This is a navcam mosaic taken after driving during sol 1559.
They are nice pictures. Makes a change to see something new after so many months.
It's great to see us thoroughly out of the Quackmire! We now have a good view of potential approaches to Verde. Here's a crop from Tesheiner's mosaic. I've sketched two approaches that appear to stay pretty well on solid rocky surfaces. The black gets us close to the cliff, but not very deep - we've studied those layers already. The white route gets us deeper but not very close to the cliff. Of course they could continue past the end of the white arrow (that's where the original target lies), at the risk of getting bogged down again in loose soil...
Before the, mmm, "event", I thought Opportunity would move to a point that is after the white arrow. I think the terrain at that point is traversable enough to get the rover touching the wall.
BUT the situation now has changed. At least two new issues. imo. The first is obviously the fact(?) that moving up to the wall would mean getting stuck again on the way back. The second is that after this long time the shadows are getting bigger at Cape Verde.
Winter Solstice occurs in the southern hemisphere of Mars on June 26 so the shadows will soon start getting shorter.
Neither the black not the white path, Opportunity has followed the "yellow bricks".
Here's the current position plotted on the navcam mosaic from sol 1559.
A lo-res SFX view based on Tesheiner's positioning.
And overcomes sand traps again and chocks like this:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2008-06-16/1N266853834EFF9025P1815R0M1.JPG
Guess the two moved rocks is the spot where Oppy's middle wheel went stuck.
I was a bit afraid with the path they were taking now (the "yellow" one), but have a look to today's drive results and compare with yesterday images.
http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2008-06-16/1F266853200EFF9025P1214R0M1.JPG Sol 1562 -> Sol 1563 http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2008-06-17/1F266947878EFF9052P1214R0M1.JPG
They moved Opportunity downhill over the sand up to the isolated slab seen on the images then back uphill almost to the same spot as before. Looking to the wheel marks I fell that the terrain is much more stable then on the previous path where she got stuck.
You may say that it's easy to say it now, but it seams they are driving the way I thought they will.
Rove straight down, back-up to be sure you can (back-up), and so on.
Once they are perpendicular and deaper to the place they want to meet the cliffs, they will do a ~80° + ~80° or so left turns and go up to the cliffs. Doing this, in case of been stuck, the'll can back up going down (on the same path) which will probably be much easier to get free. Any objection to this ?
We are getting closer!
This is from today's drive (sol 1564):
And the maneuvering at the end of the drive shows we've still got good traction:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2008-06-18/1R267029709EFF9074P1312R0M1.JPG
Another big drive downslope tosol (1565). The navcam view of Verde is now reminiscent of the previous best pancam views!
We're gonna need your "man in black" for scale, Fredk !
Sweet Fancy Moses! So nice to be moving again!
This cliff structure reminds me of sandstones I saw in Colorado that were the reminents of old sand dunes.
Assuming the range is 16m or so, and our fredk is around 1.8m, I'd say something like this:
http://personal.strath.ac.uk/andrew.goddard/scale.jpg
Andy
Looks like the perfect spot for another picnic.
We are very near.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2008-06-20/1F267208016EFF90ARP1211R0M1.JPG
Looks like it's a popular place here - someone forgot his picnic basket
A few frames from an imaginary movie "zooming in" on the present position:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marscat/2595377534/sizes/l/
http://flickr.com/photos/marscat/2595389036/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marscat/2594542957/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marscat/2595378250/sizes/l/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Baklava_-_Turkish_special%2C_80-ply.JPEG
It's really been a good week on Mars....
I must say this is an impressive view of the Cape.(considering my pessimism for this drive)
However if they wish to get closer, i would recomend hard hats
Seriously, do we have to worry about falling rocks fro the cliff?
Do you folks remember this http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=4097&st=0 If we do get a bit closer we may get a cliff http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=4097&view=findpost&p=88189 afterall!
About falling rocks, we haven't seen anything come off any of the cliffs so far, but if she got close enough to do some grinding, who knows?
I am drooling at the prospect of seeing a nice clean RAT and MI of the lowest reachable layers.
I hope our skilled driver friends are back here on Earth practicing their ballet.
What happened to yesterdays downlink? Or did they give the rover a day off?
No day off, there was a drive planned yesterday according to the tracking site.
I was waiting impatiently for data yesterday yesterday as well. But now we are so close to the cape the Odyssey passes are going to be a lot more restricted and I can imagine a few passes may be missed. Hoping to have my socks knocked off later today.
James
No comment !
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2008-06-22/1N267294694EFF90B0P1980L0M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2008-06-22/1N267397503EFF90B0P1982L0M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2008-06-22/1N267294812EFF90B0P1980L0M1.JPG
...well, there went my socks!
I think the front hazcam is my favourite
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2008-06-22/1F267294323EFF90B0P1211R0M1.JPG
Looks like a "toe dip" onto the scree (if that's the right name for this stuff). Seems solid enough. How close are they planning to get?
Brian
Go Oppy! Take the limelight back from that 'Johnny come lately' at the pole.
New http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam images are up...
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2008-06-23
...but boy, they're a mess! If you hate lens flare don't go and look, it's everywhere, obliterating detail on the cliffs... and I think there are a few "sunrise" images too but they're very small...
What do you mean? The pancams of the cliff are exposed for the shadows, so the highlights are going to be overexposed, and with the dust-covered protective windows in sunlight, there is going to be a loss of contrast. Nothing that can't be processed out of the images.
Not optimum, but hardly a mess.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2008-06-23/1P266849270ESF9000P2445L7M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2008-06-23/1P266849441ESF9000P2445L7M1.JPG
Well, good luck "processing" something out of this...
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2008-06-23/1P266849556ESF9000P2445L6M1.JPG
and this...
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2008-06-23/1P266849695ESF9000P2445L5M1.JPG
Ok, point taken... some, not all, are a mess.
After four+ years, my jaw still hangs open at what we're getting from these rovers!
Great QT, mike!
Three frame stitch:
http://paranoid.dechengst.nl/mars/are%20we%20there%20yet%20papa%20smurf.jpg (500 KB)
Looks like we'll need HDR imaging to get good results overall.
Yeah that overexposed stuff is from sol 1562 (seven sols ago). A few images came down from sol 1569, but all sky. Looks like we need to be patient.
P.S. Thanks for the comments on the QTVR. All I actually did was was export the frames from MMB and load the .pts file into PTGui. Whole process took a few minutes. Okay, I adjusted the image brightnesses first, which took a little longer.
I have great expectations.
Sol Seq.Ver ETH ESF EDN EFF ERP Tot Description
----- -------- --- --- --- --- --- ---- -----------
01570 p2265.06 40 40 0 0 2 82 pancam_cape_verde_10pts_L257R2
One of the first closeup pancams, from sol 1570:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2008-06-24/1P267568307ESF90B0P2265L2M1.JPG
Lot's more to come!
I truly suck at color correction:
http://paranoid.dechengst.nl/mars/Cape%20Verde%20-%20false%20color%20-%20three%20frames.jpg (570 KB)
... and I don't know about anyone else, but I'd be a bit worried about Oppy driving underneath something that looks this unstable...
Yes...it is never safe to underestimate the reach of the evil Acme Corporation and its fiendishly persistent (though clumsy) field representatives...
Good point, though. I have no clue how stable these cliffs are. Come to that, we really don't have much of a clue as to the frequency & intensity of martian seismic events, though IIRC V2 didn't find much at all (V1's seismometer was inop, unless I got that backwards). The motion of Oppy shouldn't be enough to trigger anything by itself, though considering such effects in 0.38g combined with an utterly dry outcrop is kind of difficult...are ancient evaporites all that's holding this thing together besides compression?
I was slightly disappointed yesterday, but I have greater expectations today.
Sol Seq.Ver ETH ESF EDN EFF ERP Tot Description
----- -------- --- --- --- --- --- ---- -----------
01571 p2266.06 80 80 0 0 2 162 pancam_cape_verde_20pts_L257R2
... and a couple more views before I head out to work... looking forward to seeing everyone else's efforts when I get back
Not much of tosols bit has come down, but most of yestersols has.
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php?title=b1570
(Click image)
James
Has there been any attempt to correlate the layers in Victoria to the layers identified in Eagle and Endurance craters? Was there any effort to follow the sequence(s) and surface layers with the APXS and Mossbauer data as Opportunity moved South? As I recall there was some ratting and integrating underfoot throughout the trip and in the exposures in Erebus.
Opportunity's little Mossbauer unit must be pretty tired by now. It has a halflife of 3/4 year (roughly). So now, after about 8 half-lives, activity is down to a few parts per thousand of the initial strength.
... and http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v509/cumbriansky/rocks3Db.jpg...
... and http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v509/cumbriansky/rocks3D2s.jpg, too... lots of rocks Oppy, be careful now...
We have GOT to get a closer look at the jagged rock bottom left on http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v509/cumbriansky/spire.jpg image...
Definitely one of my favourite post-entry http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v509/cumbriansky/spire-col.jpg...
Today's offering.
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php?title=opportunity-sol-1570-aamp-1571-l257-20-p-1
James
Another sol, another spectacular set of pancams - here's one of my favourite views, in 3D:
My favourite views:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2008-06-26/1P267654659ESF90B0P2266L2M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2008-06-27/1P267655553ESF90B0P2266R2M1.JPG
Looks like frames from old science fiction movie (Star Trek).
Just one image short of completing the sol 1570/1 bit now. It's becoming an amazing view!
Still this is only half of the total pan taken so far if you include those from sols 1572/3 that are still on the rover.
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php/opportunity-sol-1570-aamp-1571-l257-29-p
James
Superb mosaic, James, even with dirt and unfilled rectangle...
Edit: Here I tried to reduce effects of dirt and glare in the half res version:
Mmm...differential weathering? I've seen apparent discontinuities like this in the past on Earth; maybe the prevailing wind path around the two vertically separated regions is just different enough to cause the disparity. (I'm assuming that the whole formation is old, old, old...)
I'm wondering if we are seeing deposition, tilting of strata, erosion of upper section of tilted strata, then redeposition of upper layers of strata.
That would imply the lower layers are old, AND had an interesting history prior to the deposition of the upper strata.
-Mike
No - much more likely to be just cross-bedding - i.e. cemented dune sandstones.
Phil
At first glance it looks like truncated cross-beds or an unconformity, which is consistent with the aeolian dune-playa setting. We've seen this at several places in Endurance and Victoria. But if you look closely at the lower beds, you can see a fabric of essentially horizontal beds, morte or less parallel to the upper beds. So I'm thinking that one or the other orientation of the lower bed may be an artifact of aeolian erosion. We need an up-close look. We'll also be able to tell more once Oppy starts taking images out of the flat (shadowed) light.
Of more interest is the open fracture in the upper beds. Is it a solution cavity, or what?
Another example of the x-bedding is in 1P259578369EFF8900P2570L6M1.
--Bill
Ultimately, these questions all hearken back to the formation of the cape-and-bay crater rim. Why are the bays eroded down the strata at a 20 - 30 degree angle, while the capes are cut down more or less vertically. I can't believe that this is due to a more resistant sediment formation in the capes, neatly interspersed with less resistant strata in the bays. Until somebody lays out a plausible hypothesis for the formation of Victoria's sinuous rim, I don't think this little microcosmic curiosity at the base of one cape can be understood.
Agreed, but I've not been able to wrap my brain around a plausible mechanism to explain the "scalloped" rim around Victoria (et al). With a couple of prevailing wind directions, there shouldn't be such symmetry in the scallops. I'm sure that the explanation is as simple as the ones covering stream meanders or salients and recesses, but I've not stumbled upon it.
--Bill
Concerning cracks and weathering around Victoria's rim, I wonder what effect the shock from the impact that caused the crater has. The blast must have left a pattern of disruption and cracks radiating for some distance that had an effect on future weathering.
The question of whether the pattern of the crater wall is due to the radial fractures produced by the impact or whether its because of other factors depends, I think, on the frequency of occurence of such craters with such exhibiting such a pattern.
If this 'Victorian spikes' design is particularly unusual for the region and we assume uniformity in the nature of the sedimentary rocks, one could be tempted to conclude that the impact is responsible for the pattern.
Another reason is because of a combination of the impact and nature of the rocks factors?
Is there another crater with such a pattern nearby?
Why is the rim shape so rare on Mars? Sand and wind and craters are everywhere; I'd wager the cape and bay shape is less than one in ten thousand.
I've seen other examples in HiRISE images of scalloped craters, I ought to dig through and catalog similar crater-forms. Ugh.
At one time I speculated that the radial scalloped rim was due to the Anatolia Features, which were originally seen near Eagle-Endurance craters and are presumably concealed under the dune-sand south of the type area, and have been noted near the southeast rim of Victoria.
Attached is an image showing the trends of the Anatolia Features and also the trends of Victoria's scalloped rim (I don't recall if it's mine, I might have purloined that Victoria image from a post). You can see similarities, but you'd need to run stats on the trends to make sense.
Presented FWIW.
---Bill
We thrashed this one around during the trek south to Victoria. Some of us tried to apply the hypothesis that Meridiani craters had been buried and later exhumed.
But buried/exhumed craters are not likely as rare on Mars as cape-and-bay rims.
I tried to imagine a crater that filled with water while it was still hot, then froze and was buried. It was later exhumed, and, meanwhile, collapsed as the ice sublimated.
I've not yet seen any clear evidence to back this scenario.
I keep waiting for the paper that makes Vikky comprehensible.
No new images since Friday. Is something going on?
Images are being downlinked everyday but there might be a problem in the pipe between JPL and the public sites.
Not the first neither the last time it will happen.
Both Canberra and the Madrid DSN stations have MER1 Opportunity tracking passes scheduled this week.
We have one 65 minute pass happening just a few hours from now between 8.55-10.00 UTC.
It's an uplink, with a radio science downlink ("beep").
I agree with Tesheiner...not an unusual matter for there to be no updates over the 'weekend'.
Be patient, I'm sure our girl is OK.
Astro0
Yes, don't worry, the data is arriving in the tracking database as normal. As Tesheiner says, just a problem with the system that gets the images out to us, it's happened many times before. Jim needs to give something a kick.
To put your mind at ease here is a stamp from yestersol (1576) off the tracking site.
James
Just found this entry on an http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080630-opportunity-mars-cliff.html. Nothing really new but it's good to know they are still sticking to the plan of touching the wall.
There's a burp in the imagery pipeline somewhere obviously - the people that need to know, now know.
Exploratorium is Back Up. Woo hoo!!
peter59 you just beat me to it. I was starting to think of the old "If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it..." as applied to spacecraft: Does a spacecraft exist if UMSFers don't see the relayed pictures? Spirit and Opportunity were fading like the Cheshire Cat--not gone, but just starting to fade.
The blockage is free, but there;s a backlog we're missing. Hopefully it will filter thru.
Really good to see fresh pics again. It looks like tosol's (1582) drive was a short drive away from Verde:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2008-07-06/1F268625298EFF90B2P1213L0M1.JPG
> The blockage is free, but there;s a backlog we're missing. Hopefully it will filter thru.
I hope so. There're a lot of "juicy" pictures on this missing batch: Half of the latest mosaic and the whole superres shots.
Time for harvest !!!!
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2008-07-07/
Reading http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2008-07-07/... scanning... found 410 new images.
Yeah - that oughtadoit
Doug
Oh wow.... seriously, how beautiful a world is this, when it can show us such wonders as these...
...shee-yit...
Mind-blowing is all, Stu, thank you!!! Burning question is how such apparently delicate blade-like extrusions could survive a fall from the cliff. Is it due to the gentle gravity, or did they grow out later from atmospheric precipitates? Either possibility seems extraordinary. The third is selective weathering, which would imply significant compositional differences between layers...again, very, very interesting, and difficult to explain in detail without better data on past conditions.
What a site!
I wonder how friable the exposed rocks are?
Those rocks in the images Stu posted look like they've been windblasted and eroded to the point like they are fine layers of phyllo dough ready for baklava.
One gentle push and they'd all go *poof*....
('Course, they survived the impact when they fell OK). How come we don't see more chunks? Did these bounce to their present position?
It's kinda hard to tell, but it looks like they got eroded before they fell away from the cliff. But the horizontal layering on the perpindicular rock in the image looks suspect.
-Mike
[EDIT: Ha! Nick beat me to it with the erosion questions!]
Completed pan of Cape Verde, what a view!
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php/opportunity-sol-1570-aamp-1578-l257-54-p
James
That's gorgeous James, absolutely gorgeous...
One final close-up of the luvverly, luvverly layers before I head off to bed... up again in 5 hrs...
Beautiful work, James!
I just spent some time slowly panning back and forth across your full res image....Imagining trying to climb the cliffs, looking for handholds and foot holds, maybe whipping out a rock hammer and chipping at some layers.
Your mosaic really brings Mars closer!
28.2% of one, and 71.8% of the other.
The blocks among the scree are almost certainly not from the bottom of the exposure.
One of the latest tau images from sol 1583 apparently captured a local sunset. It doesn't appear to be a transit of one of the moons. Its description was "late tau," so I assume it must be a view toward the west. Apparently its metadata is not yet available, because I can't find it in MMB's sol 1583 panorama.
I assume this shadow must originate somewhere on Victoria's western rim. It would be fun to discover exactly where the sun set from Opportunity's viewpoint at the time.
Here're the info from the pancam web: az=-63.7671, el=-12.5.
James, what a truly amazing view of Cape Verde and how excellent your work is! It exemplifies the high standard of UMSF and how much you guys passionately love what you are doing.
Since Oppie is my sentimental and scientific favourite, it's appropriate for me to make my first post here. I'll be posting from time to time - when I have something useful/interesting to add. (+I'm very very busy running my own business!) My formal background is psychology but I have wide ranging interests.
I'm from Alice Springs in Central Australia where the Milky Way is awesome to behold in the cold clear nights of winter. If any of you UMSFers happen to be passing through such a remote place as Alice then feel free to contact me through this forum for some Centralian hospitality and a few good pointers on great places to visit.
I'm a bit lost -- can we assume that Oppy now significantly closer to the cliff than it was on http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=681&view=findpost&p=118923?
Well caught on that sunset -- that's pretty neat.
--Emily
We backed off just a touch on 1582 (a matter of inches)
But tosol (1584) is another driving sol so Oppy should be on the move in the next few hours.
James
Just remarkable work, James; congratulations! Why do I feel another UMSF AW&ST cover coming on?
Stu, I am going to find some new 3D glasses as soon as I'm off @%&# nights this week, I swear!!! (Just got home after almost 14 hrs of joy, here...)
I'm not even a geologist, but I'd probably give ten years of my life to spend just a week here with a rock hammer and a hand lens.
James, you're really fast What is you secret ?
So, I'm not as faster as James but here is a quick view of this big pan, not blended, only in L2 :
http://www.db-prods.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/panol2-quickview.jpg
The next step will be coloration .
Many thanks James and Stu !
I don't know about you guys, but for my eyes the 3D images Stu posts happen to be the most realistic ones I've ever seen.
Stu, please keep them coming !
And as a bonus ..... there is a small abyss in the left of the cape :-)
Gorgeous work James, thank you very much
It's a beautiful cape, a rocky whale cresting over a waterless sea
And here we go, up to the wall.
Nice flare on the camera.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2008-07-08/1F268806270EFF90B8P1213R0M1.JPG
Fingers crossed. The sand looks very soft
I think these views are easily the most dramatic from Oppy since she was aside Burns Cliff way back in December 2004.
You've come a long way, baby!
Fantastic James! I can't wait until Opportunity gets a chance to 'touch' the wall.
Here's my artist's view of this iconic mission image.
Will we have a chance at some point of seeing the cliff face out of shadow? It is a magnificent panorama, but the lighting isn't exactly optimal.
Thx to all image contributors!
The cliff faces almost due south, so at this time of year (southern midwinter) it is essentially permanently shadowed. Oppy would have to wait for summer to get a non shadowed shot and I think we'll be long gone by then.
James
Could there be an advantage in being in shadow? A more even illumination will play down the topography of the rock surface for sure, but that could make it easier to observe other features such as differences in colour and grain size.
From http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol1566
Stunning photo James - I think it's about time Mr Squyres had a feature named after him as he has got to be the king of Mars Geology
how about a vote for 'Squyres Cliff' - a fitting tribute to SS & team
As my understanding is - the shadow of the cliff (and therefore low solar energy) will prevent Oppy from doing lots of interesting work with its IDD ??
Other problems could also prevent it - unpassable terrain for example. How good are the chances to reach the cliff ?
Robert
From the http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol1574
Here's my artist's view of this iconic mission image. I'm looking for a place to post the 19mb version.
Enjoy Astro0 [/quote]
Astro0, your image is just incredible and so beautiful !!!
Well... I'm so sorry to arrive "after the battle" with only a black & white Navcam (calibrated and cleaned) version...
Anyway... I hope you will enjoy it !
Yeah...been looking at that one for awhile, now. If I found that on Earth, first things I would think of are 1) gypsum crystal, 2) aragonite, 3) sand-encrusted exotic silicate, like kunzite. The truth is probably far more mundane, but if it is in fact any of these minerals then there had to be considerable water present to form it at all way back when.
I was wondering if it wasn't the bedrock closer in here:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/p/1580/1P268467243ESF90B0P2271L1M1.JPG
Right shape, but I guess a bit close in
"Could there be an advantage in being in shadow? ..."
Yes, but. If the camera lenses were spotlessly clean, diffuse illumination would indeed have advantages. Only with the sun close enough to the field of view to cause actual lens-flares that interfere with visibility in the diffusely illuminated shadow would there be a problem. Unfortunately, post-dust-storm, the lenses are very un-clean.
When all else fails, and you think youi're going blind...... CLEAN YOUR GLASSES.
Unfortunately, the rovers can't.
"...What is the main problem with the dust on the lenses when it comes to taking shots in the cliff shadow specifically? Is it:
1/ simple obscuration causing too-low light levels in the camera, or
2/ interference from light scattered by the lens dust washing out the darker parts of the scene? "
I presume it's mostly the latter, though when dust on lenses was recently recent additions, and the camera looked up at relatively featureless sky, you could actually see out of focus globs of dust on the optics as shadows. When it's thick enough, it obscures light, and diffusely transmits it like Titan's atmosphere. But mostly, it's like driving toward the sun 20 min from sunset with a dirty windshield. Unfortunately, with the sun on the north side of the sky, it's the worst case, and its scattered glare is hard to avoid except in early morning or late afternoon, not the best time of day power-wise <regardless of other operating constraints> of the rovers.
Camera in shadow, means rover in shadow, means a big hit on Whrs.
The recent 4.30pm dusk panorama though, is an example of what can happen to help.
Doug
"Camera in shadow, means rover in shadow, means a big hit on Whrs"
Bet you get cold, fast, too!
You get cold at night anyway
Would it really get that cold in the shadow and fast? I take it the rarefied martian air sucks at conduction and convection so the primary means of losing heat would be radiation. The rover's not that hot in the first place, so radiative cooling ought to be slow, no?
One additional problem to add to ngunn's list is ccd bleeding. If you're trying to image shadowed areas of the cliff, and there are adjacent sunlit areas or sky, you can get severe bleeding ruining the image if you expose for the shadowed areas.
Hi
It was hard, long, but I finally "succed" to make this huge panoramic view of Cape Verde (there already are some vignetign and flares, in spite of my efforts ).
Various resolution can be found at the end of this page (summer page because of impossibility to update my webstite):
http://www.db-prods.net/blog/?page_id=151
And I've made two desktops, one for 4:3 screens, and other for 16:9.
http://www.db-prods.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/capeverde-sol1570-desktop-1280.jpg
http://www.db-prods.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/capeverde-sol1570-desktop-1440.jpg
So, time to have a break .
Thanks, Tesheiner. So it seems Tman's filename decoder agrees with pancam web to 5 minutes or so, which is very good. Also, http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=4427&view=findpost&p=96780 that his decoder agrees well with MER Analyst's Notebook and the Mars24 Sunclock.
So that really was a late sequence!
Here it is. James (on behalf of Astro0)
Thanks James.
I know you went to a lot of trouble to place that online for me.
Very much appreciated.
Cheers
Astro0
Here we go again. Looks like some digging in to me.
http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2008-07-11/1R268980120EFF90B8P1317R0M1.JPG
Brian
It looks like they drove forward and moved back a bit, so I'd guess test, or turn.
Doesn't seem to be any change from the rear hazcams that came down on 8 July.
There was no driving attempt on sol 1586, just a new rhazcam shot with slightly less compression.
> On the other hand, maybe it is a red flag.
My opinion too. Yellow flag perhaps.
With Wall-E getting all the media attention, I thought it was time people were reminded of the amazing story of a http://journals.aol.com/stuartatk/Cumbrian-Sky/entries/2008/07/13/opportunity-a-real-robot-hero.../3851, out there exploring another planet right now...
Oppy took this on SOL 1583 with the solar filter.
There is no so-by-sol commentary for Sol 1583 on the MER site (yet)
It looks like it took a picture of the sun being occluded by the top of the cape?
(this is not Demos of Phobos eclipse ??)
Cheers
Does anyone know what this is?
01588 p2679.17 62 62 0 0 4 128 pancam_dust_search_tau_mosaic_L8R8
Well, while we wait, here's a continuation of the Quicktime VR movie from earlier. This is a cheat, since it adds Navcam images from a subsequent (similar) location. But it seems to hang together well enough if you don't look to closely, and it fills in more of the view.
http://mmb.unmannedspaceflight.com/OppySol1567-1589comboVR.mov
An excellent successful "cheat"!
The view is fascinating real!
That QT is sensational, like being there...
Not as impressive, I know, but still quite a view, I think...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v509/cumbriansky/cliff-july14b.jpg
BTW: anyone wanting to see some truly jaw-droppingly impressive 3Ds of mars should go here...
http://www.marsunearthed.com/MRO/MRO_HiRise_3DIndex.htm
Pictures from the latest drive are at the exploratorium.
And the rear right wheel (left on the image) is digging in the sand: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2008-07-15/1R269427024EFF90BFP1314R0M1.JPG
On your excellent route map, Tesheiner, it seems quite clear which area they should steer clear of, namely the down-flow of loose sand which even has some ripples in it. It seems there's a bridge across that down-flow a good deal further down, just off the large boulder that has come off the cliff. There, you can quite clearly see "stepping stones" across the down-flow, which might suggest that going close to the cliff and then along the face would lead to a position further down where they can move away from the face again.
Mike,
WOW - You rock!
Cheating never looked so good!
(you guys with the hyper image skills, just kill me)
Cheers
This looks odd:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2008-07-17/1R269608649ESF90BHP1392R0M1.JPG
Steering to the right, fully, with a big of dig-in.
I'm really loving the shadow in this rear hazcam:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2008-07-17/1R269609022EFF90BKP1314R0M2.JPG
Nice outline of the arrays, PMA, Low gain, High gain, and is that the sundial mast in there as well.
Probably the UHF antenna, and a pyro-bolt. I think the gnenom, errm, gnomen, err, sundial stalk bit would be behind the HGA shadow.
VERY cool picture
Doug
I reckon it is the sundial, compare to http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2008-07-11/1N268980429EFF90B8P1964R0M1.JPG. The shadows are shorter (the low gain and PMA shadows fall on the deck) and the sundial shadow falls right to the edge of the deck even at this time. The position, particularly relative to the pyro-bolt and the array outline matches too.
Nope - I think you're right.
Nice new view of some of the most http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v509/cumbriansky/erodedrocks2.jpgat the base of CV...
Today, sol 1596, Opportunity continued its efforts to drive up to the wall of Cape Verde.
But this time, differently from previous days when the rear wheels were digging in the sand, specially the right one (left on the images), we can see they are back on "solid" ground. Reason is (I guess) because the rover moved back down slope and not uphill.
I hope this is just a sort of "tactical manouver".
They finaly read my previous post : http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=5242&view=findpost&p=118402
From the front hazcam looks more like a turn in place to the left.
Color anaglyph of the nice rocks on the ground
http://www.db-prods.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/rocheseffilees-sol1589-ana.jpg
Another turn in place to the left today. Seems that they may be orientating for a drive up slope and possibly out of the crater?
I dunno... are they really going to give up on driving closer to the rockface when they're so close now? I was wondering myself if they were having second thoughts when I saw the most recent navcam shots, which seemed to be Oppy taking a good long look at the ground and rocks at her feet and around her, almost as if she was reaching out with a toe and testing the rocks on the edge of a pool... but there seem to be no huge obstacles in her path, and to come this close and not try to get closer still would be frustrating for the team, wouldn't it? Maybe they're just checking out an exit strategy and route before edging closer to Cape Verde... thinking "Well, if we really can't get any farther we can always come back here and head out in that direction..."?
IMO. they are just turning the rover to try climbing on a different angle. We might get the answer in two sols, after the next drive attempt.
If they were giving up and leaving the crater, the way out would be (again IMO) by exactly the same path as they got to the current position.
I agree, those recent pancams of the rim have the look of "longing glances of intent". However, I'm sure this is just a re-orientation to try a different approach to the wall, or perhaps something in that direction has caught their eye.
AFAIK, the pancams from sol 1594 or later, rim or not, are shots on all filters of selected science targets.
Fresh pics of the latest drive, during sol 1600 (!!!) , on the exploratorium.
This one was smooth, no slip (?), with all wheels on "solid" ground. I think we are back on the way to the rockface.
Looking at the rear hazcam images from tosol (http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2008-07-25/) and the previous ones (http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2008-07-22/) I have the impression that the little rock at the center of the fov was blocking the rear right wheel on the earlier drive attempts. The illumination is quite bad on the pictures so I had to enhance them a bit; here below is the one from sol 1600.
Some wheel movement on sol 1602, but no distance driven:
sol 1600 hazcam: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2008-07-25/1F270223664EFF90C7P1212L0M3.JPG
sol 1602 hazcam: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2008-07-27/1F270402608EFF90CIP1214L0M1.JPG
Wheel closeups always make me nervous: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2008-07-27/1P270401474EFF90CHP2149R1M1.JPG
What was the planned movement on these last few drives? Have the drives been aborting from slippage?
Can't tell.
Data stopped flowing into the pancam web on the 24th. Hiccup?
New update today: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/spotlight/20080728_Opportunity.html
Hmm, maybe a reference in there to some recent comments here? Nah...
Yeah, Tesheiner pointed out that troublesome rock to us a few days ago.
Good news!
I was a bit nervous after the last move uphill when she got free of the "potato". I said to myself: "if the next move is to the left, bad, they are giving up; if to the right, good, they are taking another path to the wall". Now the approach is clear.
Upslope. Sideways. Are we any closer to figuring out where Nevada is?
It's here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevada
Now seriously. Ilbasso correctly identified it some time ago (post: http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=5242&view=findpost&p=120312)
There was a pancam shot on sol 1591 named after it.
01591::p2543::21::8::8::0::0::4::20::pancam_nevada_dusty_L257R1
And here's the page with the images taken on that sol: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_p1591.html
And to put it in context, here's a navcam mosaic of images taken on sols 1600 and 1602. Nevada is to the right of the picture.
Hope you've got those 3D glasses handy Nick...!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v509/cumbriansky/AlmostThere.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v509/cumbriansky/edge.jpg
And here's a colour shot of "Nevada"... (which is very well seen on "Almost There", by the way...)
At last a late afternoon image of the "mess". Hmm, the wheel doesn't look free - rather still digged...
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2008-07-29/1R270595027EFF90CSP1304R0M1.JPG
Why did only the front left wheel move on the SOL 1604 "drive"?
I think there was a drive attempt between sol 1600 and 1602, but it looks like it resulted in slippage abort. Both rear wheels seem to show some slippage and the front wheels, i.e Oppy is a bit sunken.
Lots of questions. Perhaps we might get some answers on the monthly report which should be online @TPS in a few sols days.
Have we captured an image taken when Opportunity was dreaming of an earlier time?!
From today's Front Haz Camera download - a http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2008-07-29/1F146121388EFF3546P1210L0M1.JPG
It threw me for a moment.
Astro0
Just like a dream/reminder of all the adventures that she overcame.
Really really nice done!
Call it "Robots Dream".
While we wait for Opportunity get free of this mess, here's a 360º panorama made with navcam pictures from sols 1600 up to 1605.
A bit of a drive tosol. And a spectacular new hazcam image - one of my favourite of the entire mission:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2008-08-01/1R270859212EFF90D8P1314R0M1.JPG
This http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2008-08-01/1F270853697EFF90D8P1212R0M1.JPGis pretty cool, too... Seems like Oppy's future's so bright she's gotta wear shades...
Seems to me that we have moved forward about a foot at some point--are we free of the mess?
From here http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2008-07-25/1N270223728EFF90C7P1981L0M1.JPGto here http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2008-08-01/1N270853778EFF90D8P1981L0M2.JPG
> are we free of the mess?
Not yet, IMO.
Based on the data from the pancam web the latest "drive" was done in six steps and the slippage was quite high on all of them: 93%, 93%, 88%, 78%, 89%, and 94%.
According to the latest Flight Director Report Opportunity's wheel stalled.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/mer/mer20080731/
Is this the same as with Spirit's wheel, that it won't rotate?
In the past, they've used the word "stall" to indicate a one-time event...i.e., a mechanical component did not respond to a given command. Have to wait & see if it's a persistent problem or not.
Forgetting the MECA story for a while, here's a colourisation of a beautiful layered rock imaged by Oppy... hope some of you like it
What's not to like? Beautiful, Stu, thank you!
(STILL wanna take a rock hammer to these things & look between the layers. Guess it's up to my great-great-great, etc. grandsons and/or daughters to do so, though...rats.)
At least we have something interesting to look if we're stuck here for the rest of the mission.
Looking back at some of the movements made while they were taking closeups of the wheels I suspect it was the steering motor that stalled.
Big news from http://www.planetary.org/news/2008/0731_Mars_Exploration_Rovers_Update_Spirit.html
We had started to discuss the news that Oppy is on her way out in two separate threads, some posts moved to the http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=5372 thread. Lets continue things over there.
The Pancam site now has there version of the Cape Verde Pan in B&W.
http://pancam.astro.cornell.edu/pancam_instrument/1580B_capeverde.html
A few of us here probably know just how hard that must have been to pull together, to much kudos to the CCC for managing it
Whoa! I studied that panorama for quite a while. I realized I was staring too long when the muscles in my http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3Agaping jaws started to cramp.
That was seriously painful. Be warned.
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