QUOTE (djellison @ Jun 4 2015, 01:05 AM)
No. Even in her most rapid of years - Opportunity covers, typically, about 10-15km/year. It's 2000km from Opportunity to Pathfinder - so it would take more than a century of driving.
I think you mis-read the press briefing. The plan was to send Sojourner on a long drive of around 50 meters around the lander - but not to the edge of the MPF landing ellipse. Sojourner's maximum theoretical radio range was about 500 meters - not the 30km+ to the edge of the MPF landing ellipse.
From
https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/newspio/mpf/r...es/mpfover.htmlThe rover team had planned to send the rover on its longest journey yet -- a 50-meter (165-foot)clockwise stroll around the lander -- to perform a series of technology experiments and hazard avoidance exercises when the communications outage occurred. That excursion was never initiated once the rover's contingency software began operating. Ah yes, okay I muddled it up, perhaps I understood that orginally. It was about two weeks ago I read this.
Ofcourse the rover could of gone beyond the fartherest rock it had been to, that was the next logical step.
But just how rough is that terrain in that region, presuming the rover went west diaganolly?
So is the Mars Six lander closer, I'm sure the terrain in that direction is quite rough.