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Posted by: DFinfrock Apr 14 2006, 02:00 AM

Since Spirit is no longer "Running for the Hills" and it appears that she will be staying at Low Ridge Haven for the next eight months or so, it seems like a good time to start a new topic.

I thought we could start with the great panorama stitched by jvandriel, and then altered by Tesheiner. We are going to become very familiar with this view in the coming months.

David


[attachment=5107:attachment] (286k)

Posted by: john_s Apr 14 2006, 04:34 PM

I'm just bumping this thread because I agree that it's time for a new topic devoted to Spirit's new home. Post here, folks!

Posted by: alan Apr 14 2006, 05:12 PM

A quick measurement of the thin layer

Posted by: ElkGroveDan Apr 14 2006, 05:58 PM

Are you certain about that 16cm measurement? I get 6.2992126 inches.

(Just doing my part to bump the new thread too.)

Posted by: RNeuhaus Apr 14 2006, 08:02 PM

So fragil that some gushing wind may break it off. I have also measured it but I got different result. According to GIMP tool, the given distance is 130.9 pixels. Then, the picture has 1024x1024 pixels (this is of 1 Megapixels) and its proportion is 2.8346 has pixels/mm (36.124 cms width and 36.124 height). Then the size of "flying stone" is 46.18 mm (130.9/2.8346). How do you get to measure it as 160 mm long?

Changing the topic, around the Low Ridge Heaven has many strange and rugged stones (ones which has undergone a process of great temperature that has produced bubbles of gas) that might be of volcanic or impact origns. So Spirit with its limited permissible autonomy can visit some stones facing to the northern side.

One of interesting lava rocks http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pancam/2006-04-14/2P198183492EFFAR00P2535R1M1.JPG

Rodolfo

Posted by: Phil Stooke Apr 14 2006, 09:05 PM

Here's a polar view of The Low Ridge Haven (Heaven's a slightly different place, Rodolfo, so they tell me).

It is from jvandriel's pan in the previous thread.

Phil

Posted by: RNeuhaus Apr 15 2006, 12:52 AM

Interesting picture. The north side is found the Columbia Hill? On that view to North, the Home Plate is found. Now, the south side has more naked stones than anywhere from Low Ridge Heaven. I deduct that the prominent wind comes from between southwest-south direction. The East side is seen the McCool Hill. The Spirit was trying to climb toward west. On around west-south side, where there is a small cone, is a famous cut bright cone, Pitcher Mound.

I suspect that the climbing direction of Spirit will not meet soft sand unless that westward surface, there is a thin layer of sand and below of this might be a outcrop. Thus, Spirit will be able to climb even further to catch a better wind.

Rodolfo

Posted by: Bill Harris Apr 15 2006, 01:36 AM

Whew, I'm glad that she made it to safe Winter Quarters.

I've been off all week, went to St Louis Missouri for a meeting. I was sans a public 'puter and didn't get a chance to check in.

--Bill

Posted by: aldo12xu Apr 15 2006, 01:52 AM

Cool image, Phil. Aesthetically and science wise. The Low Ridge layering seems to strike east-west below the rover and then changing to a more northeasterly strike. But the rocks exposed near Mitchelltree (which should be on strike) seem to have curved formed. Or is this an optical effect created by the polar projection? I'll try to sketch some images after the long weekend to clarify what I mean.

Here's a view of the Mitchelltree curvilinear bedding I was referring to, Navcam from sol 806.



By the way, is there any chance Spirit would be able to make a quick run to the north facing slopes of Pitcher's Mound during the winter months?

Posted by: RNeuhaus Apr 15 2006, 02:19 AM

Pitcher's Mound is on the west side of Spirit, its official name is Von Braun (not sure). The distance from its position to Von Braun is around 129 meters in a straight line. That is a tough distance for 5 tired wheels and the rover drivers must select the best route with thiner sand surface and estimate carefully about the power required to reach on PM before it is dead. It would be a very dramatic story.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/tm-spirit/images/sol_802_from_sol594.jpg

Rodolfo

Posted by: Shaka Apr 15 2006, 03:29 AM

129 meters is almost certainly too wide a gulf to 'sprint' across safely, but the point is that Low Ridge extends for some distance to the west from Spirit's present location. If we can map a sequence of safe north-sloping oases along the ridge, we might be able to narrow that gap significantly over the coming months. We might then be able to see enough isolated knolls across the gap to make the trip south feasible. Assuming we still have a significant interest in Von Braun, we might be prepared to take the risk. From there, in spring we would have a choice of directions, to south Home Plate or the Promised Land.
We need an energy map of Low Ridge first.

Posted by: RNeuhaus Apr 15 2006, 02:23 PM

Good idea, it is doable as the best with small and firm steps trying to reach the VB. The wildest idea is to try to climb a rock on the way by one of the wheels to get a correct north face tilt.

Rodolfo

Posted by: BrianL Apr 15 2006, 03:18 PM

Daddy, I'm bored. There's nothing to do here. When do we get to go? Can we go now? I'm booooored. Dad-deeee....

OK, maybe I get blase easily about seeing activities from the surface of another planet, but do the rest of you think you can get through this Martian winter without these thoughts creeping into your head? At least during the first winter, they were still moving around from place to place on a large hillside. There's really no place to go now safely, is there?

I fear following Spirit's activities for the next few months will be much like visiting friends who feel the need to trot out their pictures from their holiday tour of the plains states every time you visit.

"Look, there's Irma in front of the World's Largest Ball of Twine...."



Brian

Posted by: Shaka Apr 15 2006, 06:01 PM

We probably need to practice this kind of 5-legged acrobatics. We don't want to take 3 or 4 sols to get properly perched.
I'm not sure how many sols we could afford.

Posted by: algorimancer Apr 15 2006, 09:37 PM

I verified the measurement, measuring to the right tip of the projection, and got 18 cm with about a 1 cm error, basically in agreement with alan's measurement (he set the right side of the measurement a bit to the left of where I did). I'm not sure how he did it, but I used my own app, AlgorimancerPG, which you can find at http://www.clarkandersen.com/RangeFinder.htm. I'm not familiar with GIMP, so I don't have any idea of why it offers different results.

Posted by: dot.dk Apr 15 2006, 11:14 PM

I just looked at an image from when Spirit was on top of Husband Hill... How clean she was back then

So I made this gif to show the current dust buildup

http://img106.imageshack.us/my.php?image=dust0cd.gif

A breath of wind could be used indeed

Posted by: RNeuhaus Apr 16 2006, 01:44 AM

Good example, everybody knows that Spirit is dirtier in basin than on the top of Hill. She started to get dirtier during his transverse from El Dorado to HP.

Hence, I saw that the upper of hill (see me previous posts) where there will be more breeze (see more stones and tail marks of ripples behind any stones) and it will help to blow out the powder.

Rodolfo

Posted by: sattrackpro Apr 16 2006, 01:07 PM

Here’s a Q&D pan from the 4/15/06 (Sol 811) pancam directory of exploratorium - a look toward Husband Hill and the edge of HP. There’s an interesting spot in the tracks here (second image below) where it looks as if the right front wheel may have failed to rotate momentarily, a few meters before it failed completely. Maybe, maybe not... it could just be a patch of soft-dust-ridge the wheels went through, and it does have some cleat marks, however they aren’t uniform.

Posted by: ElkGroveDan Apr 16 2006, 03:35 PM

By the looks of the soil you are using images from different filters. I think it might be more accurate to use images taken though the same filter.

Posted by: dot.dk Apr 16 2006, 04:05 PM

It's two navcam images
So no filter issues.

Posted by: ElkGroveDan Apr 16 2006, 04:17 PM

Dang! I've been taking photos since Viking, and I'd swear that first one was through a red filter.

Nonetheless, dusty it is!

Posted by: Ant103 Apr 16 2006, 07:25 PM

Dusts Devils, Spirit Want You

Posted by: djellison Apr 16 2006, 07:29 PM

It's OK Bob - I'll take this one...

Dust Devils did not clean Spirit.



Doug

Posted by: Shaka Apr 16 2006, 07:45 PM

You ought to consider programming a 'hot key' for this reply.
But I seriously worry that we may be getting more and more anxious for ANY sort of wind event as the months wear on at Low Ridge. Dust strangulation would be a particularly agonizing way for Spirit to go.

Posted by: djellison Apr 16 2006, 08:10 PM

Common missconceptions require frequent correction.

I can see how and why it started - but the relation between cleaning and dust devils is simply that summer has stronger winds, and the summer also has more DD's. The connection is also furthered by the fact that we were in a topographically adventagous place during the summer.

Doug

Posted by: Bob Shaw Apr 16 2006, 08:56 PM

Doug:

For this, you don't need an FAQ list, but instead a FIA list.

That's Frequently Ignored Answers...

Bob Shaw

Posted by: jvandriel Apr 17 2006, 09:57 AM

Here is the complete view from Low Ridge Haven.

Spirit looking back at Husband Hill and surrounding.

Taken on Sol 811 with the R1 pancam.

jvandriel

Posted by: sattrackpro Apr 17 2006, 12:44 PM

In case you haven't seen it, a new rover update was posted on the marsrovers website http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html, dated the 14th. The 'news' is that the increase in power is, "50 to 60 watt-hours per sol" - which only "gives the rover enough energy for about one hour of daytime remote science."

Unfortunately that isn't much of an increase - but it at least allows some of the 'science' that many have longed to see.

Posted by: sattrackpro Apr 17 2006, 01:00 PM

One more item from http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1928&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0 - we ~could~ be sitting virtually in one small area for 8 months... maybe - some of that determined by lowered driving ability. Here's part of the text.

"We have to use care choosing the type of terrain we drive over," Dr. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, a rover planner at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said about the challenge of five-wheel driving. In tests at JPL, the team has been practicing a maneuver to gain additional tilt by perching the left-front wheel on a basketball-size rock.

Spending eight months or so at Low Ridge Haven will offer time for many long-duration studies that members of the science team have been considering since early in the mission, said Dr. Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, deputy principal investigator. These include detailed mapping of rocks and soils; in-depth determination of rock and soil composition; monitoring of clouds and other atmospheric changes; watching for subtle surface changes due to winds; and learning properties of the shallow subsurface by tracking surface-temperature changes over a span of months.

Posted by: Bill Harris Apr 17 2006, 02:16 PM

There is nothing wrong with Spirit being a sessile observer for a while. This will give us a chance to do a long-term observation of the aeolian processes that we've seen many signs of. Remember where Spirit was at Sol 90: between Bonneville and The Hills and very dusty. This trek has been miraculous.

In an ideal world, the right front wheel should have conked out while she was doing a survey on top of VonBraun, now that would be a heck of a view.

--Bill

Posted by: RNeuhaus Apr 17 2006, 04:08 PM

That is very good news. The problem can be solved by small steps toward the desired destination. It was what I was thinking in my recent previous post!

Rodolfo

Posted by: Burmese Apr 17 2006, 05:19 PM

At least this low ridge has a lot of interesting things for Spirit to look at. And it seems to be closely associated with Home Plate so what she discovers here will undoubtedly tell a lot about that feature. Had she made it to the side of McCool Hill I am not sure we would have had as rich a target environment (for a -very- slow moving rover now).

Posted by: RNeuhaus Apr 17 2006, 07:38 PM

During this fall and winter. It would be impossible for Spirit to catch the spoted places (korolev or Faget places) where are Spirit would be able to survive with the minimum energy buildup. From where Spirit is to these spot would not be able to advance as long as the battery is depleted. The problem is that the Spirit range autonomy has reduced much with one of the stuck wheels and low solar energy. Maybe, after spring, with dust devils to clean its solar panels and plus much solar energy, Spirit would be able to advance slowly toward to McCool Hill.

However, many people from JPL has felt that they need more time to study around HP so it is most probably that Spirit won't go to McCool Hill but back to HP. That is 20% effort and 80% science philosophy.

Rodolfo

Posted by: djellison Apr 17 2006, 09:10 PM

OK, now I KNOW you're having a laugh....



Doug

Posted by: slinted Apr 17 2006, 10:02 PM

A solid cleaning event would be nice, but Spirit probably has a long wait in store until the next one. The first, and I believe the most significant, cleaning event was on Sol 420, one sol before the first dust devils were spotted. That was LS 173, and we've got until January 26 of 2007 before that time of year will roll around again.

Posted by: RNeuhaus Apr 17 2006, 10:17 PM

My previous post I was saying that the Dust Devil will start to phantom on Gusev Crater in the next spring. Luckly, it would hit on Spirit. I remember that I saw a picture with one big DD roaring on the south basin of Columbia Hill. But, now, the weather is becoming cooler and cooler, that the DD won't be able to appear unless the breeze might happen in some time.

As I remember that there is another cleaning dust method. This has happened to Oppy when it was roving inside the Endurance crater. One martian early morning, the panel solar was covered by a very thin film of ice during the sunrise, later, the panel solar became clean due to the water cleaning. It might happen the same to Spirit during the early winter morning. Isn't that a bad news?

Rodolfo

Posted by: Jeff7 Apr 17 2006, 11:28 PM

We're all going to say this soon, until you completely lose it. We'll see you outside of Bill Harris' house one day at his 1/4 scale MER model, with a mini tornado generator machine, screaming "dust devils don't clean solar panels!!! BAHAHAHAAA!!!!!"

Posted by: Shaka Apr 18 2006, 12:08 AM

O.K. Let's keep the discussion at UMSF fair, considered and scientific whereever possible. To whit, dust devils are not known to have caused any MER panel cleaning events to date. Other forms of wind gusts that can occur at night are most likely responsible - why don't we give them a name, say, "gust angels". Pray for gust angels at Low Ridge Haven, but don't spurn a wayward DD that might show up instead. Since DDs vacuum up dust from the surface of Mars, they might well be capable of doing the same for Spirit. Angels or devils, it's the effect we need!

Posted by: DFinfrock Apr 18 2006, 12:11 AM

What I would like to see now is one of USTRAX's famous posters. An ad for the Martian Dust Devils cleaning service seems to be in order.

David

Posted by: bergadder Apr 18 2006, 03:53 AM

I know where the filters can be obtained:
http://www.appliancefactoryparts.com/vacuumcleaners/brands/dust-devil/

Posted by: jamescanvin Apr 18 2006, 04:37 AM

I like the look of this for the coming sol :

The first column of a pan in all filters (I would assume a 360 )

Not only that, but with 52 images that means it's going to be 4 frames high!


James

Posted by: djellison Apr 18 2006, 07:12 AM

I'll get Helen to take a picture of me infront of some posters I'm putting up at the BAA conference this weekend, then someone can annotate appropriately

Doug

Posted by: TheChemist Apr 18 2006, 09:09 AM

Some wishful thinking

Posted by: Nix Apr 18 2006, 09:53 AM

Looking forward to that one!

Nico

Posted by: Tesheiner Apr 18 2006, 10:10 AM

If they keep this pace of one row a day (let's hope not), it means a little less then one month to finish the 360º panorama.
I'm wondering if the atmosphere would be stable enough during all this time, otherwise we would have similar problems as on previous panoramas (Everest?) trying to match frames taken on different sols under different illumination conditions.

Posted by: djellison Apr 18 2006, 10:27 AM

The alternative is to have it done in 4 columns at a time - and then the join between the 'batches' is bad

Doug

Posted by: MahFL Apr 18 2006, 05:27 PM

Some dramitic low angle sun illumination pics from Spirit's Pancam today

e.g. http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pancam/2006-04-18/2P198554431EFFAR00P2408R1M1.JPG

Posted by: general Apr 18 2006, 06:17 PM

Lovely picture - notice how the pattern of the sand ripples of Eldorado changes from west to east.

Posted by: Stu Apr 18 2006, 06:38 PM

GORGEOUS image MahFL, thanks! Seems years since we were looking down on those ripples, doesn't it?

Posted by: Ant103 Apr 18 2006, 07:46 PM

Wowww O_O, it's wonderfull! This is a spectacular view!

Posted by: dilo Apr 18 2006, 08:36 PM

Agree, is truly spectacular view!
This is a crude manual stitch of 4 images centered on Husband hill:


Incidentally, on the same Sol Spirit take also this intriguing http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/navcam/2006-04-17/2N198538000EFFAR00P1988L0M1.JPG joining various symbolic elements (sand, rocks, tracks, solar panels, cameras mast shadow...)

Posted by: RNeuhaus Apr 18 2006, 08:52 PM

For my, that is one of the most beautiful scenery on Mars. This landscape express that this land is not dead, this land has some pattern of organization done by the winds, the consistent composition of sand, localized, and delimited. These combination of true, has striken to my mind to ask "Is there something expression of that scenery?".

Rodolfo

Posted by: SigurRosFan Apr 18 2006, 08:58 PM

A hell of view!! It looks so real!

Marco, thanks for the mosaic!

Great view of Lookout Point ...

Inner Basin:

Posted by: Nix Apr 18 2006, 09:07 PM

Now there's El Dorado amazingly glad to see it this way!

Nico

Posted by: Shaka Apr 18 2006, 10:16 PM

I don't know about "crude manual stitch", Dilo caro, but for me this is an image that is spiritually uplifting.
What's more, it simply begs to have Spirit present, gazing into the setting sun.
Astro0! Where are you? Let this be your masterpiece!
.
edit: Call it, Sunset of Spirit

Posted by: dilo Apr 18 2006, 11:07 PM

Dear Shaka, this was done by approximately rotating and joining single images through a photoretouch program.
This night I cannot go to sleep before this complete version: now made with AutoStitch, not easy due to strong differences in contrast/luminosity and for this reason required also lot of post-process adjustments, but I think the image is worth (hey, missed horizon on the right appear a little odd to me!).
Now Nirgal and Astro0 can do some magic on this!

Posted by: Bubbinski Apr 19 2006, 12:24 AM

Great panorama, Dilo. That pic is one of the best, most evocative I've ever seen. Makes Mars feel like a real "place", not just a point of light in the sky. That something could look so familiar yet be so very far away is something I am having a hard time wrapping my imagination around.

Posted by: Phillip Apr 19 2006, 12:33 AM

Wunderbar. Magnifique. Extraordinary. That panorama is a keeper. Thanks Dilo.

Posted by: dilo Apr 19 2006, 01:09 AM

...Thanks to all but especially to Spirit!

(anyway, there is some strange thing on this "lookout hill", recalling me Nazca features... )

Posted by: aldo12xu Apr 19 2006, 08:10 AM

Not to take away any pending thunder from Nirgal or Astro0, but here's my attempt at artistically rendering dilo's superb panorama. I'm fairly new at this, so feel free to let me know how it can be improved. especially in terms of sky color.


http://www.marsgeo.com/Photos/Spirit/BestColour/s813_HP_HHill_c.jpg

Posted by: MichaelT Apr 19 2006, 08:51 AM

Very well done aldo12xu!

Thanks, Michael

Posted by: jvandriel Apr 19 2006, 09:33 AM

Here is the same 360 degree panoramic view from Sol 807

with additional images from the solar deck taken on Sol 813.

Taken with the L0 navcam.

jvandriel

Posted by: jvandriel Apr 19 2006, 09:45 AM

and here is the panorama concentrated on Spirit. ( I have changed the

view direction 180 degree.)

Maybe one or both panorama's good for colourization by one of

the other members of this great forum ?

jvandriel

Posted by: Stu Apr 19 2006, 10:21 AM

dilo, aldo... (cough, splutter!!!) you can't just go posting images like that without warning, it's not fair!!! I'm going to be in hospital for a week with the pain of my jaw hitting the floor!!! Just... just stunning....

Seriously, how do you guys DO that??? You take those grainy black and white images off Exploratorium and turn them into... that!! It's like me doodling a sketch of a stick man and the Mona Lisa appearing when my back's turned! We all owe you a huge thanks for the many, many hours you've put in on those images, taking us to Mars and turning it into a real place more than ever before.

That's one of my favourite pans yet aldo. Good work.

Posted by: paxdan Apr 19 2006, 11:02 AM

Here is Jvandrial's pan in polar form. I'm just happy that spirit has ended up in such a visually interesting area.

Posted by: ilbasso Apr 19 2006, 12:57 PM

That appears to be the "J" from "JPL" - everyone knows that MRO is actually carrying a powerful laser to etch advertising slogans into the Martian terrain. That's how NASA is going to pay for science missions from now on.

OK, it COULD happen?!

Think Chairface Chippendale from The Tick, who started writing his initials on the moon with a powerful laser until he was stopped, after getting through CHA.

Posted by: aldo12xu Apr 19 2006, 04:16 PM

Hi Stu, thanks for the compliment. Nirgal and Astro0 are the real experts, though. But I'm glad I can make a reasonably artistic contribution. And your renditions are pretty stunning as well, especially the view from the rim of Victoria Crater and we're still 2000 metres away!! Now, that's impressive

Posted by: dilo Apr 19 2006, 08:34 PM

Aldo inspired me, cannot resist to do my personal colorized version! (80% of original size, "artificial" sky).
Enjoy! (and thanks, Stu, for the nice words)

Posted by: climber Apr 19 2006, 09:06 PM

Thanks so much to have turned Spirit's picts into THIS !
All the area look much closer than ever. Very inspiring and uplifting. THIS must make it to Planetary Exploration books.

Posted by: stevo Apr 19 2006, 09:06 PM

Oh my Lord, that is stunning. you guys are very, very good.

Posted by: Shaka Apr 19 2006, 09:19 PM

Magnificent.
Astro0, your canvas awaits you.

Posted by: Stu Apr 19 2006, 09:25 PM

Going to be serious for a moment here. In times past, explorers such as Lewis and Clark recorded the landscapes of the so-called "Frontier" with pencils and in paint, not just for posterity, to record the details of the places they had seen, but so that the people "back home" could see those places and, possibly, be moved and inspired to go there and see them for themselves. Other painters, like Albert Bierstadt, travelled out to the Frontier to paint its sunsets, horizons and wonders; his paintings of Yosemite are the finest ever created, with breathtaking colour and energy, and have inspired generations of people to travel to the valley and experience its wonders for themselves.

The panoramas you've shown us today have the potential to be just as important, I really believe that. Possibly more than any before, they show Mars as a real world, they bring it to life. Show the average man or woman in the street a Viking, Pathfinder or for that matter MER image andthey'll just see rocks, dust dunes, a pink sky... show them this image and they'll see the beauty of the light there, the stark grandeur of the landscape, and the true beauty of the New World. I know this for a fact because I printed out and showed that panorama to people at work today, and several of them were stunned. And I mean stunned, they just stared at it quietly. One told me she finally, finally "got" why Mars fascinates me so much. You really should try and get that panoram - both versions of it - Out There to the public, via magazines, websites, newspapers, whatever means you can. That's a genuinely powerful, evocative image. It deserves to be seen by as many people as posible.

But something else occurs to me. Today we treasure "antique" pictures, paintings and photographs made decades or even centuries ago that show how our town/city/country used to look. I am 1000% sure that in years to come, that panorama of Husband Hill, with Ultreya/El Dorado branded on its side, will adorn the walls of many habitats on Mars, treasured by colonists and settlers as a snapshot of how their home used to look, back when it was "the frontier".

Good work guys.

Posted by: Astro0 Apr 19 2006, 11:30 PM

Hi All,
Well, what can I say....that panorama is certainly one of the most dramatic images of the MER mission so far. I've been catching up with all the Rover news in the past 24 hours, having just returned from two weeks at JPL, Goldstone and KSC on a bit of a fact finding/education mission of my own.
Getting to have a look at Spirit and Opportunity's unnamed sibling in the Mars pit was a real treat, as well as meeting and lunching with some of the people who help to make the MERs happen.

I can't wait to get back into the swing of producing some new SFX images, and this panorama is certainly near the top of the list - although I think that it is 100% perfect as it stands in either colour, B&W, full or cropped field of view. Excellent work by EVERYONE

Cheers
Astro0

PS: Have to say that I got a real buzz at seeing one of my SFX images (Oppy Leaves Eagle) up on the wall in one office space at JPL - "I was over the moons of Mars!"

Posted by: Bill Harris Apr 20 2006, 01:11 AM

Oh mercy me, you kids have outdone yourselves.

A camera can create an image, but only a mind can create art.

--Bill

Posted by: MizarKey Apr 20 2006, 01:58 AM

That's got to be my favorite panorama to date.

Hey, can one of you show the route Spirit took coming off the hill? Alan? Of course it should be posted in the Route map folder, but I'd love to see the route our plucky rover took getting off the hill...especially if were 'stretched' a bit to look 'hillier'.

Posted by: Shaka Apr 20 2006, 06:03 AM

Something tells me this won't be the last low-sun panorama Spirit takes this winter. Next we should get a look at sunrise, though McCool Hill may cast a shadow over the scene. Some real clouds over Husband Hill would also be superb.
How prescient of JPL to send Oppy to do its wonderful crater science, while giving us the Spirit of Exploration among the scenic wonders of the Columbia Hills.
May all its future Martian study sites be as inspired!

Posted by: dilo Apr 20 2006, 06:31 AM

Good idea to put Route map...
I'm sorry, in the previous released image there was an error about Sol number, here corrected version:

Posted by: Borek Apr 20 2006, 07:39 AM

It's a stunning image, for sure.
But if you ask me what is my favourite picture from a MER, then it surely is the first big color composite picture from Spirit when it still was on lander. I set that image as a wallpaper at work on a 21" monitor. That high res picture really created an intense impression, that the screen is just a window to Mars and that I really can reach through it and touch the rocks on the surface. I remember the sense of awe when I looked at this pic.

Borek

Posted by: Nirgal Apr 20 2006, 09:17 AM

dilo, aldo: awsome, phantastic work !!

For the last couple of weeks I have been only occasionally checking the Opportunity board (
waiting for for new images of Victoria.) thought that we wouldn't see many new images from the "winter-parked" Spirit ... But little did I know what phantastic new images I was mising here in the Spirit board

hats off and Kudos for your great panoramas & colorizations ...

hopefully I too will find the time again to do some more image processing work
which I had to neglect recently because of other obligations (job, etc.)

Posted by: Tesheiner Apr 20 2006, 09:41 AM

Dilo & Aldo,

Incredible job!
One of the best panoramas ever worked.



Astro0,

I'm looking forward your SFX version with Spirit on the foreground and it's looong shadow.

Posted by: Nix Apr 20 2006, 08:13 PM

Wonderful work you guys -I had a go at this one too. It's been a while since I've done anything with the raws (time... ) but here's another version of this marvelous scene...

http://www.awalkonmars.com/A1813PMR1Ec1.jpg

Nico

Posted by: imipak Apr 20 2006, 08:30 PM

...!

Gosh, that really is rather good. I'm afraid the colour printer at work is going to be ticking up a few unauthorised copies tomorrow!

Posted by: Martial Apr 20 2006, 09:36 PM

it would bee very interesting to have drawing on this picture the way of Spirit on this face of Husband Hill
Thank you all

Posted by: djellison Apr 20 2006, 10:29 PM

Unfortunately, most of Spirit's traverse since leaving the summit of Husband Hill is obscured by near-field topography.

Doug

Posted by: Bob Shaw Apr 20 2006, 10:37 PM

Doug:

Have you been reading too many press releases? What's wrong with saying: 'You can't see there from here'? Or something equally, er, you know? Wossisname. Nothing wrong with plain English, oh no.

Can't get the staff.

Bob Shaw

Posted by: alan Apr 21 2006, 06:27 AM

Nice, they named the current location after a base in Antartica.

Posted by: lyford Apr 21 2006, 06:39 AM

Eschew Obfuscation!

Posted by: Bill Harris Apr 21 2006, 07:04 AM

Gesundheit!

Posted by: edstrick Apr 21 2006, 10:47 AM

Walter Gesundheit?

Posted by: climber Apr 21 2006, 10:54 AM

You mean, the one from Mc Mudro ?

Posted by: Tesheiner Apr 21 2006, 11:08 AM

They seems to have corrected that sequence name. It's now written as McMurdo on the tracking web.

BTW, the second row (of 27?) in that sequence is planned for sol 817 (tosol).

Slow pace on both sides of Mars.

Posted by: dvandorn Apr 21 2006, 11:55 AM

In re the truly lovely images of Husband Hill from Spirit's winter quarters:

Very nice, but not quite right. The automatic gain compensation of the imaging processes (stretching contrast, etc.) has rendered the extremely relatively dark El Dorado / Ultreya feature to be the same albedo as the surrounding, much brighter, hill and valley.

This would be a *perfect* image if El Dorado / Ultreya appeared as dark, in relation to the surrounding terrain, as it should be.

-the other Doug

Posted by: mhoward Apr 21 2006, 12:12 PM

I think it's actually the filter, or perhaps the filter and the lighting. The images are in R1 and R7; I think R1 has been used for the mosaics so far.

Posted by: slinted Apr 21 2006, 12:20 PM

I think the lack of contrast in El Dorado / Ultreya is more an issue of filter choice. So far we just have R1 (blue) and R7 (Pancam's furthest IR). As we learned from the close-ups, the sands there are as bright if not brighter than the normal Gusev sands http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p/708/2P189219370EFFAL00P2267L7M1.JPG, but dramatically less bright http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p/708/2P189219314EFFAL00P2267L2M1.JPG. When we get some L2s or R2s, I'll bet the dark sands pop out again.

Posted by: mhoward Apr 21 2006, 12:37 PM

Doing an R711 combination seems to work moderately well:

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=132348041&size=o

It's hard to get the balance right across multiple images, though.

Posted by: climber Apr 21 2006, 12:48 PM

Here we go again on the science side of the pictures!
You're right and I agree and I also say that the lower light the lower contrast. BUT, on this particular case, us, as UMSF'ers as well as as the general public who's paying for this, we've got even more return (ROI ) than we'd expected in our wildest thought.
How poetic I am...

Posted by: Phil Stooke Apr 21 2006, 01:11 PM

Regarding the idea of plotting the route on this great new pan:

The route from the hilltop to Eldorado could be mapped very nicely. To the right of Eldorado, the prominent mound is Comanche. Miami is just above and somewhat to the right of it... yes, quite a bit could be plotted. But everything after Eldorado is lost.

But I don't have time to do it.

Phil

Posted by: Nix Apr 21 2006, 02:26 PM

Nice to see that R1-7 combo Michael, hadn't taken the time to do it myself.

Individually, the shorter wavelengths will typically render darker areas brighter than they are while the longer (L/R2 for instance), like Slinted states will render the dark areas dark -or rather less reflective than they actually are under Martian lighting.

One can compare this being valid by looking at some radiance data from Opportunity dunefield scenery, while waiting for the 'right' data from Spirit sol 708 from El Dorado..

The reflected glare visible in the scene is also cause for the low contrast in some areas, due to the low sun-altitude. But I don't mind, the effect is indeed a very dramatic scene.

Nico

Posted by: Shaka Apr 21 2006, 07:22 PM

That's a relief. For a moment I was afraid that global warming had forced a name change.

The discussion by Nix et al. about the albedo variations of Eldorado is one we have touched upon repeatedly in past months. I have tried to contribute my understanding of how incident light is reflected, trapped and scattered by bodies of well-sorted and rounded basaltic sand on Mars. I'm sure that wavelength selectivity of different Pancam images will contribute to how bright or dark the sand looks in an image; ('bluish' sand will look 'blackish' through a red filter). But much of the variation also occurs in Navcam views, with unvarying wavelength biases. These variations conform to a fairly simple dictum: The closer the incident angle of illumination matches the viewing angle, the darker the sand will appear. Orbital midday pictures of Eldorado (and most Martian sand dunes) look black because both light and viewing are from above. From Spirit's present location on the surface of Mars, Eldorado looks bright because there is roughly 90 degrees between illumination and viewing angles, regardless of time of day. From the summit of Husband Hill we were looking down on Eldorado, the angle difference was usually less than 90, and Eldorado looked dark.
The basaltic sands of Mars reflect back very little light; they scatter more to the sides; they absorb and trap a lot. I hope this is helpful.

Posted by: atomoid Apr 21 2006, 08:26 PM

the incident angle shouldt matter too much sine the sandfield is not flat but wavy that vaiation should override and make somewhat insignifficant any change incident angle. otherwise ultreya would be very mottled looking based on its topography.

after cancelling out the effects of the filter used, i thought the 'lightening' of ultreya had more to do with the dynamic range of the exposure compressing the contrast between the soil values when a signifficant portion of the image is the sky, causing the white set point to hog the higher end of the dynamic range and robbing the darker portion of it contrast range.

Posted by: Shaka Apr 21 2006, 09:23 PM

But of course Eldorado and all dune fields do look "mottled", with the mottles comprising mostly bands of albedo gradients parallel to the ripple crests and troughs. That's how we see the ripple patterns at all. If we're going to get into the small scale variations within a ripple, other minutia regarding the degree of sorting and rounding and the mean particle size can also make contributions, as well as the mineral composition and albedo of individual grains.
It would be nice if one of our rockhounds could supply the URL of a good discussion of these principles with suitable illustrations. I don't know of one offhand. I could make this clearer if I had a blackboard.


It's interesting that we have a component of our membership who prefer to explain albedo patterns as an artifact of the imaging technology rather than as 'real' light patterns that we would all see if we were standing on Mars 'in the flesh'. I wonder if they are primarily photographers who are fixated on the foibles of their machinery, rather than the natural world. As a biologist, my fixation is on the latter, but clearly we can both make a contribution to this discussion.

Posted by: aldo12xu Apr 22 2006, 05:24 AM

The rift between artistic license and what's "real" can be a distant one. Here's my revised attempt to bridge the gap:



http://www.marsgeo.com/Photos/Spirit/BestColour/s813_HP_HHill_c.jpg

Posted by: Shaka Apr 22 2006, 06:20 AM

You're right about that, Aldo! Over the years since the MER landings we have all developed our own 'personal' mental images of the 'reality' of Mars. That is the MIRACLE of the MER missions! We aren't really there on Mars, using our own eyes, but the extraordinary imaging systems of Spirit and Opportunity have given us a sense of Martian reality. (Personally, I have gained nothing more valuable from the NASA programs since I watched Buzz Aldrin 'skip' across the Moon.)
None of us has really stood and watched a sunset on Mars. We have all felt the magic that can accompany that moment on Earth. The MER cameras know nothing about those moments. They are programmed to 'optimize' each frame in terms of brightness and contrast. What Dilo's interpretation of their panorama has done is to remove the imaging machine from our experience, and to give us a real Martian sunset - as real as anything we can know until we stand there.

Posted by: lyford Apr 22 2006, 06:31 AM

well spoken, shaka!

Posted by: Nix Apr 22 2006, 08:28 AM

Concerning artifacts in the imagery, we all know by now not to make wild assumptions based on raw images.
Still, some rough comparisons can be made IMO if the time-interval is short enough. That's why I referred to comparing some calibrated Oppy-scenery through L2/L5/L7/R1 until we get to see some calibrated data for El Dorado.

Here's the L1 pan shot on sol 799.
[Radiometrically calibrated L1 images are used to produce estimates of the albedo (bolometric albedo; see page 23 of Bell et al.: Pancam In-Flight Calibration) for those interested in the technical stuff.]

http://www.awalkonmars.com/A1799PM8L1E1.jpg

while a 'raw' pan, this should provide a somewhat more realistic perception of the scene since L1 is centered at 739 nm with 338 nm bandpass (~largest wavelength coverage amongst the Pancam filters)

Nico

Posted by: centsworth_II Apr 22 2006, 03:53 PM

What's more realistic in terms of what a human on Mars would experience, an "enhanced" color version or a "accurate" black and white shot?

Posted by: Nix Apr 22 2006, 04:02 PM

obviously an enhanced color version -

Nico

Posted by: MaxSt Apr 23 2006, 04:07 AM

Your colors are very nice!
But maybe you could move a "sun" a bit on a left, even behind the edge, so the shadows on the left would look more natural...

Posted by: Nirgal Apr 23 2006, 02:01 PM

This is my attempt at a "near true color" composite, using the Sol 811 R7 R1 filter data (with a synthetic green channel mixing 50% red 50% blue) and partly enhanced / synthetic sky.
Fortunately, the Sol 811 pancam data seems to be complete now (without the missing data rectangle in the
dune-area of el-dorado)

here is the half-resolution JPEG; full res available on demand (running out of web space ...)

http://mitglied.lycos.de/user73289/misc/spirit_p811_pcol_R71_e_half.jpg

Posted by: Nix Apr 23 2006, 03:04 PM

Mmmm.. lovely view Nirgal. Great job!

Nico

Posted by: mhoward Apr 23 2006, 04:33 PM

Very nice, Nirgal! People might be confused though: that is the daytime mosaic, and then there is also the sunset mosaic. Are you going to do the sunset mosaic too? And then a nice animated GIF switching between the two? The last should only be, oh, 34GB large in full resolution ;-)

Posted by: Nirgal Apr 23 2006, 06:31 PM

As for the sunset panorama we already have those wonderful breathtaking b/w colorization interpretations done by Dilo, Aldo & Nico !

As far as a multi filter "near true color" version for the "sunset pan" can not be done from the Sol 813 data alone, because we only have one filter (R1 or L7) per camera eye ...

However, I tried to combine the color-only information of the R7R1 day time panorama taken on Sol 811 with the illumination-only information of the b/w sunset pan (separation and recombination of AB-channel and L-channel of LAB color space)
in order to colorize the sunset panorama: here is the result

http://mitglied.lycos.de/user73289/misc/spirit_p813_colb11_half.jpg

(I deliberately kept the overall illumination low as to preserve the original darkish sun-set mood)

Here is a detail crop of the interesting dark dune pattern:

http://mitglied.lycos.de/user73289/misc/spirit_p813a_col811_c.jpg

edited: if the color of the dunes appears too bluish (wich is probably due to the individual contrast stretching of the uncalibrated JPL JPG's) one could further reduce the blue
color channel in the final images ...

Posted by: Nix Apr 23 2006, 06:32 PM

To eliminate any confusion -sol 813 false-color R1-7 using synthetic green;

http://www.awalkonmars.com/A1813PMR1syngR7E1.jpg

edit: looks like we're having another pano-party

Nico

Posted by: Nirgal Apr 23 2006, 07:07 PM

Congratulations, Nico: this must be the best Version of all (incl. full resolution and straightened horizon, simply perfect work !)



How nice that good old injured Spirit, even in Winter rest, still gives us "fuel" for such great panorama parties

One Question: Did you also use the combination of Sol 811 color and 813 illumination data ?

Posted by: Nix Apr 23 2006, 07:43 PM

Thanks Nirgal, indeed an injured rover won't stop us -as long as the cameras work...

I didn't use the combination of sol 811/813 data. I will try it out though -but right now I'm awaiting my pizza delivery

What I like about your latest is that you kept the illumination low -and the 'mood' in the color range is very inspiring!

Nico

Posted by: Nirgal Apr 23 2006, 07:47 PM

Guten Appetit !
... well deserved

Posted by: RNeuhaus Apr 23 2006, 07:52 PM

Spirit surrounding scenery has a bomb of very nice images and looks forward that the next time the Oppy's scenery site will too have ones nices when it approaches to any anomally tall ripple (soon) or close to a small crater previous with bright albedo to VC and VC itself.

Rodolfo

Posted by: Nix Apr 23 2006, 08:01 PM

ssshhht - I'm losing my patience enough as it is to see Victoria!

Vielen dank Nirgal.

Nico

Posted by: Bob Shaw Apr 23 2006, 08:07 PM

These panoramas are indeed all excellent - but all suffer from vignetting, which is made more obvious when the individual frame edges are visible in the sky. Could I suggest a further refinement might be to dodge and burn a few selected areas just to tie everything together?

I've done a quick and dirty example!

Bob Shaw

Posted by: Nix Apr 23 2006, 08:49 PM

You are right Bob and your quick & dirty example sure is improving the result.

It must be said though that thanks to Michael's anti-vignetting tool a great deal of vignetting has probably already been compensated for.
If anyone is interested in further improving my version, feel free to mail for a layered .psd file for download.

I'll probably wait for the calibrated data to give it another go.

Nico

Posted by: aldo12xu Apr 23 2006, 10:23 PM

Great versions Nico & Nirgal!! And as Max suggested I moved the sun in my image a little bit to the left.

http://www.marsgeo.com/Photos/Spirit/BestColour/s813_HP_HHill_c.jpg

I thought I'd also let everybody know that Stu inspired me with his comments about getting this image out to the general public. I sent an email to Jim Bell with a link to our forum discussion and I got a response today. Here are some excerpts of what he wrote:

"It is absolutely thrilling--and incredibly fulfilling to me personally--to see you and so many others working
with the images and creating such beautiful products.

"Your Spirit sol 813 image is particularly well-timed, as I have been working on a monochrome and sepia-toned version of that mosaic for possible release on the JPL web site (if they will post it--sometimes they do, sometimes they don't, I'm not sure how they decide), and on our own internal Pancam web site (I hope you know about http://pancam.astro.cornell.edu/pancam_instrument/index.html) this week.

"This was shot using only two filters--spanning the broadest range of the camera's wavelength coverage--as part of an experiment to determine topography at large distances using images at multiple times of sol."

He goes on to say that the power levels were insufficient to acquire a 6 filter image set. And so his team will not be attempting any "approximate true color" version. What Nico, dilo, and Nirgal have generated will the most "realistic" versions out there.

Posted by: mhoward Apr 23 2006, 10:54 PM

Cool. Here, just for perspective (perspective projection, that is), is a wide view of the daytime pan, facing due North:

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=133773198&size=o

Posted by: Stu Apr 23 2006, 11:42 PM

Congratulations aldo on the very positive feedback from JB. Much deserved recognition of your work - and congratulations to everyone who's been busy making panoramas of this fantastic view, each one has brought something new and different to the scene, brought out even more of its beauty and grandeur.

When the great naturalist John Muir wrote the following words about the wonders of Yosemite...

"...In the supreme flaming glory of sunset the whole canon is transfigured, as if all the life and light of centuries of sunshine stored up and condensed in the rocks was now being poured forth as from one glorious fountain, flooding both earth and sky."

... I think he could just as easily have been talking about the landscape you've shown us these past few days aldo, Nirgal, Dilo, and all you other ImageMages.

I wonder how a martian-born John Muir will one sol describe the scenes we're all enjoying?

Posted by: kungpostyle Apr 24 2006, 01:45 AM

Cool, I was not aware of that pamcam site. I'm glad Jim Bell likes the work. Rob Manning stopped by the Mark Carey blog a few months ago, it's always nice when the pro's stop by or chime in.

Posted by: Ant103 Apr 25 2006, 11:35 AM

Sunset animation on Sol 818. Color processing with an other color picture of a sunny rising.

http://www.astrosurf.com/merimages/Spirit/Inclassables/CoucherDeSoleilSol818.gif
(click on the picture to enlarge : 1,2 Mo gif)

Posted by: SigurRosFan Apr 25 2006, 11:44 AM

Nice Sunset! What is the name of the hill?

Posted by: Nix Apr 25 2006, 12:21 PM

The 'hill' is the southeastern part of the rim of Thira. Nice work Damien!

Compare;

http://www.awalkonmars.com/A1620PAM8L7R1E1-01.jpg

Nico

Posted by: Astro0 Apr 25 2006, 12:30 PM

Sunrise! Sunset! Solrise! Solset!
Gotta love all this imagery work going on from UMSF'ers.
I know there have been a few requests for an SFX version of the Sunset Panorama.
I am working on it. Just taking some time with it as I really want to get the lighting and shadows right.

In the meantime, here's the background I'll be using.
Thanks to Nico for the starting point Your colours were definitely the best around.
I've enhanced it a little, improvements to vignettes, sky, foreground, shadows, etc just to flesh it out.
http://www.zip.com.au/~gjn/MERSFX/UMSF/solset_3840lg.jpg
Click image for larger version: 860k NB: A full resolution version available on request: 6.8mb

Enjoy
Astro0
http://www.zip.com.au/~gjn/MERSFX/indexSFX.html

Posted by: dilo Apr 25 2006, 01:09 PM

Aldo, thanks forwarding us the J.Bell comments!
Astro0, I must admit your sunset version is probably the best one, I like to see how each of us gived some contribution to reach perfection! Now you know what to do, let SFX asap!!!

Posted by: SigurRosFan Apr 25 2006, 01:10 PM

Yeah! Beautiful colors! Especially the smooth red color of the crests of Allegheny Ridge.

Very nice, Astro0.

Posted by: mhoward Apr 25 2006, 01:26 PM

Mmm... I don't think so. That's a sunset, not a sunrise, and Thira is in the east, I thought.

Posted by: mhoward Apr 25 2006, 01:40 PM

The hill is at about -73 degrees ground-relative azimuth (slightly north of west) - somebody with a map can figure out which hill it is.

Here's the context view due west:

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=134809881&size=o

Posted by: Stu Apr 25 2006, 01:54 PM

Oh... my.... god.... A thing of beauty Astro... a thing of beauty....

Posted by: Sunspot Apr 25 2006, 02:07 PM

http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn9049-spirit-to-start-digging-the-martian-dirt.html

NASA's Spirit rover, now safely holed up for the forthcoming Martian winter, is poised to start digging in the dirt.

Posted by: SigurRosFan Apr 25 2006, 02:13 PM

Only one 'candidate hill':

- http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p/620/2P181403735EFFAERFP2292R1M1.HTML

Posted by: alan Apr 25 2006, 02:43 PM

No, thats Thira.
View of Sunset hill from sol 221 (on the right)
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p/221/2P145981041EFF8500P2284L6M1.JPG

Posted by: aldo12xu Apr 25 2006, 03:20 PM

Astro, man, oh, man! That is perfection! All it needs is the cherry on top (of Home Plate)

Posted by: mhoward Apr 25 2006, 03:49 PM

But Thira is to the east, and quite, quite hidden by McCool Hill at the moment. The only thing that makes sense to me is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1_Hills or Grissom Hill - I'm out of my reckoning enough that I'm not even sure which one makes more sense, but I'm guessing White Hill.

Anybody have a big map of this part of Gusev? This is driving me nuts.

Here is http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040602a/07-JR-07-buried-A147R1.jpg. It wasn't even visible until we got to the summit of Husband Hill, as I recall, or at least up to Larry's Lookout.

Edit: If you're looking for the hill on the Navcams, by the way, you won't find it - I would guess because it's so far away that's it's normally obscured by haze. The sunset makes it visible. I think that's kind of cool.

Posted by: Nix Apr 25 2006, 03:59 PM

Ooh -I've let my Thira-obsession fool me again

So it's either the distant western rim of Gusev or the big crater visible to the west seen in this Odyssey image;

http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20040103a.html

I've wondered earlier on in the mission (from the Cahokia pan I believe) wether this feature is that crater or not.

Astro0, awesome! Thanks a bunch for the improvement -I'd be very happy with the fullres

Note; Bob Shaw is if I'm not mistaken also working on improving the scene, looking forward to his work too.

Nico

Posted by: Bob Shaw Apr 25 2006, 04:03 PM

Astro0:

Great image - and yes, those vignetting improvements were exactly what I had in mind! How do you fancy extending the sky so that it's in the correct proportions for a standard Windows desktop? Yes, I *know* it'd be big, but Mars needs desktops!

Bob Shaw

Posted by: Nix Apr 25 2006, 04:08 PM

an aid in identifying the feature maybe;

http://www.awalkonmars.com/1Loc_USGS-Geodesy-256img.HR.jpg

Nico

Posted by: RNeuhaus Apr 25 2006, 04:10 PM

Spirit will try to dig the land with its rock abrasion tool!!! The RAT is useless so it will be used for digging!

For the first time this mission, Spirit will try to look at the Martian soil at various depths, utilising the rock abrasion tool on its robotic arm as a digger. The rover will first try to determine the uppermost soil's composition, before brushing away a layer of soil – from a millimetre to a centimetre – so that the experiment can be repeated on the next layer, and so forth.

This week, teams at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, US, will simulate the soil experiment with an Earth-based test rover before Spirit tackles the real soil.


Around the HRL has many stones with holes.
The dark grey rocks with small holes in them may have come from volcanic sources. Light, thin jagged rocks are jutting out from the sand. And on the top of a drift sits a smooth light grey rock.

http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn9049-spirit-to-start-digging-the-martian-dirt.html

Rodolfo

P.D.Astr0, Super appealing picture only for the please visual but in the reality, it would be alike to a very good and nice yellowish sun afternoon.

Posted by: Nix Apr 25 2006, 04:55 PM

Interesting, there's also this thread started on the subject ;

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=2648

Posted by: Tom Tamlyn Apr 25 2006, 07:23 PM

An http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060425_rovers_update.html posted today by veteran reporter Leonard David is the first that I've seen to disclose that "Low Ridge Haven" was named for one of the quiet giants of space exploration, http://www.apollostory.com/albums/fire/f07.htm.

TTT

Posted by: ElkGroveDan Apr 25 2006, 07:56 PM

I am forced to wonder how much dust this process will stir up and where that dust will land. Keep in mind we are in a 1/3g environment and some of that stuff has a very fine texture.

They should probably wait for Spring and the resumption of "cleaning events" before they start tossing dust around.

Posted by: Stu Apr 25 2006, 09:41 PM

astro...

Two questions:

#1: can I use your panorama in a talk I'm giving to a group of schoolkids next week? I'd love to show the little gremlins cherubs what Mars really looks like... And

#2: how do we get the full resolution version? Is it going to be on your website?

Posted by: Astro0 Apr 25 2006, 10:58 PM

Stu, Please go ahead and use the image for your school talk. Anything we can do to encourage the next generation of UMSF'ers is fine with me!

On the high-res version...there have been a few requests for it already (Chris, Pertinax and others).
So rather than killing my email at home (I'm still only on a 56k modem), I think that I will post it to my website and kill the bandwidth there instead. I hope to finish the SFX version with the Rover added to the image in the next day or so, but I will post the sans-rover version later tonight (in about 12 hours - local time). I'll put a link on UMSF.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.
Astro0

Posted by: Bob Shaw Apr 25 2006, 10:59 PM

AstroO:

Thanks!

Bob Shaw

Posted by: Astro0 Apr 25 2006, 11:17 PM

Bob, I think I can manage that. I think that to fit a screen I'd need to crop the right-hand side a bit so that Husband Hill, ElDorado and Sol become the focus. Another small project for tonight
Cheers
Astro0

PS: If I'm interpretting RNeuhaus correctly...you're suggesting that the Sun is either too yellow or not yellow enough?! I took my lighting cue here from an http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20040108a/color_panorama_sol6-A6R1_br.jpg

Posted by: Astro0 Apr 26 2006, 03:22 PM

Hi All,
As per requests, the higher resolution version of the Solset image is now online at my http://www.zip.com.au/~gjn/MERSFX/indexSFX.html.
I've reduced the file size a bit, so it's only 3.8mb. Enjoy

As per Bob Shaw's request, please see the image below ready made as a desktop wallpaper.

File: 430k

Enjoy
Astro0

Posted by: Pertinax Apr 26 2006, 03:46 PM

Beautiful.

A myriad of thank yous!

-- Pertinax

Posted by: Nix Apr 26 2006, 05:44 PM

Indeed, nice job!

Nico

Posted by: Ant103 Apr 26 2006, 06:08 PM

Maybe you think I'm a "perfectionnist" but I've make a more realistic sky with gradation of the color : more and more darkness with the approach of the zenith

Do you like the bit tranformation I've put on your wallpaper Astro_0...?

Posted by: Oersted Apr 26 2006, 06:09 PM

Thx - Fabulous solset! - Must say that El Dorado looks totally unreal... but it does so in reality, so that is fine!

Posted by: Shaka Apr 26 2006, 06:38 PM

Less so than me, Psukie. I still think the sun should be off the frame to the left to match the shadow angle behind the rocks at left. (the way Dilo had it) Also I'm not familiar with the reasoning for Mars having much less red in its sunsets than earth.

Posted by: MaxSt Apr 26 2006, 07:17 PM

I agree.

Posted by: Nirgal Apr 26 2006, 07:29 PM

Wow ! this is absolutely great to see how the collaborative effort of so many forum members
leads to such phantastic results, each improvement adding another step to perfection
Astro0: your final version is nothing but awsome !

Ant103: thanks for the vertical sky gradient ! it's the cherry on the cake

Posted by: Nix Apr 26 2006, 08:22 PM

The Sun should indeed be off the frame; one could extend the sky (and use navcam overlays to make the sky gradation), put the Sun in the right spot, some annotation in place of the missing foreground, take out the excessive blue particularly dominating El Dorado, etc...

There is always room for improvement -or so I believe.

Indeed, a lot of fun working together on things like this

Nico

Posted by: imipak Apr 26 2006, 08:42 PM

Absolutely fantastic images from everyone! Each successive reworking of the same raw data balances another cherry precariously on top of the one below, so the metaphorical cake now appears to be topped by a stunt motorcycle team dressed, as tomatoes, forming a wobbly human tower... er, minaturised to the size of cherries

Being able to watch you all collaborating and competing to produce these images is an incredible experience. Thanks to everyone who's contributed... I'm abosolutely loving it. Recently I was thinking that, no matter what happens on Mars in the next few years and decades, I'm going to remember the MER/UMSF experience, and these images, for the rest of my life.

Posted by: dilo Apr 26 2006, 08:48 PM

Not only, I'm pretty sure we will continue to crunch and perfectioning thousand of MER images years after mission conclusion!

Posted by: Bob Shaw Apr 26 2006, 08:54 PM

Great images - and now I have several new desktops to choose from!

Bob Shaw

Posted by: Nix Apr 26 2006, 08:55 PM

I absolutely agree dilo. There's just so much data, and so much to learn about the possibilities in handling them... in many ways.

I'm good for life

Nico

Posted by: aldo12xu Apr 26 2006, 08:58 PM

Great version, Psukata!

In my opinion though, next to Astro0 adding the rover, the obsolute crowning cherry on top of the cake would be to show a bright blue evening star (earth) emerging out of the dark sky above Husband Hill..........anyone?

Posted by: Astro0 Apr 26 2006, 10:52 PM

OK. So it's back to the drawing board then. Thanks for the rush of input from everyone.
I'm sure that at the end of this process we'll have generated the most awesome, cheery-topping panorama from Mars ever -- excluding of course the vista from the edge of Victoria Crater when Oppy gets there.
NB: This will of course push back the final SFX version until we get majority UMSF agreement on the background

Cheers
Astro0

Posted by: Shaka Apr 26 2006, 11:05 PM

Rome wasn't built in a day, right, Dilo?
Head out in the scrub, Astro0, and watch a few Aussie sunsets!
Spirit's not going to run away.

Posted by: Astro0 Apr 26 2006, 11:17 PM

No time to watch an Earth sunset Shaka.
As you know, I spend all my days and nights on Mars.
If I'm not tracking Rovers, I'm drawing them.
I'm off to play with Photoshop now.
See you tosol.
Astro0

Posted by: dilo Apr 27 2006, 08:50 AM

I'm a little worried by dust accumulation in the last weeks...
Look at these sundial pictures taken with L456 filters:

I have impression that there was a worsening especially in the last month (look to the colors degrade on the corners).
I know this could be due to slightly different light conditions and image compression, but there is a trend also looking to other pictures...

Posted by: Ant103 Apr 27 2006, 10:26 AM

Here the first part of the big pano that Spirit will build on his Winter Quarter location :

http://www.astrosurf.com/merimages/Spirit/Panoramas_couleur/ADroiteDeMcCool_Couleurs.jpg

This is the first -I believe- that Spirit take picture toward horizon in full resolution and with all the filters. It reveal the good colors of the site.

Dilo : it's very clear the fact that some dust are deposing on the rover. It's unhappyness

Posted by: Bill Harris Apr 27 2006, 12:28 PM

>I'm a little worried by dust accumulation in the last weeks...

That is worrisome, but looking at the ground at Spirit's feet you can see that this locale can be quite windy. Likely, the wind is seasonal but I'm not sure of the current cycle. Even though this is Winter and the Sun is lower and heats the ground less, the overall temperature is also lower: thermal winds rely on temperature differences in the air and the potential for mid-afternoon winds (or night winds from the air cooling and sinking into the valley) is present.

--Bill

Posted by: Tesheiner Apr 27 2006, 01:25 PM

Meanwhile, "McMurdo" panorama is slowly being shooted and downlinked.
This is what's available for the time being (in L7 filter):

(700k)

Posted by: djellison Apr 27 2006, 03:13 PM

Q'n'A is done, just waiting for Emily to put it on TPS website - but Jim said they have about 10% of the whole thing down, and the L7/R1 will be uncompressed, and the remaining filters will have very little compression.

Doug

Posted by: mhoward Apr 27 2006, 06:06 PM

It's a bit late to the party, but here is the MMB perspective view of the sunset mosaic:

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=135997352&size=o http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=135997347&size=o&context=photostream

Here is the MMB view of the big pan so far (L7 filter), and an anaglyph view that I haven't even tried out yet:
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=135997305&size=o http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=135997286&size=o

And a couple more just for perspective:
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=135997334&size=o http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=135997329&size=o&context=photostream

Enjoy.

Posted by: Nix Apr 27 2006, 06:55 PM

Thanks for those views Michael, good too see Spirit included..

and you being late..makes for a good excuse to party just a bit longer

Nico

Posted by: elakdawalla Apr 27 2006, 06:56 PM

Posted! http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=2665

Posted by: Astro0 Apr 27 2006, 11:55 PM

The Q&A was brilliant. Really well done.
Thanks to Doug and Emily for all their work.
Great insight into the mission from Jim Bell.
More! More! More! Please

Astro0

Posted by: CosmicRocker Apr 28 2006, 05:11 AM

I just wanted to jump in and say that the look-back at Home Plate, Husband Hill, and El Dorado that all of you people have been collaborating on is truly breath-taking. I've always had trouble picking my "favorite" view, as captured by our beloved rovers and artistically interpreted by the masters here. But, if ever there was one, this must be it.

Posted by: Astro0 Apr 28 2006, 07:31 AM

If someone can give me a good indication of where Earth would be seen in the Low Ridge Haven image, I'm happy to oblige.
In the meantime, take a look at my own version of 'A Moment Frozen in Time' to which I added an Earth-star. Just for effect only and as always, not portraying any scientific accuracy.
After all it is an "artist's impression" for heart-warming value only.

Enjoy
Astro0

Posted by: Joffan Apr 28 2006, 08:58 PM

Notwithstanding your "not portraying any scientific accuracy" diclaimer, I'm going to push a little for detail....

If that's Spirit, she must be looking at a midwinter sunrise for Earth to get so far down toward the horizon. (If it's Opportunity she's really travelled a long way...) Spirit is about 15deg S, Mars tilt is 25deg, I don't know about Earth's orbital inclination relative to Mars but it ain't much.

Oh, and, it's still a lovely picture.

Posted by: Stu Apr 29 2006, 04:50 PM

Thanks to everyone who's worked so hard on the various versions of the "Solset panorama". Little something for you http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=2571&view=findpost&p=52309 over on the "Rover related writing" page...

Posted by: sattrackpro Apr 30 2006, 02:16 AM

Perhaps some may not 'get' Astro0's picture of earth - it's there, and properly a tiny dot (see my muck-up of his picture with red arrow pointing to earth below.) Yes, that's Spirit, perched on Jibsheet, and it's a sunset - but properly speaking earth, of course, wouldn't be there in the sky over Mars at that time. It is indeed a lovely picture - but one that puts earth in the picture for perspective, contemplation and simple artistic purposes.

Astro0 - correct me if I'm all wet...

(edited) - oh, was I wrong! The outcrop is Jibsheet, and it's a sunset - image from Cornell's Pamcam site.

Posted by: Jeff7 Apr 30 2006, 07:24 AM

From the http://www.planetary.org/news/2006/0428_Mars_Exploration_Rovers_Update_Spirit.html that Bobby posted http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=2679:

"The first phase of the winter campaign consists of two sets of activities: one is acquiring what's probably going to be the biggest panorama we've ever done, the McMurdo pan. That's going to be all 13 filters -- all the colors we've got -- and for a number of filters it will be uncompressed data, so it'll be extremely high resolution." The mosaiced panorama will ultimately be comprised of some 1500 images that will take weeks to acquire and weeks to dowload, he added, "but it's going to be a really remarkable dataset."




Wow. Anyone happen to have a PC with quad-processors and about 16GB of RAM?


And yet again, it's another "for my next trick" moment - 8 months of science ahead. That's about 2.5 original-missions long.
Psh, 90 sols. Yeah, we can do that, no problem.

Posted by: djellison Apr 30 2006, 10:19 AM

I think 1500 images in 13 filters, that's 115 pointings. The Lion King pan was 93 pointings - so there's an extra 22 frames in there somewhere.

Doug

Posted by: edstrick Apr 30 2006, 10:45 AM

Rover's probably checking it's belly button for belly button lint.

Posted by: djellison Apr 30 2006, 12:35 PM

I suppose you could add in calib-target images into the equation - that would add a lot of images to it

Doug

Posted by: tedstryk Apr 30 2006, 01:18 PM

It would also be neat to do a sequence like Pathfinder's super-pan, in which images are intentionally taken with the same filter at slighty different pointings. That would definitely be a good project if either rover becomes permanently stuck but still has a working pancam.

Posted by: RNeuhaus Apr 30 2006, 04:57 PM

I seems on the contrary. The rightmost picture (sol 820) is cleaner than the rest. The hint is you the two black circles on the rightmost and upper of the picture of sol 820 is clearer (less dust) than the ones of sol 760 and slight more dusted than the sol 790).

On the other hand, when I saw a MOLA picture of high resolution around Gusev crater, the basin of Hills McCool and Husband is somewhat less darker than the around (north west and south west) due to greater intensity of activity of Dust Devils. However, the other hints is that the network forms of ripples on the south slope of Hill Columbia, El Dorado, shows that the wind pattern around the Basin is not a typical gustty but somewhat disturbance in all directions. The surface has soft marks of direction of winds. At all, the site where Spirit sits has very little winds. She must get out of this site to a plain land, on the southtern side, it will get more winds to clean its solar arrays.

Rodolfo

Posted by: vikingmars May 1 2006, 08:59 AM

Here is my own interpretation of sol 813 late afternoon colors by creating a synthetic green filter fusing the iR and blue channels. Then I averaged the sky to better show its gradual darkening : the colors are the real ones ! (file reduced to fit in the Forum)
Enjoy !

... PLUS the wallpaper versions (1280x1024 and 1440x900 pixels) !
Enjoy !

Posted by: Stu May 1 2006, 04:32 PM

Thanks Olivier, STUNNING images, as usual! Spooky timing because I was just leafing through "VISIONS OF MARS" again today, losing myself all over again in those gorgeous landscapes...

Wish I could do that, create beautiful landscapes out of the raw images, but I can't. Instead I can only write about it, so, to say thank you to you, dilo, Astro0, Nirgal and all the other ImageMages who live here, I thought you deserved your own tale...

http://www.sffworld.com/community/story/1493p0.html

Posted by: Rxke May 1 2006, 05:37 PM

Hi Stu! (waves) great story, as usual, but still an adventure to read...

Posted by: Nix May 1 2006, 06:12 PM

Cool stuff Olivier Gotta love the colors!

Nico

Posted by: jamescanvin May 2 2006, 05:05 AM

I've started to work on the McMurdo pan...

Here are the 28 pointings (7 columns) taken so far (upto tosol, 827) in L7.

http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~jcanvin/mer/index.html#A0814

Half & quarter resolution versions on my website (click image)

James

Posted by: dilo May 2 2006, 06:04 AM

If my figures are correct, this means about 8 steradians coverage (assuming 10% linear overlap between PanCam frames)... this is a huge solid angle, almost 2/3 of a sphere and probably they will image a smaller portion, with some superres as suggested by tedstryk.
Consider also that most filters belongs to a single camera (left or right) and this will make very hard to match all views (assuming you want do this).

Posted by: jamescanvin May 2 2006, 06:31 AM

And here is a rough version of the 14 frames that are down (nearly) completely in L234567:

http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~jcanvin/mer/index.html#A0814c

Again, half & quarter resolution versions on my website (click image)

This is the first time i've used the full L234567 and I've essentially mixed different filters to get RGB in a pretty random way (a little of this, a bit more of that). If anyone has any better idea of approximately what proportions of each I should be using, I'd love to here it.

Cheers,

James

Posted by: Jeff7 May 2 2006, 06:32 AM

Very nice.

This is going to be one heck of a panorama.

And here's to hoping for another hell of a victorious panorama from the other side of the planet.



Edit: Wow, in that color image, Spirit looks to have a ghastly amount of dust on those panels. Here's hoping for a good dust devil cleaning.
*Ducks as Doug violently swings a vacuum cleaner at my head.*


Speaking of dust. I just had a thought - might it have been better for Spirit to remain on a northward sloping side of Home Plate? I don't recall there being a whole lot of dust deposition there, and some of those slopes looked like they endured constant wind erosion. Now looking around, there are wispy sand ripples. I'm just wondering if one of those sides of Home Plate would have been better for cleaning winds, rather than where Spirit's at now, which might actually be a place for dust deposition.

Posted by: djellison May 2 2006, 01:41 PM

Interesting new release
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20060501a.html
or
http://marswatch.astro.cornell.edu/pancam_instrument/low_ridge.html

Notice how the JPG'ing of the raw releases don't retain the same level of detail as calibrated data... tracks visible in the proper release, but just not quite there in the JPGs

Doug

Posted by: Nix May 2 2006, 07:04 PM

http://www.awalkonmars.com/AMC-814-PCM8L234567E1.jpg

Another 'preview' on the long-but finished awesome Mc Murdo pan

Nico

Posted by: Rxke May 3 2006, 11:49 AM

Very nice, Nico

This is going to be soooo awesome; can't wait to see the whole set on MMB...

Posted by: mhoward May 3 2006, 01:02 PM

Here are a couple McMurdo-in-progress perspective views. I might play with the color a bit yet.

http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=139577490&size=o http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=139577453&size=o

Posted by: jvandriel May 3 2006, 09:32 PM

Sunset on Mars.

Seen by Spirit on Sol 818.

Taken with the L7 pancam.

jvandriel

Posted by: jamescanvin May 4 2006, 06:04 AM

I've added another column to the L7 pan (that makes 8, 1/3 of the way there!) and redone the 14 frame full colour one (no missing sections and better colour)

I won't bother putting the thumbnails in this time, save a bit of bandwidth.

See http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~jcanvin/mer/.

James

Posted by: Tesheiner May 4 2006, 09:38 AM

I've just found this on the tracking web plan for tosol (830); a rat brush movie of 100 pics.

Posted by: jaredGalen May 4 2006, 11:38 AM

When the full resolution pan is finished, what dimensions will it have?

I think this will be an obligatory poster for my office, just want to get an idea of how much it will cost to get printed based on size in inches or whatever I can never convert from pixels to the appropriate measure....

Posted by: djellison May 4 2006, 11:49 AM

It'll be something like 22348 x 4000, to as much as 6000.

At a poster sort of resolution ( 150dpi ) you could do that at 3.7 x 0.6-1m

Doug

Posted by: Bill Harris May 4 2006, 12:27 PM

>It'll be something like 22348 x 4000

Amazing what can be done with that 1 megapixel pancam and a desktop computer...

--Bill

Posted by: climber May 4 2006, 01:06 PM

"Amazing what can be done with that 1 megapixel pancam and a desktop computer..."

You'll need a BIG wall too

Posted by: jaredGalen May 4 2006, 01:19 PM

3.7m!!!
Hmmmm, I guess my shelves can go, and a white board or two, and it looks like the end wall will have to be knocked too. I have my priorities afterall.
Actually for once I'm wishing my office was smaller so that I could wrap it around the four walls to make it a proper panorama

Thanks for the info.....3.7m!

Posted by: sattrackpro May 8 2006, 12:34 PM

"Spirit will remove a layer of soil up to 1 millimeter thick (the thickness of a dime)." - per http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html

Well, the pictures coming back looks like the first attempts at “1 millimeter removal” of soil thickness were fairly well mucked up. What seems to have been created is more or less a sticky-wicket of piled up soil in a deeper hole than intended.

I hope they have better results in future attempts. I'd really like to see gradual 1mm 'removal.'

Posted by: Bill Harris May 8 2006, 12:51 PM

Yep, that wicket surely looks sticky. The soil is so fluffy-yet-cohesive that brushing is difficult. I wonder if they could place the "positioning ring" of the RAT just on the surface and move the arm laterally to scrape the surface?

--Bill

Posted by: ljk4-1 May 8 2006, 03:42 PM

NASA Mars Rover Spirit Status 5 May 2006

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.nl.html?pid=20515

"Spirit is healthy and continuing to make progress on the rover's winter
campaign of scientific experiments. This week Spirit continued work on
the full-color, 360-degree "McMurdo panorama." The finished panorama
will combine 27 columns of images."

Posted by: Astro0 May 9 2006, 03:44 AM

Well, after much delay, here's the SFX shot of the sunset panorama.
I hope that this quarter-resolution version comes up OK. My screen's Gamma correction wasn't at optimum.
Enjoy
Astro0
PS: A full-res version will go up on my website in a day or so.

File: 401kb

Posted by: dilo May 9 2006, 06:02 AM

Very nice, Astro0. Could you make a version with reduced glare around the rover?

Posted by: Nix May 9 2006, 06:41 AM

Yes -very nice Astro0 !

Spirit looks good in that sunlight

Nico

Posted by: Astro0 May 9 2006, 06:59 AM

Dilo, I could make one without the glow, but it's that effect which I think makes the picture.
It puts Spirit 'into' the scene. It took a while to get the Rover to look right, so perhaps only if I get lots of requests to do an alternate version. I'll think about it

Nico, a big thanks to you. It was your version of the panorama that I based my work on (you're credited on the image). I just made a few minor changes with colour, foreground, sky and Sol-light (Sun "off camera" as requested by Shaka and others).

I think we were all moved when we first saw that panorama in greyscale and later versions in colour. The image title, "Setting Spirits Aglow" is a play on that feeling. It certainly set the spirits of UMSF'ers aglow, and depicting MER-Spirit also glowing in this setting is fitting to the warm glow that I think we all feel for these amazing vehicles, their creators/operators, and for the great adventure they have been able to share with all of us.

Astro0

Posted by: Stu May 9 2006, 07:26 AM

Gorgeous pic Astro0, and a wonderful tribute to our plucky little gal!

Just to let you know, I showed your original 'solset panorama' at my astronomy society meeting last night, and it was a huge hit. A couple of people asked for the URL of your website so they could go download their own version, and a couple more, without internet connections (yes, there are some of them left!) asked if it would be available as a poster... there's a thought...

Posted by: Tesheiner May 9 2006, 08:19 AM

Beautiful, Astro0!

Like Dilo, I think a little bit of reduced glare would be ok; please consider this as another vote to the "lots of requests to do an alternate version".
And speaking of changes/improvements/wishes to this SFX pic, what do you think of placing Spirit farther of the camera just enough to see its long shadow casting on the ground?

Posted by: ustrax May 9 2006, 08:51 AM

Astro0...Just FAN-TAS-TIC!

Posted by: climber May 9 2006, 12:07 PM

Just perfect, Astro0, thanks!
I like the glow. You've captured Spirit's spirit...

Posted by: paxdan May 9 2006, 12:50 PM

Astro0, it is such a wonderful image.

Posted by: Ant103 May 9 2006, 01:17 PM

Yeesss !!! Astro_O, it's a good work, very good! Thank you!

I've the impression that the rover fly over the ground, no contact to the ground. It's me or...?

Posted by: Bill Harris May 9 2006, 01:20 PM

The glow/glare is technically correct, it adds to the rover's presence as an alien object in this environment.

I'll be waiting for the full-res version so I can craft some wallpaper.

Thanks!

--Bill

Posted by: ljk4-1 May 9 2006, 01:22 PM

Beautiful image, but I must ask - would the pancam and mast still be
such a pristine white after so long on the dusty Martian surface?

Can you make an 800 x 600 version? Thanks.

Posted by: aldo12xu May 9 2006, 02:10 PM

Beautiful rendering Asto0! And great idea about the glow, metaphorically and figuratively

Posted by: Stu May 9 2006, 02:12 PM

They would if a dust devil had cleaned them...

(ducks)

Posted by: ljk4-1 May 9 2006, 02:19 PM

According to Steve Squyres, it was not the dust devils which cleaned
off the rovers. The events happened at night, when dust devils are
not active. They chalk it up to "regular" wind gusts, which the rovers
will not encounter as much during the winter months.

Water fowl have nothing to do with this topic.

Posted by: djellison May 9 2006, 02:23 PM

ljk - Stu knows that, which is why he said 'ducks' afterwards as a metaphor for the incoming slap from me, as I'm usually the one who shouts "OI - IT WASN'T BLOODY DUST DEVILS"

Doug

Posted by: ElkGroveDan May 9 2006, 02:25 PM

Now that you mention it, waterfowl really do make a mess of things. If any of those show up we're done for. The only thing worse for a rover's solar panels than ducks, would be parking it under an olive tree.

Posted by: ljk4-1 May 9 2006, 02:30 PM

Nobody tells me anything.

And now you're saying that dust devils have BLOOD in them?!

So that's why Mars is so red....

Do I really have to put a smiley face in here?

Posted by: climber May 9 2006, 02:34 PM

I'm usually the one who shouts "OI - IT WASN'T BLOODY DUST DEVILS"

Doug


I Hope your' not too nervous waiting for the next one! I mean "quote", not DD

Posted by: jvandriel May 9 2006, 06:16 PM

Here is the mosaic after brushing on Sol 830.

Taken with the Mi camera.

jvandriel

Posted by: Bob Shaw May 9 2006, 06:26 PM

Oh, no. Cr*p c*rcles! Maybe it's the Bird 'Flu...

Bob Shaw

Posted by: jvandriel May 9 2006, 07:01 PM

Here is the mosaic taken on Sol 822 with the Mi cam.

Is it at the same place?

jvandriel

Posted by: imipak May 9 2006, 07:20 PM

Wow... at that size, you could paste the full-resolution hard copy to curved backing boards and build yourself a nice diorama. Come to think of it, wouldn't a diorama like that be perfectly at home a few feet behind (and half-encircling) a desk + computer(s)?

Posted by: Nix May 9 2006, 09:12 PM

I could get used to a background like that

Stu

Nico

Posted by: RNeuhaus May 9 2006, 09:15 PM

It is so dirty, full of powder. I cannot see anything from the surface. Does the RAT have no brusher to clean them?

Now I realized that it is not a stone surface. Oh. anyway. it is so sticky (some humidity or the sands has some cohesive properties).

Rodolfo

Posted by: Astro0 May 9 2006, 10:52 PM

Thanks for the comments on the SFX image.
The full-size image is now online at my http://www.zip.com.au/~gjn/MERSFX/indexSFX.html. I had to compress the JPG file a little because I've run out of space at my ISP account. Hmm, maybe it's time to actually register a domain name and get some room to grow.

Just as an aside about panoramas as wallsize images. At the DSN Complex where I work we have a full-scale replica of the Rover displayed on a simulated Mars surface with a 6-metre by 2-metre (20-feet x 6-feet) background panorama taken by Spirit from the top of Husband Hill. The effect of the Rover sitting in front of this spectacular image (with some SFX enhancements; extended sky etc) is amazing. I'll have to take a photo of it and post it here later.

Any good commercial printer that can do large-format printing can work with images like the McMurdo pan. At a final print resolution of 100dpi you can easily bump up the scale of this image to beyond your average wallsize. It may cost you between $1-$2K to produce it on a good medium like 2-3mm foamcore, but the final effect would be well worth it.

Astro0

Posted by: Bob Shaw May 9 2006, 11:11 PM

AstroO:

Do you have *any* idea how much a divorce costs?

Bob Shaw

Posted by: sattrackpro May 10 2006, 01:48 AM

Yup, a $2K picture of Mars with Rover at my house would land me in court in a heartbeat. I get heavy flack over an 8x10, the priorities are so different.

"Normal people just don't overdose on multiple pictures of some damned machine running around on Mars!" "Just how many do you need?"

And so it goes...

Posted by: Phil Stooke May 10 2006, 02:01 AM

"Just checking up on the rovers, dear!"

"Are those *&^%*%^$ things still going?"

Phil

(I'm kidding, of course... )

Posted by: Astro0 May 10 2006, 02:32 AM

Gee, now I'm going to be responsible for divorces.
Well, if your partner doesn't like Mars and Rovers, maybe you weren't meant to be together anyway (really kidding!)
I'm fortunate that my wife is extremely understanding. I know that I have to be, as she is a fanatical Superman fan/collector. So she has no grounds for complaint...as long as I don't complain.

Of course, the $1-$2K is in Australian dollars, probably much cheaper elsewhere in the world.
But then what price do you place on enjoying feeling like you're on Mars.

Here's a shot of our exhibit at the Canberra DSN. There's still some Mars-like soil to put in to finish it off.
The public are just amazed by how large the rover actually is...they expect it to be like a small toy. Mind you, they had no idea about the size of Sojourner either.

Astro0

Posted by: lyford May 10 2006, 02:42 AM

"Another rock! How Exciting!" But then I threaten her with taking up model railroading instead....

Astro your SFX site is beautiful!

Posted by: helvick May 10 2006, 06:38 AM

Astro - I think there's a bunch of folks here who'd just love a _lot_ more photographs of that model.

Posted by: Astro0 May 10 2006, 06:51 AM

It's not a fantastically detailed model, but it is full-scale.
I know I'm very glad to have it. I used parts of it as a reference to help produce the 'Setting Spirits Aglow' panorama.

Speaking of panoramas...I was just outside here at the Canberra DSN and took some photographs of our 70-metre antenna while it is doing a tracking pass with Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor.

When I looked at the scene, photographed at 4.30pm local time, and with the hills and shadows in the background, and knowing that we were in comms with the Mars' orbiters, I had this moment of dejavu...this scene was eerily familar...

I did a quick autostitch of the scene and then flipped it horizontally and....hey presto!...an earthly version of the solset panorama! The long shadows, the sunlight off-camera, and a link to Mars...just remove the trees, add some more rocks and I'm there, standing next to Spirit. Sent a shiver down my spine.

Had to share this scene with the rest of the UMSF crowd.
Enjoy
Astro0

File: 294kb

PS: BTW, that closest hill behind the 70-metre antenna is about 100 metres high - similar to Husband Hill.

Posted by: jamescanvin May 10 2006, 07:07 AM

I am *so* going to have to come and have that tour of cdscc!

Thanks for the pics Astro0.

James

Posted by: Bill Harris May 10 2006, 12:34 PM

Wonderful images, Astr0. Thanks for sharing!

In my mind's eye, I see something like the attached cut&paste. The skyglow in both images needs to be in the center and everything else composed symmetrically about that. One change: Husband Hill ought to fade into the 70m hill behind the antenna with the horizons at the same level so that Gusev fades into Canberra and both dishes pointing at the same imaginary point above the image. You'll probably have to do a re-shoot of the antenna site image and make some slight re-arrangement of the Spirit image, but that juxtaposition would be wonderful.

Thanks!

--Bill

Posted by: hendric May 10 2006, 04:23 PM

When KodakGallery had their 50% off 16x20 and 20x30 a while back, I had a bunch of the panoramas made up, some of them even as 2x1 or 4x2, umm...inverse mosaics? I have them all in tubes, because I plan to prime and paint the garage walls a nice Mars tan, and then put the Mars pictures up there.

Posted by: djellison May 10 2006, 04:32 PM

I've just found that 'Oki' make some fairly large pan paper - A4 width of course, but 900mm long

Doug

Posted by: Nix May 10 2006, 04:43 PM

Now that's interesting. ..Haven't had much succes trying to find rolls around here.

I'd really like to have A4 & A3 sized photo-paper on a roll (say a couple of meters)
Anyone knows if one can order this kind of product from Canon, Epson,...?

Nico

Posted by: Shaka May 10 2006, 06:23 PM

Bewdy bonzer, mate! Why not chuck in a couple a 'roos on the lawn at left, gazing at the sun. (One with a joey in the pouch!) Mustn't leave any doubt about the location.

Posted by: MaxSt May 10 2006, 07:06 PM

Printing at 300dpi, the panorama should take seven A3 sheets. And at 190x40 cm it would fit my wall perfectly!

Posted by: djellison May 10 2006, 07:13 PM

Consider that your average monitor is 70 - 90 dpi, then at a viewing distance of anything more than about 3ft, 150dpi is serious overkill

Doug

Posted by: Bob Shaw May 10 2006, 07:35 PM

Nico:

The answer is: 'Yes'. I have a pro photographer friend who is on the case, and is, as the Met might have it, 'Helping With Certain Enquiries'. I'll get back to you!

Bob Shaw

Posted by: djellison May 10 2006, 08:14 PM

Epson sell A3 width 10m rolls for about 20-30 quid I think - and I'm sure other manufacturers make it as well

After my shed, and a 24" monitor - an A3 printer (Epson R1800 perhaps) is next

Doug

Posted by: Jeff7 May 10 2006, 10:58 PM

It'll be on TheOnion.com - MER team wives develop and launch mission to Mars, "accidentally" land right on Spirit and Opportunity, and immediately return to Earth.

Posted by: Bill Harris May 11 2006, 06:05 PM

On a positive note, recent Navcam images of the solar panels show that the panels are fairly clean, so there has been some degree of wind cleaning at this site.

--Bill


http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/navcam/2006-04-17/2N198537857EFFAR00P1988L0M1.JPG

Posted by: Shaka May 11 2006, 06:47 PM

I'd like to be sure of that, Bill. Has the electrical output shown a corresponding improvement?

Posted by: Bob Shaw May 12 2006, 01:55 PM

Doug and Nico:

Epson SO41379 Premium Glossy Paper Roll 329mmx10m for use with the Stylus Photo 1270 & 1290.

Weight: 255gsm.
Pack Size: 1
RRP: £45.83

And invest in some ink cartridges, too!

Bob Shaw

Posted by: Nix May 12 2006, 02:45 PM

all right thanks Bob!

Any idea though about quality using a Canon i9950?

Nico

Posted by: centsworth_II May 12 2006, 04:20 PM

How ironic that after the fervent anticipation of a panorama from the summit of Husband Hill, Spirit's definative panorama may end up being one from the bottom of Inner Basin.

Posted by: MaxSt May 12 2006, 05:31 PM

Well, printing 3 megapixel images at 5"x7" is considered quite normal, and it's 300dpi.
And you might want to see the details when you move closer.

Anyway, 190cm width is a perfect fit for my wall.

Posted by: Bob Shaw May 12 2006, 05:34 PM

Nico:

No idea - I'd expect it to be more-or-less the same as you usually get. Inkjet printers don't suffer from the same memory limitations as page printers (or at least not in the same way) so the picture size is probably not very important.

You've got me looking, too... ...sadly, my trusty HP P1000 doesn't do rolls, but my daughter's new A3 photo printer most certainly will, hehe.

Bob Shaw

Posted by: Ant103 May 12 2006, 05:41 PM

Ow. This conversation is not the subject of the topic, isnt'it?
I'm not a moderator but this is about technical question ... not Spirit state at Low Ridge

Posted by: Bob Shaw May 12 2006, 05:58 PM

Ant103:

True - but any discussion that encourages them guys of the panoramic persuasion to get out and create more beautiful panoramas as seen from this very spot is well worth suffering through!

Bob Shaw

Posted by: Sunspot May 12 2006, 06:18 PM

I wonder howe long this thread will get before Spirit moves on.

Posted by: Jeff7 May 12 2006, 06:33 PM

Opportunity will probably have arrived at and done a good bit of exploring at Victoria. Spirit's going to be in one place for a good long time.

Posted by: Nix May 12 2006, 06:47 PM

yet more off-topic printing-stuff (hit me )

Thanks again Bob, I'll let you know how it turns out.

I'm starting a new job in a few weeks, at the town's printing office...

I hope to learn some interesting stuff there..and test some machinery

Nico

Posted by: Shaka May 12 2006, 06:59 PM

Could you test some machinery for me too? 2.2 meters long will just cover my wall.
Thanx, Nico.

Posted by: RNeuhaus May 12 2006, 07:09 PM

The kind of movement of Spirit will be changed from horizontal to vertical doing more MI, researching, miniTES, Mossbauer, x-Ray spectometer measurements and atmospheric, geological and aeolian observations. No horizontes, no explorations, no roving. Hence, at the end of winter, around the Low Ridge Heaven will be the best studied place of Mars.

Rodolfo

Posted by: MaxSt May 12 2006, 08:40 PM

Found a printing service for panoramas:

http://www.ezprints.com/ezdirect/products.asp?Type=Panorama

Posted by: jamescanvin May 13 2006, 05:01 AM

Here's the latest L7 then...

http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~jcanvin/mer/index.html#A0814

No full res version again, but if there was, then at 150dpi it'd be 2.1m x 85cm

James

Posted by: sattrackpro May 14 2006, 01:02 PM

James, do you think they will back-fill the many lost segments of recent photos? And, what do you think is causing the increase in the number of incomplete images?

Posted by: jamescanvin May 15 2006, 12:58 AM

Of course, it's already been done. Although for the bit missing in the lower right, the stamp on the tracking site shows it's been completed but for some reason the new version hasn't been propagated to the Exploratorium or JPL sites. We had the same problem at Gibson, I may have to fill that region with the lower res stamp for now.



I'm not sure there is an increase, especially if you look back over the whole mission, things were a lot worse back in the early days IIRC. There have always been dropouts like this, don't worry!

James

Posted by: jamescanvin May 15 2006, 06:37 AM

Here is the version with the missing data filled in.

http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~jcanvin/mer/index.html#A0814

And quite a big download of colour as well over the weekend.

http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~jcanvin/mer/index.html#A0814c

This is just a quick taster, I need to think a lot more about full (L234567) colour generation in the near future.


James

Posted by: jamescanvin May 19 2006, 08:33 AM

Latest colour version...

http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~jcanvin/mer/index.html#A0814c

James

Posted by: Nix May 19 2006, 01:08 PM

thinking about colors James...same thing here

Let me join you with a quick (horizon only) view of the scene

http://www.awalkonmars.com/A1814-McMurdoHHhorizonPCML234567EF1.jpg

Nico

Posted by: paxdan May 19 2006, 03:38 PM

there is a touch of the Ansel Adams' about that image. I'm a sucker for the big sky images.

Posted by: AndyG May 19 2006, 03:51 PM

Lovely!

You know, I could get used to a sky like that. It has a certain majesty which appeals to the (temporarily-stranded-on-Earth) Martians that we have subtly become. I live in a suburban sodium gloop at night, when it's not grey and rainy. (Bob Shaw will know what I mean!) Hmmm. I'd go to Mars for the weather alone.

Andy

Posted by: RNeuhaus May 19 2006, 03:55 PM

Spirit is getting even dirtier. See her solar panels cowered by powder:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pancam/2006-05-19/2P201292678EFFAR00P2293L7M1.JPG

Rodolfo

Posted by: Stu May 19 2006, 04:45 PM

That's a beauty, Nix!

Posted by: atomoid May 19 2006, 08:37 PM

...that little wispy fragment sticking up is actually part of the 'rotten rock':

http://mars.lyle.org/imagery/stereo/2-201292678-P.jpg

Like Jimmy 'The Hammer' Valentine always said: "crazy stuff, man! craaaaazy stuff!"

Posted by: jamescanvin May 20 2006, 02:17 AM

Nice view of the Gusev rim in the latest McMurdo images

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pancam/2006-05-19/2P201290814EFFAR00P2293L7M1.JPG

Posted by: jamescanvin May 20 2006, 04:18 AM

And the latest L7.

http://www.physics.usyd.edu.au/~jcanvin/mer/index.html#A0814

Posted by: jvandriel May 20 2006, 10:37 AM

Wheeltracks and the brushing target "Progress"

A mosaic taken with the L0 navcam on Sol 834.

jvandriel

Posted by: edstrick May 20 2006, 10:38 AM

The extra dusty appearance of the panels is at least partly due to the "up-sun" viewing geometry of the image. The forward-scattering increases the brightness of the dust.

Posted by: jvandriel May 20 2006, 11:23 AM

Here is the mosaic from Sol 842.

Taken with the Mi cam.

jvandriel

Posted by: jvandriel May 22 2006, 07:50 PM

A pancam view looking back at McCool Hill and El Dorado.

Taken on Sol 846 with the L2 pancam.

jvandriel

Posted by: Toma B May 22 2006, 10:41 PM

Is that McCool Hill?

Posted by: DFinfrock May 23 2006, 12:10 AM

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