PERSEVERANCE 536

Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 536
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T

Trying to catch up after a crazy busy week. This is sol 537's panorama (using Paul's images, but without the upper tier to save time) in circular form.

Phil

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Exactly the same but for sol 538. We followed the old tracks down the hill.

Phil

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And the same for sol 539.

Phil

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Another drive (SW) by Perseverance on sol 541 (August 28, 2022) takes it to site 26/3482 and closer to Kodiak on its way to 'Enchanted Lake'
Only a few of the NavCam tiled frame are down so far. The point to point drive distance appears to be a little over 100 meters
Roughly assembled in MS-ICE with very rough colour/gamma correction
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EDIT: LINK to all 8 of the tiled NavCams on Reddit

Here are Paul's images for sol 541 in circular form. Again I have omitted the upper tier as time is short right now (if only I lived on Venus. I could get so much more done in a day).

Phil

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Another drive: Sol 542 ~133 meters SSW
Post drive 4-tile NavCam (roughly processed)
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This is Paul's set of images for sol 542 (again missing the upper tier) in circular form.

Phil

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Three sets of tracks converging!

Dipping your wheels in the sand

Site 26/5150 Sol 543: 4-tile L-NavCam

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So, when Perserverance DOES eventually drop off the sample tubes, is it going to drive away in a spiral to create a big bullseye for the recovery mission to find, either by satellite or helicopter?

Shiny metal tubes would stand out against the rock and soil, I'd say. It's not like they will roll down a hill....


A dust storm in the intervening years could erase tracks entirely (has HiRise has a good look at Oppy/Spirit's tracks recently?) They may be degraded partially or entirely by now.

We will know exactly where the dropoff site is relative to (for instance) those long shallow troughs which cross the site. No problem locating them, no need for special markings made by the wheels. And as Explorer1 points out, tracks can be erased.

I looked at Opportunity's tracks near Endurance crater in images taken about 10 years after they were made. They can be seen in some places and are erased in others. Very dependent on the surface material and occasional windstorms, so hard to predict. I remember Spirit's tracks in Silica Valley were erased by a big storm within months of being formed, and imaged by the rover as it happened.

Phil

Not needed.

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/r...-On-The-Surface

Here is the sol 543 panorama in circular form, using Paul's images.

Phil

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Looks like there was a very small move (possibly a drive that failed due to wheel slip) on sol 544.

Phil

Thanks- that's quite interesting about how much mass movement there actually is.

Follow up quqestion.
When the rover does cross its own older tracks, does it ever do a quick analysis of the composition of dust & sand captured in those tracks?

I'm thinking of 'panning for gold' where a small depression preferentially traps heavier particles of sand/dust moving in a flowing fluid or perhaps moving by saltation?
Same way that a sluice (or fresh sheep's fleece) laid down in flowing creek will trap gold dust or gold flakes eroded out of upland gold deposits, because they are denser than the average sediment load.

Don't know about the idea of looking for denser grains in hollows. It has often been the case that tracks are analyzed because they reveal freshly-exposed material beneath the dusty surface.

Phil

Mars Guy (Steve Ruff at ASU) on YT has an explanation of what happened during the auto nav drive.

Could you summarize it, or provide a link?

Thanks.

Phil

OK. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN_0WE9peY8&t=9s

Excellent. Thanks!.

Phil

Short drive on Sol 548: At the end of the drive, the rover's front wheels look to be perched on the crest of the TAR. The rover also appears to be at right angles to the TAR, positioned exactly where it crossed over the TAR >100 sols earlier. I have roughly assembled the L-NavCam tiled sets in MS-ICE, the post assembly processing is also very basic.
LINK to the 7 tiles on Reddit
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Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 544 W-N
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T

Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 538-NW
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T

Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 538
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T

Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 538-W
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T

Sol 548 LMastcam-Z:
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Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 548-S
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T

There's a strange pair of dark quarter-circle streaks on the small dune to the right in Neville's post #375 image, like two opposite quadrants of a circle. Unless the rover or more EDL material caused that, I struggle to think of what might have caused that. It looks almost like a weight on a pendulum was swung in a circle and grazed the dune material.

That is a patch of sand, roughly circular, probably slightly cemented, which has slipped a short distance downslope. The curve at the top is a detachment scarp, the curve at the bottom is the leading edge of the slump. It is more regular in shape than most but similar features have been seen before from Viking and Spirit to current rovers.

Phil

Sol 548, getting ready to cross the obstacle. This was made from Paul's images without the upper tier again.

Phil

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Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 548-W
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T

Sol 549... looks like it may have been a failed drive. The Front Hazcam images show no movement.

Phil

Thanks for the interpretation of the circular patterns, Phil. It makes sense. I had precluded in my mind the possibility that there could have been movement inside the dune!

So in the Phil-o-vision images in Post382 it appears that the Rover was driving along the face of the dune and testing the surface for traction and stability. It appears that although there are some slumps, the overall surfsce is not failing too badly. Amd on the lower left of that image there are wheel tracks on the other side of the dune. Have I missed seeing wheel slippage somewhere?

--Bill

The tracks on the other side at lower left were made on sol 428, driving in the opposite direction.

On sol 551 there was a very small move up the dune, only a few centimeters.

Phil

I assume that since Opportunity's bogging their drive tolerances for all rovers are ultra cautious.

Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 550
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T

Ah, that's right, the earlier drive. I'm unaccustomed to retracing that earlier route.
And yes, that dune is an area of extreme caution.

--Bill

A long drive to the West on Sol 555 takes the rover over the TAR where it spend a number of Sols, and within a short distance of Enchanted Lake where they hope to acquire some additional sedimentary rock cores.
Attached is an end-of-drive 4-tile NavCam from site 27/0 roughly assembled and processed. I'll add a link to the other NavCam's once they are downlinked / processed
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EDIT: link to all 7 tiles on Reddit LINK

And thanks to Paul's images, here is a circular view of the current location, and a close-up.

Phil

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Sol 554 SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager mosaic no. 1 with Mastcam-Z context and sol 552 Navcam context

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Sol 554 SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager mosaic no. 2 with Mastcam-Z context and sol 552 Navcam context

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Thanks to Paul again, here s a circular view for sol 556.

Phil

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Drive on Sol 556 takes the rover to the north side of Enchanted Lake.
Here's a roughly assembled / processed R-NavCam view of the outcrop assembled from 16 tiles and reduced in size to match the 2x2 tiles.
The wheel tracks from its earlier visit (sols 421-422) can be seen on the southern side of the outcrop.

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Perseverance performed a short 'Bump' during Sol 557 (September 14th)
The new workspace is highlighted in this 2x2 tiled L-NavCam that has been roughly assembled and processed
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Paul's full set of images give us this circular view.

Phil

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Press conference today shows that Three Forks is the 1st sample drop-off being considered (along with lots of other details on the science and future traverse, including beyond the crater rim).

Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 557
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T