Just got a reply from Mark about a new server for Oppy pics. See post here...

Looks like ODY is back in business!

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/odyssey/...ey20120713.html

--Lucas

Yes but unfortunatly not in time to let me drive on Wednesday. Good thing I am on shift on Friday!

Paolo

Friday 20, 2012 at 9am PDT the Opportunity SOWG meeting will be broadcast here I will play the role of RP1. Hopefully there will be something for me to do.

Paolo

yay! I'll be sitting on pins and wheels!

Oppy's been moving... Crater up ahead...

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Down near Whim Creek now... look to the left, Oppy!

Phil

Not so fast. I think that tomorrow we will be asked to drive to that crater and if they find some juicy stuff they will IDD. The idea is to flush flash (no pun intended) before MSL landing. During that period there will be little activity as passes will be very, very limited and therefore whatever observations will be done will likely stay on flash for a while. It is sort of like a mini conjunction stand-down. Darn it, when we had passes we did not have power. When power came back, ODY went into safe mode. Now we have power and ODY, but we do not have flash. When we will have power, and flash we will not have ODY. Is this some kind of musical chairs or something?

Paolo

Yep, it sucks, Paolo, but as the First Hundred were fond of saying in the days after their landing...

Shikita ga nai...

Turns out she completed a full Navcam pan four sols ago; the images just aren't down yet. She's been sitting here since sol 3010 and it's now late on 3016. At least we finally have a few images!

Paolo: it's frustrating even to watch.


MERB3010DriveDirection on Flickr

Today I did some more scripting.

Brilliant!!!

Thanks for the update, Paolo!

We can already see Whim Creek to our left in the R hazcam:
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(That's not an Endeavour floor feature!) Can't wait for the navcams - pancam would be better still...

In other news, weather conditions have been updated with the new downlink and it looks like the winter days of extra low tau may be over...

No massive ejecta blocks like we saw at Odyssey crater. Yet it doesn't look old (not filled). An impact into soft soil?

Be carrefull Paolo, you're gona drive OUTSIDE Eduardo's map...could be an abys there.

OK, Eduardo, how far can I tomorrow?

Paolo

http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportu...0OP1975L0M1.JPG

There's something very lunar about this particular view. The location of the rover wrt to Cape York brings the horizon closer, and the small crater reminds me of some I've seen in Apollo landing site photos.

Hmmm... I think you're right:
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Perfect! Apart from those wind-blown drifts in the foreground.

Pretty, pretty place...

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3D view here: http://twitpic.com/a9lvzd/full

<lurk mode off>
As many hundreds of km as you want, please!

BTW, I'm on vacations right now so would probably not update the route map in a while.
<lurk mode on>

Sol 3010.
The Pancam L2 view.

Jan van Driel

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Yesterday I was interviewed for NASA Edge, hopefully I did not make a fool of myself, please be kind when it comes out. The combination of driving scarecrow, wearing a black t-shirt under the afternoon summer Sun in SoCal, not a good combination. See you all in an hour!

Paolo

I've never done a G+ hangout before. Will there be a link on #HangoutOnAir?

I don't see one yet.

Never mind. I found it.

I'm not getting any audio from the hangout, just seeing slides. Is there supposed to be audio?

They seem to be having technical problems. Audio is spotty and there is a lot of feedback sometimes.

Once they got the audio working, that was quite awesome. Actually it was awesome even before they got the audio working, because we could still see the charts.

Some news from the SOWG meeting:

- The crater is called São Gabriel.
- I think I heard that they'll be imaging the "sparkly" area behind the rover visible in the latest Navcams? I heard them say "sparkly," at least.
- A visit to Whim Creek is planned before continuing south.
- Lots more, but I'll let others summarize.

It was terrific to be able to listen in on the meeting. In spite of the audio problems, it was fascinating to witness the "give and take" involved in planning the rover's daily activities. Thanks to everyone who made that hangout possible.

For those who may have missed the event, it is now on YouTube.

Fascinating stuff for sure!

A few more details: on 3019, the plan is to do pre-drive imaging of two outcrops (Carlin 1 and 2). That should also include the "sparkly bits". Outcrops and sparkles are visible in this frame. Then drive towards São Gabriel. They'll do IDD work if there are interesting targets, but they think that's unlikely and then they'll continue to Whim Creek on 3021.

Then head back south on east side of CY, checking out small craters, outcrops, etc as they go.

edit: Oppy "stands down" for MSL from 3031-3038.

I apologize for the audio feedback. Google was feeding back the audio from the server that had a 5 sec delay and it was not possible to have the meeting that way. I ended up suggesting muting the server audio and have the SOWG chair and Mission Manager dial in from their cellphone. That worked oute well.

Today, Sol 3019, we will be driving to Sao Gabriel ANd to Whim Creek! A total of about 42meters. All in one drive!
I hope you enjoyed the Hangout. There will be more to come.

Paolo

The name Sao Gabriel seemed to be attached to two different craters on Larry's map. Can you clarify?

Phil

Wow! I guess the plan must have changed after the meeting? Makes sense, though, since there didn't seem to be much excitement around the crater.

Thanks so much for letting us (the Internet) sit in; that was truly great.

i would if I knew the correct answer! we were puzzled as well.

Paolo

The plan was changed during the meeting, it probably was not at all clear from the discussion.

Paolo

Ah. It was a little hard to hear, or maybe it was lack of understanding on my part. Still, very exciting.

Enthralling to sit in on the meeting and watch (our) tax dollars at work thanks all for posting

"One is glad to be of service!"

Paolo

Thanks for the clarification - I do remember someone mentioning "drive by" imaging.

Perhaps you could clear one more thing up Paolo if you have a chance? I understand you want to flush the flash before MSL landing - does this mean activity will be restricted before the MSL stand down period? Do you think we might be parked at Whim Creek right through MSL landing, or could we continue to drive while flushing the flash?

At the beginning of SOWG we have the LTP (long term planning) report (with the powerpoint presentation) in which we get a recommendation on how much volume we should generate during the plan. Our stand-down means we will have a lower recommendation from the LTP.

It is my hope we will be driving off from Whim Creek before MSL lands but I don'think anyone knows yet. If we will find juicy stuff near the creek we will more likely do IDD over the stand-down period.

Paolo

I just watched part of the youtube video. The audio was HORRIBLE! I'm really really sorry! Hopefully next time will be better. The good thing is that you couldn't hear my thick accent! :-P

Paolo

Thanks JPL (Matt G. and crew) for the peek into the planning meeting <fascinating>
I was able to get the gist (mostly) and look forward to another go! .. BTW: what is an SA STOMP?
Thank you!

Many thanks to Mark Powell for notifiying me of the Amazon S3 raw image feed. Here are some tau images that are unstretched taken from Sol's 2977-3007
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The Solar Array Stomp is a dance we do when we have lots of power.

OK, seriously, here's my understanding os the SA Stomp: The BCB (battery charger board) when it sees more than a set threshold of current from the Solar Array it triggers the CPU to boot. This is done so that if for any reason the rover does not wake up, the BCB will make it boot anyway (we make a sequencing mistake, we hit a low power event...). It is sometimes necessary to avoid operating the vehicle too early (too cold, or we want to charge the batteries...), in that case we tell the vehicle that if it finds herself on at a certain time she should immediately power off. Since we can predict when the solar array will generate the set threshold, suppose we predict that this will happen at 0930, we can include a command that at 0945 the vehicle should power off.

Please note that I did not pay attention to when the SA Stomp was sequenced on this planning cycle, so I just made up some numbers to give an example.

Paolo

Just catching up with yesterday's SOWG meeting, via the YouTube recording. Fascinating stuff! Looks like we have a route down the eastern side of Cape York all planned out...

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..and put (roughly) onto Google Mars...

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Whim Creek navcam view is down:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...0M1.JPG?sol3012

Tentative of course...

Whim Creek anaglyph:
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*Everything* is tentative, of course. Nice to have a plan tho.

Navcam panorama sols 3010-3012, centered on south.


MERB3010_3012Navcam on Flickr

Very nice! Here's a polar version of it.

Phil

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