B2 seperated from MEX about 5 days before MEX's MOI actually.

Doug

I'll try attaching a golden trowel as an email attachment, but I have a feeling it'll get stuck in my wireless ADSL router.

Doug

Just keep checking the PDS Imaging node for it.

keep checking......

And to think - I'm giving a talk that includes MGS, Odyssey, and MEX in about 42 hrs time

GREAT timing


Doug

6 months time

Doug

Oh my - the BIG Haul...

http://pdsimg.jpl.nasa.gov/data/mpfr-m-rvr...ment/rcinst.htm

Am I the only one thinking "damnit - if they get to 1000 sols, i'll have to rename all my folders"



As someone called it previously - perhaps we may even reach the S1K problem

Doug

Furniture's still in the Garage - hid it away for the winter and it's only just getting warm enough to need it again

Doug

Using that BnW 20x20metre image they released of Oppy in its current 'situation' - and the colour self portrait from 100 sols ago or so... I made a preview of what Oppy might look like today to HiRise..



Cool eh I've blown it up 500% from being at 33cm/pixel - but thats what the resolution is per blown-up-pixel...33cm a go.

As a comparison - here is a simulated CPROTO image from MGS - at 1.5m/pixel horez, and 0.5m/pixel down track..



A WORLD of difference

Doug

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_im...arden_probe.zip (500kb)

Imagine if a spaceprobe with a small red and blue filtered camera landed in my garden This is the data set it sent back. I thought it'd be a laugh just to string something together - if anyone sticks together a funky mosaic from it- I'll then take a proper photo of the area so you can compare to see how we look at the images we get and how the compare to reality

For the green filter - probably best to average red + blue

If anyone likes the idea - I'll do some others from some interesting places

Doug

But the WEB ( and thus the Hazcams ) dont appear to be getting closer to the surface - so I think it's fair to say that perhaps yes - the middle wheels are rising a little

I've run all front hazcam driving all together as one long animation...

Front Left
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_images/FL.gif
800kb

Front Right
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_images/FR.gif
450kb

I'll keep adding to them, and make a .mov of all four corners when they're out

Doug

I was thinking more getting a little garden trowel - painting it up with some gold spray paint - and sending it to the engineering team as a thank-you gesture for all the digging they've been doing in the mars-yard

Then again - last time I did anything like that was a little beagle 2 christmas card that I rendered to look like B2 stuck under snow from overyone at the old Beagle 2 yahoo group I started in '02. I dropped it off at the space centre here in Leicester, and Beagle was never heard from again Maybe I'm cursed.


Doug

I'm still waiting for some papers or announcements from the Huyg team to wrap that one up

Doug

I'm going to be brave, and out of character is predicting ahead of most people - and say that oppy will be up and out of the trench on onto the surface properly by Sol 475

Doug

If someone knows an appropriate JPL address that will actually get to them - I'll sort out a card or a little pressie or something

Doug

But I'm just talking about MOC N/A, Themis Vis and HRSC Non SRC I'm ignoring the Viking orbiters and Mariner Orbiters/flybys, and technically I'm cheating as MPF only had one camera, with two sets of optics

My second slide lists the ACTUAL number, which I'm still working on - but the total number of cameras sent to mars will exceed 50 I think.

Doug

Much appreciated - it seems they tended to downlink from rover->lander the imagery in small chunks - be it 1/6th of a full frame, or 1/3rd of a frame

Pity there's not much info on this out and about though

Doug

Anyone know any info-sources for the specification of the Sojourner cameras - the two front B'n'W cameras, and the 3 band rear camera?

I cant find ANYTHING - and I mean..ANYTHING online about them. f.o.v., resolution - and I assume they must have had some articulation or selective sub-frame sampling as they often took images in seemingly different directions

The PDS archives are very shoddy - the mosaic and anaglyph sections are not even online.

Any and all pointers much appreciated

Doug

iirc - Hubble has a minimum sun angle which is can NOT go over - I dont think it's ever imaged Mercury simply because it's too close to the sun - and the damage that could be done is huge.

Doug

I dont think they're going to try and back out all the way down the trenches they churned on the way in - that churned material is softer and probably offers less traction that 'virgin' ground. I think, given the FR wheels 7 deg toe-out, they will do an arcing turn off to the left.

Doug

I think I live in the wrong country...

Then again - I did get to see the Beagle 2 facility at the National Space Centre here in Leicester..for all the good it was worth

Very cool pics indeed - thanks for sharing them!

You can see the folded up engineering model of the lander tucked up in the corner of one of them.

Doug

Just to see the MER test bed - I'd wait all day for that


Doug

Most sensible way to do that is to group by sequence number ( P2457 etc. )

Doug

Those anims are SUPERB Gary - nicely done

Doug

Perhaps we should colaborate here - then add the whole article as a combined effort under one username?

Doug