Welcome to Kuruman! Update to sol 1830.
Fernando
 The_Martian_Way_MSL_Curiosity_Sol_1830_2017SEP2915.kmz ( 602.68K ) Number of downloads: 336

No problems on my desktop (Windows 10) using Edge, Firefox 56.0, Chrome 61.0.3163.100 nor on mobile Android using Chrome 61.0.3163.98
Fernando

Thank you Phil. I really appreciate it.
Fernando

Update to sol 1814-1816. Curiosity is less than 100m (66m in a straight line) of crossing into quadrant 132. However, according to the notional route it will quickly move on to quadrant 133.
Fernando
 The_Martian_Way_MSL_Curiosity_Sol_1814_2017SEP15.kmz ( 600.02K ) Number of downloads: 392

Update to sol 1809. Seems there is still one last bit of climbing to do.
Fernando
 The_Martian_Way_MSL_Curiosity_Sol_1809_2017SEP08.kmz ( 599.17K ) Number of downloads: 321

Update to 1802. Also corrected a bug in the Mars Clock (sol number display.)
Fernando

 The_Martian_Way_MSL_Curiosity_Sol_1802_2017SEP01.kmz ( 597.77K ) Number of downloads: 292

Curiosity has been zigzagging through an obstacle filled path. A few more stand between it and VRR's top, but hopefully it will reach it next week.

Every once in a while I speculate (for myself) about the upcoming path (and I'm wrong more often then not). This time I'll paste here two alternative routes that seem ok to me - weekend filler - and I'm happy to be proved wrong once again.
Fernando

Update to sol 1794. I think Curiosity is close to turn south and take the final climb of VRR. Perhaps next week?
Fernando
 The_Martian_Way_MSL_Curiosity_Sol_1794_2017AUG23.kmz ( 594.95K ) Number of downloads: 339

Here is the update to sol 1788. It took a little longer, as explaned in another thread.
The update includes data from PDS Release 15, covering sols 0 to 1689.
Fernando
 The_Martian_Way_MSL_Curiosity_Sol_1788_2017AUG17.kmz ( 593.24K ) Number of downloads: 273

Hello again,

The discussion is this thread prompted me to thoroughly review the km and mile signposts in "The Martian Way" kml file, especially at the light of new (to me) information in the articles by Vasavada, A. R., et al. and Rice, M. S., et al. which provide sub-meter accuracy for the total traversed distance for sols 0-494 and 535-634, respectively. The former allows very precise location determination of kms 0 through 4 and miles 1 and 2; the latter extends this to kms 5 and 6 and miles 3 and 4.

Additionally, starting with sol 1282, the description on NASA/JPL Location and Traverse maps ("Where is Curiosity") includes the total traversed distance to an accuracy of 10m. In this way good estimates for kms 13 to 17 and miles 8 to 10 can be made.

Km 10 was abundantly mentioned. Thus I "only" needed to "guesstimate" the locations of kms 7, 8, 9,11, and 12, and miles 5, 6, and 7. This proved to take a lot longer than I antecipated, which explains why I have not made any recent updates to Curiosity's GE path. Phil Stooke's maps have several of the guessed kms, which is good corroboration - thank you Phil. Despite doing my very best, errors may exist. I have after all, "guesstimated" several locations. I would be very thankful for any information that could improve the accuracy of those locations.

In short, here is the revised list of kms and sols:
1 335
2 365
3 404
4 436
5 540
6 587
7 655
8 670
9 743
10 957
11 1098
12 1248
13 1376
14 1448
15 1526
16 1666
17 1754

And here is the complete list, with information sources. To use it, dowload it and drop the ".txt" from its name.
 MSL_kms.csv.txt ( 129.33K ) Number of downloads: 678


Fernando

Edit: Something I've learned: in the Analyst's Notebook odometry or total odometry is not equivalent to traversed distance. The former really does exceed the latter.

Mars Science Laboratory Release 15

The NASA Planetary Data System announces the fifteenth release of data from
the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, covering data acquired from
Sol 1515 through Sol 1648 (November 9, 2016, to March 26, 2017).

This release consists of raw and derived data sets from the following
instruments:
Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS)
Chemistry & Micro-Imaging (ChemCam)
Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin)
Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN)
Hazard Avoidance Cameras (Hazcam)
Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI)
Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)
Mast-mounted Cameras (Mastcam)
Navigation Cameras (Navcam)
Position Localization and Attitude Correction Estimate Storage (PLACES)
Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD)
Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS)
Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)
Spacecraft, Planet, Instrument, Pointing C-Matrix, and Event kernels (SPICE)

To access the above data for this release:
https://pds.nasa.gov/tools/subscription_ser...-20170801.shtml

The MSL route map from NASA/JPL press release Mid-2017 Map of NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Mission encompasses the whole of Curiosity's route since landing plus the path through the light-toned ridge layer (a.k.a. Vera Rubin Ridge), phyllosilicates and sulfate units, and the climb to Marker Bed (names taken from the May 17, 2011, notional route).

The future route path looks quite exciting and is significantly different from the previous (October 3, 2016) notional route, mainly in the "excursions" on the hematite and phyllosilicates terrains, and a totally new climb through previously not visited terrains. The MSL Planned Routes KML document was updated accordingly.

 MSL_Planned_Routes_2017JUL11.kmz ( 181.92K ) Number of downloads: 331

This new path is about 7.68 Km long and climbs through some 400 m, as illustrated by the image.


Fernando

Thanks again Gerald.
The article was the one you point out but I misunderstood the tables... Oh well, back to the homework

Many thanks for your reply, Paolo. Appreciated.
Wouldn't including the twists and turns - which, to me, seems the correct thing to do - make the odometry grow faster and, thus, crossing the km mark earlier? This seems to be the case up to km 10 (comparing the two columns) but not afterwards.
As a curiosity: the average segment size is 0.9024 m with a standard deviation of 0.6396
I'm sticking to the JPL announcements
Fernando

Many thanks for your information-packed reply, Gerald.
I went searching for the Roche limit and the Wikipedia article added a lot to what I remembered. If I understood correctly, the limit for a rigid body is about 900km (PJ7 was at 3500km). Anyway WIBN if those were moons ar a broken comet/asteroid taking a final plunge...
Cheers
Fernando

Am I seing two moons (images 2 and 3) crossing from left to right?

One more thing I'd like to add: The PLACES database - on which most of Curiosity's route map for my GE file is based - includes for each location entry the (x,y,z) distances to the landing location.
Thus it would seem that computing the 3D distance between two successive locations would give that segment's length, and that adding all of the segments would allow computing the total traveled distance.
Here is a table of the sols in which each km was crossed (up to km 15, the latest covered by PDS release 14) and a comparison with the previously posted table. As can be seen, there are some differences, sometimes large, and I don't know why. I'd be indebted if anyone can provide an explanation, by posting it here or by PM. Cheers

... Sol..... Sol
Sol Computed External
1 335 335
2 369 365
3 406 406
4 437 436
5 546 540
6 589 574
7 657 655
8 672 670
9 743 735
10 956 957
11 1080 1094
12 1196 1248
13 1357 1376
14 1438 1448
15 1514 1526

Hello Glevesque,

Here is the data that I use for my MSL route map kmz (Google Earth) file. I hope it helps.

--------------------------------------
Salut Glevesque,

Voici les donnees que j'utilize dans mon fichier kmz de la route de MSL (Google Earth). Je souhaite qu'ils te seront utiles.
---------------------------------------
Fernando

 MSL_KML.txt ( 1.75K ) Number of downloads: 838


Km Sol Earth Date Information sources
1 335 16-07-2013 Analyst's Notebook entry for Sol 336
2 365 16-08-2013 Analyst's Notebook entry for Sol 365
3 406 27-09-2013 Analyst's Notebook entry for Sol 404 and 406
4 436 28-10-2013 Analyst's Notebook entry for Sol 438
5 540 11-02-2014 Analyst's Notebook entry for Sol 542
6 574 18-03-2014 Analyst's Notebook entry for Sol 575
7 655 10-06-2014 Analyst's Notebook entry for Sol 655
8 670 24-06-2014 Analyst's Notebook entry for Sol 670
9 735 31-08-2014 Analyst's Notebook entry for Sols 735-751
https://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/september/n...n/#.VBRvNWRdVVt
10 957 16-04-2015 Analyst's Notebook entry for this day gives total distance as 10231m,however
NASA/JPL press report below states the 10km mark was passed on this date
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4556
11 1094 04-09-2015 Analyst's Notebook entry for Sol 1094
12 1248 09-02-2016 https://astrogeology.usgs.gov/news/astrogeo...rs-and-counting
However Analyst's Notebook entry for sol 1248 mentions "12305 Odometry"
13 1376 19-06-2016 https://mars.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/cur...on-for-sol-1376
14 1448 01-09-2016 https://mars.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/cur...on-for-sol-1448
15 1526 21-11-2016 https://mars.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/cur...on-for-sol-1526
16 1666 13-04-2017 https://mars.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/201...on-for-sol-1666
17 1754 13-07-2017 https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/mars-rove...-behind-the-sun
...................................................................

This update to the "The Martian Way" includes:
- Route update to sol 1759 (last move on sol 1754), with the 17km flag
- Three new quadrants that Curiosity will be traversing while exploring the Vera Rubin ridge (names, anyone?)
- Several changes to the Mars clock - The clock automatically opens when loading the KMZ, but can be called at any time from the left side bar:
-- The displayed time has changed from the MLST (Mean Local Solar Time) at Bradbury Landing to MLST at Curiosity's current position. There is a difference of a few seconds between the two.
-- The main painel now also displays Curiosity current location's coordinates (latitude, longitude)
-- The text in the information panel - accessible by clicking the twistie at the bottom - has been revised.
Fernando

 The_Martian_Way_MSL_Curiosity_Sol_1754_2017JUL18.kmz ( 594.82K ) Number of downloads: 341

Update to Sol 1746. According to Mark Salvatore (Mission Updates) the entry ramp
Fernando
 The_Martian_Way_MSL_Curiosity_Sol_1746_2017JUL05.kmz ( 411.45K ) Number of downloads: 256

Update to sol 1737. Also included Phil's target names (just click on the "Targets" square to see them.)
Moved the point of view to closer to the Vera Rubin ridge climbing point as described in the notional routes (post #880), as it increasingly looks like that will be right place.
Fernando

 The_Martian_Way_MSL_Curiosity_Sol_1737_2017JUN27.kmz ( 460.08K ) Number of downloads: 298

Update to sol 1711. My next update will be near the end of June.
Fernando
 The_Martian_Way_MSL_Curiosity_Sol_1711_2017MAY31.kmz ( 453.06K ) Number of downloads: 298

Provisional update to sol 1707 (updated to sol 1705).
Fernando
 The_Martian_Way_MSL_Curiosity_Sol_1707_2017MAY26.kmz ( 452.36K ) Number of downloads: 295

The notional routes appear to be more like guidelines, the real path has often deviated from them. Nevertheless, two of the most recently proposed ones seem to coincide on the ascent point. Perhaps there aren't many options. We'll see. Less than 800m now.
Fernando

ESA has just announced that the Schiaparelli landing investigation has been completed. A report summary can be downloaded from this page.

Here is an excerpt:

Fernando