Stephen
Aug 29 2005, 01:04 AM
QUOTE (SFJCody @ Aug 28 2005, 09:44 PM)
The marswatch site shows no planned images for 567 and 568. This is a little scary. Anyone know what's going on? Pando?
According to the Planetary.org page mentioned earlier, there is going to be news conference by the rover team ("emanating from NASA headquarters" according to the planetary.org page) on Thursday, September 1. At 10 am (Pacific time?), according to a llist on www.jpl.nasa.gov. Perhaps we'll find out then.
======
Stephen
RNeuhaus
Aug 29 2005, 03:36 PM
QUOTE (Sunspot @ Aug 28 2005, 04:35 PM)
The only information we have is this piece from the Planetary Society website:
http://planetary.org/news/2005/mer-update_0826.htmlOpportunity suddenly came to a stop last Wednesday, ...I don't seems it is related to software problem since the Oppy was traveling with well known software algorithm. I seems it is related to some hardware alteration (some bit of memory become out of order with the to Control Checking sum. Hope with the computer reboot will restore everyting and put Oppy back to work. Now it is summer and the Mars is at perihelion point time and it means greater sun radiation that might put crazy to electronic parts.
Rodolfo
SFJCody
Aug 29 2005, 09:20 PM
Looks like they're planning a drive for sol 569. Maybe they have the reset thing sussed.
Sunspot
Aug 30 2005, 11:21 PM
QUOTE (SFJCody @ Aug 29 2005, 10:20 PM)
Looks like they're planning a drive for sol 569. Maybe they have the reset thing sussed.
Hey I think we're moving again:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...27P1311R0M1.JPG
CosmicRocker
Aug 31 2005, 04:32 AM
It is so nice to see sol 269 images coming home, even if it was a fraction of those planned. This has got to be a good sign. I can appreciate both interpretations of "skidmark" as posted in the other thread.
I was hoping to see pancams from a different angle toward Erebus, but alas. Maybe tomorow.
Tesheiner
Aug 31 2005, 08:09 AM
The route maps in the MER webpage have been updated again, as already commented on another thread.
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/traverse_maps.htmlBut what do you think about the reported Oppy's position?
IMO, the rover (as of sol 565) was some 20m south to the point plotted on NASA/JPL/OSU map.
Click to view attachmentComments? Dilo, Blue_scape?
Bill Harris
Aug 31 2005, 08:46 AM
CR, it is good the see progress again. I think that I can see the eroded ghost crater in the latest Navcams so that should pinpoint where she is.
--Bill
SigurRosFan
Aug 31 2005, 11:32 AM
My opinion: The rover team should more often look at this thread.
Phil Stooke
Aug 31 2005, 03:32 PM
Yes, I have no doubt our maps and our Opportunity position are better. They could use a better background image as well!
Phil
dilo
Aug 31 2005, 07:48 PM
QUOTE (Tesheiner @ Aug 31 2005, 08:09 AM)
The route maps in the MER webpage But what do you think about the reported Oppy's position?
IMO, the rover (as of sol 565) was some 20m south to the point plotted on NASA/JPL/OSU map.
Click to view attachmentComments? Dilo, Blue_scape?
I am disappointed...
My question is: official route map is based only satellite images corrispondances (liker ours) or also some doppler/delay radio measurement on rover signal?...
Phil Stooke
Aug 31 2005, 08:00 PM
Dilo, be disappointed with their map, but not with yours!
The 'official' map is only based on image matching and 'dead reckoning' (cumulative distance and direction travelled after every drive, trying to account for slipping). But occasionally it has to be corrected with feature matching to avoid accumulated errors. I think your work matching features is giving us the correct position.
Phil
Sunspot
Sep 1 2005, 12:39 PM
Did Opportunity stop during the drive again? Lots of old pics posted at exploratorium. Not sure what theyre meant to be though - only 1k.
djellison
Sep 1 2005, 12:53 PM
I thikn they're something to do with pancam health-checks - but the newest one is > 80 sols old.
Doug
Tesheiner
Sep 1 2005, 01:37 PM
I see a discrepancy between Exploratorium and the detailed report (what a nice tool!) from the MER Pancam website.
The latest report includes:
QUOTE
1. What new EDRs from ANY sol were received on sol 569, 570, 571?
Number of EDRs received by sol, sequence number, and image type:
Sol Seq.Ver ETH ESF EDN EFF ERP Tot Description
--- -------- --- --- --- --- --- ---- -----------
569 p1205.03 2 0 0 2 0 4 front_haz_penultimate_0.5_bpp_pri18
569 p1214.05 2 0 0 2 0 4 front_haz_ultimate_4bpp_pri15
569 p1235.04 2 0 0 2 0 4 front_hazcam_stumble_0.5_bpp_pri_56
569 p1311.06 2 0 0 2 0 4 rear_haz_ultimate_1_bpp_crit18
569 p1335.03 2 0 0 2 0 4 rear_hazcam_stumble_0.5_bpp_pri_56
569 p1916.05 12 0 0 12 0 24 navcam_6x1_lvlaz_103_3bpp_crit
569 p2111.05 13 0 0 0 0 13 pancam_cal_targ_L234567Rall
569 p2357.06 10 0 0 10 2 22 pancam_drv_dir_5x1_L2R2
569 p2530.10 13 0 0 0 0 13 pancam_skidmark_L234567Rall
569 p2531.10 13 0 0 0 0 13 pancam_wreckage_L234567Rall
569 p2599.09 5 0 0 1 1 7 pancam_ripple_fender_L257R12
569 p2600.07 2 2 0 0 1 5 pancam_tau
569 p2600.07 2 0 0 0 0 2 pancam_tau
570 p0060.01 40 40 0 0 0 80 left_navcam_photon_transfer
570 p1219.02 2 0 0 2 0 4 front_hazcam_loco_pri_56
570 p1319.02 2 0 0 2 0 4 rear_hazcam_loco_pri_56
570 p2124.03 3 0 0 0 0 3 pancam_cal_targ_L456
570 p2124.03 3 0 0 0 0 3 pancam_cal_targ_L456
570 p2124.03 3 0 0 0 0 3 pancam_cal_targ_L456
570 p2272.03 87 0 0 0 0 87 pancam_deck_pan_29pos_L456
570 p2273.03 69 0 0 0 0 69 pancam_deck_pan_23pos_L456
570 p2274.03 72 0 0 0 0 72 pancam_deck_pan_24pos_L456
570 p2600.07 2 0 0 0 0 2 pancam_tau
570 p2600.07 2 0 0 0 0 2 pancam_tau
Total 365 42 0 37 4 448
I.e. no old pictures.
IMO, the Exploratorium is still sync'ing itself after that loooong time (beginning of August) without updates.
But stay tuned for another drive today (Sol 571)...
QUOTE
4. What EDRs did we request?
Expected EDRs by sequence number and image type:
Sol Seq.Ver ETH ESF EDN EFF ERP Tot Description
--- -------- --- --- --- --- --- ---- -----------
571 p0675.02 10 0 0 10 0 20 navcam_5x1_az_126_2_bpp
571 p1205.03 2 0 0 2 0 4 front_haz_penultimate_0.5_bpp_pri18
571 p1214.05 2 0 0 2 0 4 front_haz_ultimate_4bpp_pri15
571 p1235.04 2 0 0 2 0 4 front_hazcam_stumble_0.5_bpp_pri_56
571 p1235.04 2 0 0 2 0 4 front_hazcam_stumble_0.5_bpp_pri_56
571 p1311.06 2 0 0 2 0 4 rear_haz_ultimate_1_bpp_crit18
571 p1335.03 2 0 0 2 0 4 rear_hazcam_stumble_0.5_bpp_pri_56
571 p1335.03 2 0 0 2 0 4 rear_hazcam_stumble_0.5_bpp_pri_56
571 p1775.01 10 0 0 10 0 20 navcam_5x1_az_306_1_bpp
571 p2111.05 13 13 0 0 2 28 pancam_cal_targ_L234567Rall
571 p2360.06 10 0 0 10 2 22 pancam_drv_dir_5x1_L2R2
Sunspot
Sep 1 2005, 01:52 PM
QUOTE (Tesheiner @ Sep 1 2005, 02:37 PM)
I see a discrepancy between Exploratorium and the detailed report (what a nice tool!) from the MER Pancam website.
The latest report includes:
I.e. no old pictures.
IMO, the Exploratorium is still sync'ing itself after that loooong time (beginning of August) without updates.
But stay tuned for another drive today (Sol 571)...
ahhhhhh restricted sols maybe?
djellison
Sep 1 2005, 01:54 PM
Cool - a new deck pan for Oppy as well
If they show the recent Spirit deck pan at the conference, I've done some of it with the 456's myself - you will not BELIEVE how clean Spirit is!!
Doug
Tesheiner
Sep 1 2005, 02:08 PM
QUOTE (djellison @ Sep 1 2005, 03:54 PM)
you will not BELIEVE how clean Spirit is!!
I haven't seen (made) the deck pan, but after watching that animated gif about the MI and the summit winds (where is it?) I just though: Spirit must be now like it was while on KSC's clean-room.
dilo
Sep 1 2005, 11:03 PM
Added Sol569 panorama vertical projection (very small progress in last week).
Sunspot
Sep 2 2005, 08:27 AM
Tesheiner
Sep 2 2005, 08:39 AM
Sunspot,
The timestamp on that image is "Mission time: 31.08.2005, 19:09.03 UTC" -- Sol 570.
The drive was expected on sol 571, and we don't have yet any image from such sol.
I think there are some problems again with the Exploratorium (see
here).
Sunspot
Sep 2 2005, 04:59 PM
Bill Harris
Sep 2 2005, 10:39 PM
Yes! Moving, and transmitting many images.
--Bill
CosmicRocker
Sep 3 2005, 04:23 AM
Praise the lord! ...or at least praise that intrepid rover and the awesome team controlling it.
That was an interesting little zigzag backtrack it made, finding the safest route. Though rather slowly, but surely, it is making it's way toward Erebus, which is looming ever larger on the horizon.
mhoward
Sep 3 2005, 04:40 AM
Funny you should mention zigzagging, tracks and Erebus... I liked how
this mosaic came out. Although I'm not positive that's actually Erebus on the horizon... There's clearly something there, but at this rate it seem like it will be a long time before we see what it is.
Bill Harris
Sep 3 2005, 08:05 AM
QUOTE
I'm not positive that's actually Erebus on the horizon...
It is, on the left side of your stitch. You can spot the three "marker dunes"-- before, Erebus was on top of the rise and we were looking up at it, but now we are on the rise, and Erebus is lost in the Sea Of Dunes.
I think the Rover Guiders are threading a cautious path cross-dune to the Highway.
--Bill
Sunspot
Sep 3 2005, 08:40 AM
Just how far is the Erebus Highway? From orbital images it looks very large and prominent.. but there doesnt seem to be much to see of it from the rover cameras so far.
Tesheiner
Sep 3 2005, 09:32 AM
Have a look at these two posts:
-
Where is the highway?-
Path to the highway?If my estimation is correct, Oppy should be about 50m from the highway.
But we must take into account that she will have to do a LOT of zigzag to reach it.
Edited: BTW, she is currently almost exactly at the end of the first leg of the path on the 2nd post.
Bill Harris
Sep 3 2005, 12:40 PM
I agree with your assessment on Oppy's location. The Highway is difficult to see because of the dunes. As a reference point, the eroded ghost crater visible in the MOC images is seen on the left side of your annotated mosaic.
--Bill
Bill Harris
Sep 4 2005, 08:28 AM
Has anyone figured what Oppy is up to? Friday she sent a series of partial-frame images of a patch of blueberry-covered dune. Saturday a tight panoramic series of R1-R2 Pancam images in the direction of Erebus. I figure she's picking a path to the Highway and doing other roverly things, but I've not got her figured out.
--Bill
Tesheiner
Sep 4 2005, 09:37 AM
She is currently in "restricted sols" mode, so I guess they are mixing driving activity with other science ones.
E.g. The R1-R2 images referred by Bill can be correlated with a panorama for albedo related measurements.
QUOTE
2. What EDRs do we have on the ground from sol 572, 573, 574, 575?
Actual number of EDRs by sequence number and image type:
Sol Seq.Ver ETH ESF EDN EFF ERP Tot Description
--- -------- --- --- --- --- --- ---- -----------
572 p2275.03 189 0 0 54 2 245 pancam_albedo_pan_L1R1267
BTW, as of today the next drive is not yet planned. Guess for Tuesday.
Tesheiner
Sep 4 2005, 09:45 AM
Mmmm,
Oppy is also searching dust devils?
See the
MER Pancam Data Tracking Web Interface data for sol 754:
QUOTE
Expected EDRs by sequence number and image type:
Sol Seq.Ver ETH ESF EDN EFF ERP Tot Description
--- -------- --- --- --- --- --- ---- -----------
574 p2692.05 5 5 0 0 1 11 pancam_dust_devil_hunter_L6
Bill Harris
Sep 4 2005, 11:54 AM
Might be. I had the impression that she was looking for "something" and it could be dust devils. And the many partial frame pics of the dune might be looking for movement caused by wind.
I think we're on te brink of finding some wonderful outcrops...
--Bill
dilo
Sep 7 2005, 12:29 AM
Time to update. It seems Oppy moved slightly East and backward in the last week.
Now highway is clearly visible on the right and should be less than 30m away... (previous distance was overestimated probably due to terrain local slope, now corrected - see
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...ndpost&p=19417)
Bill Harris
Sep 7 2005, 12:38 AM
I had expected Oppy to go around the south edge of that crater ring to the Highway, but there is a large dune now visible that blocks the way. She is taking the wise/safe north and east route along the crater ring.
--Bill
dilo
Sep 7 2005, 06:28 AM
Further progress toward East on Sol576 (only position update, no vertical proj):
Tesheiner
Sep 7 2005, 08:04 AM
Let's see which way Oppy takes on the next days.
Since sol 569, this is the path she is following; let's see if it is still accurate in the future...
Click to view attachmentJust wait for the "post drive" pancam images. They will give us a "hint" about the next movement.
Tesheiner
Sep 8 2005, 06:59 AM
Sol 578 (few hours ahead) will be driving day.
DaveM
Sep 9 2005, 08:16 PM
QUOTE (Tesheiner @ Sep 8 2005, 06:59 AM)
Sol 578 (few hours ahead) will be driving day.
Opportunity is scheduled to do a roughly 25 m drive almost due east tomorrow (Sol 580), and then start heading due south again next week.
Ah, to be a fly-on-the-wall at every Activity Plan Approval Meeting...
dilo
Sep 9 2005, 08:35 PM
Updated Route Map... linear shift between Sol576 and 578 is 10m (odometry is larger for sure) :
Click to view attachmentHere the features identifications from MGS image (red point = present position):
Click to view attachment
RNeuhaus
Sep 9 2005, 08:45 PM
Hello, in order to help me to figure out about the geographic coordenates.
Do the ripples or crest runs from North to South or from North-West to South-East?
Does the promiment wind comes from East-West?
The Oppy zone is very dangerous for navigation since every where is about the same. The Oppy has no incorporated GPS, everything is dependent of pictures mapping. Hence, Oppy has no good orientation navigation reference.
The tracks is buried in less than 2 months.... No sights for Endurance, Terra Nova, Erebus highway, and Victoria Crater.
The monotonous landscape, hope that the Oppy will every day will roll even faster.
How is the power solar level of Oppy? As Spirit or similar?
Ereberus highway and neither Victoria crater. Vamos Brave Oppy's rover pilot to conquer Victoria!
Rodolfo
tuomio
Sep 9 2005, 08:54 PM
I think that they should continue the more bold drives they used to. With this hard rock between quite thin dunes it shouldn´t pose threat to the mobility. Better to go down fighting in midst of dunefield than just die before getting anywhere. Something between the 120m drives and 20m drives should be good when there is no killed dunes nearby.
Erebus on the other hand seems to surrounded by large dunes and even the rim will probably be no-go zone, every spare time should be saved to the rim of Victoria which is definetly in our reach. At this point of mission some risk taking should be acceptable because at the end of it there is a pot of gold waiting. When the weather starts to get colder again, i think we will definetly start seeing stuff break down.
dilo
Sep 9 2005, 09:09 PM
Sorry, using parallax calculator I found a correction was need in the last projection (Tesheiner know...
). Here correct route, now Erebus Highway is 20m away.
dilo
Sep 9 2005, 10:08 PM
Updated 3D bird's view
:
stevo
Sep 9 2005, 11:32 PM
QUOTE (tuomio @ Sep 9 2005, 03:54 PM)
I think that they should continue the more bold drives they used to. With this hard rock between quite thin dunes it shouldn´t pose threat to the mobility. Better to go down fighting in midst of dunefield than just die before getting anywhere. Something between the 120m drives and 20m drives should be good when there is no killed dunes nearby.
According to Dilo's superb route map, a 25m drive east is going to cut across 5 or 6 dunes. Even if they're only little ones that's bold enough for me at the moment
CosmicRocker
Sep 10 2005, 05:32 AM
Yeah. They might get away with the bold drives they made earlier, but then again, they may not. Would you want to be the person who buried one of the most successful planetary explorers humankind has yet developed? I too, vote for caution, especially since we are seeing real rocks for the first time in many months.
Tesheiner
Sep 10 2005, 10:58 AM
I too believe that those long drives (100m or so) will, and should be, something of the past.
More important is the "lesson learned", which IMO is not related to the distance but with the drive *mode*.
Longer drives may be seen again in the future, but I won't expect long blind drives anymore.
SigurRosFan
Sep 10 2005, 04:00 PM
David
Sep 10 2005, 04:26 PM
QUOTE (SigurRosFan @ Sep 10 2005, 04:00 PM)
While the matches between the satellite map and the on-ground observations are good enough to leave me in no doubt that it's the same terrain, there are some puzzling discrepancies. Notably, "Erebus Highway" in the satellite imagery looks much brighter and more continuous than in the ground images. Is this simply due to a defect in the lower-resolution orbital images? Or could it indicate recent deposition of dune sand onto the "highway"? Would it be worthwhile for Opportunity to take a look at areas that look different enough to possibly represent short-term sand movement?
Sunspot
Sep 10 2005, 05:59 PM
Looking at that updated route map...it doesn't look like it was worth diverting to the "Erebus Hhighway"......the rover has nearly come to the end of it.
CosmicRocker
Sep 10 2005, 06:36 PM
The Erebus Highway may look brighter and more continuous on the orbiter image because it was taken from overhead. Dilo's route maps begin as oblique views from the rover's viewpoint. That causes the horizontal patches of bedrock to be foreshortened. Also, portions of the bedrock are also hidden from the rover's camera by the dunes/ripples. I think the vertical reprojection Dilo does would correct for the foreshortening, but there is no way to add in the bedrock areas hidden behind the dunes.
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