A cylindrical panorama from Sol 632 also using Paul's tiled Navcam images:

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Large format version

Panoramic animation covering the two most recent drives ending on Sol 632, with mosaics constructed from PaulH's tiled NavCam-L images.

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Link for longer drive starting back on Sol 502

Just had a drive on sol 641, apparently heading back to Three Forks to drop the first cache. Paul kindly provided the full frames again (saving me time I don't have) so here is the new circular view.

Phil

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Deimos (grazing) transit on Sol 637.

Here's a Sol 641 panoramic mosaic constructed by reprojecting PaulH's tiled NavCam images.

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Link to large format version

We see the driving in this extended animation. It mainly starts on Sol 502, and we're gradually filling in additional mosaics back to Sol 400 to show more of the traverse to the delta. North is now in the center for a better view towards the delta.

A direct hit by a dust devil!

Joel Achenbach in the Washington Post

“As the dust devil passed over Perseverance we could actually hear individual impacts of grains on the rover,” said Naomi Murdoch, a planetary scientist at ISAE-SUPAERO, an aerospace engineering institute in Toulouse, France, and the author of the new report. “We could actually count them.”

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35100-z

Here is a link about the event at the mission website that includes audio of the event:

LINK

Images for this image were taken on sol 644 and processed by Paul. There seems to be no movement since 641. A failed drive? But the lighting is different from the previous view so I will post it. There was a drive on sol 645.

Phil

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Perseverance has recorded the sound of a dust devil moving over the Rover. It recorded not only the wind, but also the impacts of individual dust grains, bringing forward a new parameter to measure: dust grains.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35100-z

Is there a direct non pay site link to the audio file ?

https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA25657

The Nature article is open--no paywall.

Sol 645 circular view courtesy of Paul's images and a bit of pixie dust. We had a drive on 646 and 647 too so I will catch up as I can get to it.

Phil

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That's what I thought. I was looking more at the data and discussion, and less at the audio recording.

--Bill

The Nature paper - like a lot of papers these days - comes with a supplementary file containing much more detail. You may find useful things in that - it's linked on he article page.

Phil

This is the sol 646 circular view from Paul's images.

Phil

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After a long drive on Sol 648 to Site 32 (Drive 0) Perseverance has arrived back in the Three Forks area.
The rover looks to be ~20 meters southwest of the location where they plan to drop the first of the 10 sample tubes in Sample Depot 1.
Attached is a post-drive 2x2 tiled NavCam, roughly assembled in MS-ICE and de-greened, also attached is a figure from the plan
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Here's a news story that I found educational about upcoming plans, related to the mission news link in the previous post.

Also a Sol 646 panorama, along with a large version. Thanks to Paul for the tiled NavCams and pointing info.
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Here is Sol 647, plus a large version.
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We can see the changing landscape in this extended drive animation starting back on Sol 400.

Sol 649: 4x3-tile Front-left HazCam [5066x2877px] acquired at site 32/0. Roughly assembled with MS-ICE, then de-greened /sharpened.
I'm assuming that this HazCam features the terrain where they are planning to drop the 1st sample tube at 'Three Forks'.
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Catching up... this is sol 647 from Paul's images.

Phil

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And sol 648 with Paul's help.

Phil

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The rover has arrived at 'Depot 1' after a drive of ~37 meters towards the East during Sol 652 (Processed Front HazCam)

It is positioned at the 1st sample tube drop point identified by on this map JPL.

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Touchdown confirmed! The first sample tube has been dropped off!



And a nice WATSON picture of the Sample Handling System taking off the tube.

Nice.

Has anyone read or know the reason for having the tubes separated from one another (1-2 m apart) over an area cash vs putting all the tubes in a single pile?

It's related to a future helicopter's landing strategy to pick them up.

Bonjour,

I also think that this is what it is all about.

I think I understood that this method is made to facilitate the operations of recovery of the tubes.

The helicopters would land on the area and then have to roll by each tube to position themselves properly to allow their robotic arm grippers to pick them up and carry them one by one to the Mars Ascent Vehicle. It is therefore necessary to have enough space between the sample tubes to allow these maneuvers.

We can remember that initially, it was envisaged that a rover (Sample Fetch rover) would pick up and bring back the sample tubes.

Remember the tubes on the ground are a backup. The main delivery of the tubes to the lander will be by Percy herself.

Yes, I did. I have not forgotten that.

I also read that the MAV would have the capacity to carry 30 sample tubes and so it would be desirable to be able to supplement Perseverance's inventory with some of the samples from the backup depots. Moreover, we do not have an absolute guarantee that the rover will be able to deliver. We must consider all eventualities.

I don't know if this is the reason, but it makes, for the retrieval process, the tubes identifiable from one another on the basis of their location. That doesn't seem to be crucially important, but it's a kind of information. If, say, dust covers up the tubes, you'd still know which one is which. That doesn't matter if you're picking all of them up anyway, but if there's any reason why a choice would be made, it's information.

The tubes being deposited here are a back up of other samples in duplicate being carried onboard the rover.

Under a nominal plan - SRL will be landed many many km from here, next to Perseverance such that Perseverance can drop the samples right infront of the lander (and perhaps assisted by the fetch helicopters)

In that scenario - this cache would be far far away and unreachable.

This cache is a backup for the scenario that Perseverance is no longer capable of handing off sample - the SRL would land near this location and the fetch helicopters would do the out-and-back to pick up these tubes.

Sol 648 panorama, along with a large version. Thanks much to Paul for the tiled NavCams and pointing info.
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Sol 652 panorama, plus a large version.
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We can see the changing landscape in this extended drive animation starting back on Sol 397.

Thank you for these explanations. All this has more coherence than my interpretations.

Sol 654 panorama, along with a large version derived from Paul's tiled NavCams and pointing info. This time there's a full set of upper tier images showing more of the sky.

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We can watch the changing landscape in this extended drive animation starting back on Sol 397.

Second tube dropped off on sol 655!

Mosaic using PDS NavCam png images from back on Sol 538:

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Here is a large version.

Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 650-z
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T

Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 647-Z
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T

Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 606-Z
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T

Paul's images for sol 652 give me this for the start of the caching operation.

Phil

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Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 629-E
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T

Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 629-W
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T

SOL 661 tube drop off (#3 ?)
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Sol 654 SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager mosaic with Mastcam-Z and Navcam context

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Sol 656 SuperCam RMI mosaic with sol 657 Mastcam-Z context

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Sol 657 SuperCam RMI mosaic with Mastcam-Z context and sol 654 Navcam context for this and the preceding SuperCam image

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Multispectral contexts for the preceding three SuperCam RMI images,
Mastcam-Z left eye filters 1 to 6 (visible to nearest infrared light) principal components

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Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 619-W
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T



Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 619-E
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T

Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 641
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T

Gigapan - PERSEVERANCE 642-S
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/ASU/NeV-T