impression is that the drive covered less distance than expected, probably because of wheel slip on the rough sloping terrain.

Phil

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Actually the goal of the Sol 4990 drive was to change heading towards a rock to the North Wall. Since we did not have enough room to maneuver forwards, we did a setup drive backwards. The Sol 4991 did a forward bump which stopped a tad earlier to ensure we still have enough room to get to the intended target. The final bump to have the target in the IDD work plane should hopefully happen soon, maybe by this weekend?

Paolo

Thanks! Here is the 4991 position - though I have not seen the pictures yet.

9 more sols and then I will wrap up my new version of the Atlas of Opportunity.

Phil

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Update to sol 4993, and on sol 4994 the MI was used on the rocks in front of the rover.

Phil

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Whoa! Sprinting uphill on sol 4997. I didn't see that coming. Sort of diagonally across the hill really, but maybe we will take that South Fork now. Who shot JR? (digital Mars Bar to anyone who has the faintest idea what I am talking about - but no replies to this thread please!).

Phil

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I think the idea is to look down at the SF, then we'll see where to go next.

Paolo

Here is an overview of the valley activities - we're about half way down the valley now. The other maps fill in details in areas where things get crowded.

Phil

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A short drive downhill to the tip of the outcrop on sol 5015.

Phil

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A small move, 40 cm, on sol 5023. I have moved a few feature names around as I learn more about them.

Phil

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Update to sol 5038. A short drive to the NW.

Phil

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And that short drive was preparing for this - a 4 m drive to the south on sol 5040 to look at some pitted (possibly vesicular) rocks.

Phil

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This area is so interesting that we just moved backwards and then forwards again to reach a different spot (the arm can't move in azimuth any more). Sol 5057 update.

Phil

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Sol 5058, another short drive to reach the next target area.

Phil

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Sol 5060, Opportunity moves a meter on Mars so I have to update my map. Time for some improvements to the base map.

Phil

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I'm assuming the Oppy outline is to scale, um, how does the rover execute the 180' turns?
Does it do some form N-point turn, or can it do a tank-style "piviot in place" manouver,
I ask because I don't recall ever seeing a circular pivot track.

The scale on Phil's map shows that Oppy's outline is to scale.

Which 180 deg turns are you referring to? There's no turn, eg, between the 5058 and 5060 drives - just driving forwards and backwards.

Ok, that makes more sense, extensive "scuffing" 5022 - 5039 got me thinking which way the rover was facing,
and whether the rover had to do "N-point turns" or whether it could execute a pivot-in-place.

All Mars rovers have done pivots in place, leaving circular marks in their tracks. There are several in this view by Spirit at Engineering Flats in the fall of 2004:

https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/press/spi...-A252R1_br2.jpg

Phil

The MER and MSL rovers are designed to do a point turn, that is, pivoting around the vehicle center (assuming flat terrain, no slip). This is done by setting the corner wheels toed in at about 60 deg and rotating the left wheels in the opposite direction relative to the right side wheels. We can also do (small) tank turns when we need to point the vehicle with extreme accuracy (better than 1 deg) to avoid the small vehicle motion when we straighten the wheels.

Alas Oppy now has TWO steering actuators that are inoperable so while we can still command a point turn, this results in a semi-tank-steer which we sometimes do but creates a lot of stress to the vehicle shaking it pretty violently. What we are left is what we call a spirograph turn, basically the 13-point turn you see being done by large SUVs in a small parking lot. This is even more difficult when you are on a 20 deg slope.

Paolo

A small move to the north on sol 5063.

Phil

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The Sol 5063 drive objective was to do a (almost) 180 while also backing up to leave some room to maneuver up the hill. I won't hod my breath but this vehicle has surprised me before.

Paolo

Made it! Nearly 10 m uphill on sol 5065.

Phil

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And now an adjustment to reach the next interesting vesicular target... about 2 m downhill and to the right, AKA roughly southeast.

Phil

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A short approach drive on sol 5068 to reach the next IDD target.

Phil

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For a graphic summary (i.e. a set of maps like these) showing the full route of Opportunity from landing to sol 5000, go here:

http://www.blurb.ca/user/pjstooke

A very small adjustment in position today - sol 5070 - so just a cropped map to show it.

Phil

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We pulled back from the outcrop on sol 5074.

Phil

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A 3 m drive to reach another interesting rock on sol 5076.

Phil

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Sol 5083, a small move to reach new targets.

Phil

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No new drive, but to celebrate sol 5100, a new base map and a correction to a feature name (thanks, Salley!).

Phil

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That was a fast 100 sols...

As always, thanks, Phil...for these maps...so explainable, descriptive in nomenclature etc., for us amateurs new to Mars.

John Moore

You're welcome Phil -- and thank you. I just posted this in my MER Update Special Report on the storm and Opportunity.
http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-top...torm-sleep.html

Many thanks AJS Rayl for the MER Updates every month. Welcome to posting here on UMSF. However, you will be a Newbie member of UMSF a very long time if you continue at the rate of only one post every ten years

Q: What does a bored rover driver do?
A: Looks back at the road taken!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcU2XaHunx0&t=1s

Paolo

How nice ! And fun too to watch ! Thank you very much Paolo

Here's a big project I've been working on. I put together a seamless CTX mosaic of the Meridiani Planum landing site and colorized it with HRSC data. The basic version just has Oppy's traverse and its position at the start of each New Year. I did this in Photoshop and the most accurate way I could find was to hand trace the traverse route as a separate layer (It's CTX scale so I don't need to beat Phil's accuracy ).


Opportunity Meridiani Planum Traverse Route

I go to university in New York and wanted to get a sense of the terrestrial scale, so I found a vector roadmap from the NYC planning board and added a scale version of it over the top of the traverse route. Opportunity's starting position is in the Hayden Planetarium and its current (final?) location is about a block shy of overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Rockaway Beach. Would be fun to do with other cities if there was interest and I could track down a vectorized roadmap.


Opportunity Meridiani Planum Traverse - NYC streetmap scale

Really beautiful work, Justin.

Phil

Seconded! What a wonderful odyssey it has been! May Opportunity's distance record be beaten soon. If not by Opportunity herself (sadly, increasingly unlikely) than by another rover, and not to gain a distance record but as a natural byproduct of compelling scientific exploration.

Beautiful indeed! I'll venture to guess that many of us on the west coast including myself having never left a footprint on NY regolith would love such a map of our own region, and San Francisco seems a great fit. Naturally the starting location could be Morrison Planetarium at the CA Academy of Sciences, and eyeballing it looks as if Oppy would make it well out of the city to any number of promising outcrops, so if you're interested, here's one perhaps suitable map source

San Francisco has quite steep roads for sure but I don't recall 30 degrees slopes there.

Paolo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ALombar...steepest_street!

Filbert and 22nd both have portions with 31.5 degree slopes.

Wonderful: puts the mission's path in perspective - besides a healthy stroll through the streets of NY.

Percent grade is not the same as degrees. According to this, the steepest road is in NZ and is 19 deg or 35% grade. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_Street

Paolo

Does this sound right as a final position?


2°19'41"S
5°20'38"W

So, we'll go no more a roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moons be still as bright.

For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.

Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we'll go no more a roving
By the light of the moons.