I was referring to the resolution quoted by Mongo!

I know there are commercial earth-obs at <1m/pixel - but I dont believe there are any data sets publically available that will even match the resolution of MRO iirc

Doug

You can do MB and APXS spectra of the soil infront of the rover (technically, behind the rover in the direction it's been travelling) for exceedingly long integrations for a more detailed spectra. A full MI mosaic of the surroundings. Also MI, MB and APXS data on the magnetic dust targets on the front of the rover.

Use Mini TES to do temp profiles thru the sky for prolonged periods to further investigate and understand the day by day temp cycle.

Conduct a verbose 14 filter 22 x 5 image panorama in LOCO compression (1614Mbits ) over a period of several weeks.

Accept submissions from undergraduates, and even schools, for observtaions or experimentation for the rover to conduct over time.

Take day long time lapse images of the sundial to better understand the illumination of the surface and the scattering of light.

Take day long temp profiles of soil around the rover to understand its composition.

And even do what they're already started doing while they test the engineering rover back at JPL - super resolution imagery of the horizon.

Doug

How do you stop the balloon just drifting away in the mean time?

Doug

It would be good to have MTO in situ before sending a spacecraft that actually will depend on it - simply so they can do end-to-end UHF checks on it (using Stanford, or perhaps even Odyssey )

Doug

2.4m/pixel eh

PAH

MRO 0.3m/pixel Every pixel that Quickbird takes, MRO can take almost 50

Doug

The problem that oppy had was with a steering actuator - not a drive wheel.

If it had been a hardware/software error on one or more drive wheels - we'd have known about it by now - it would have come down in the very first comms pass.

Notice that BOTH sides of the vehicle have dug into the dune, and the front two and rear two wheels show evidence of having spun in situ (the tread is full of dust).

All the physical evidence shows that simply - it drove into a dune. End of story - there's evidence to suggest that it could NOT have been a hardware failure of one or more driving wheels. It would have had to have been both rear wheels ( the ones in the direction of travel) locking up to start diging the trench, but they cant have locked up or we wouldnt see their tread rendered smooth by spinning in the dust.

The reason they are taking so long to get moving again is very VERY simple. They dont want to make it worse - and to ensure that they dont - they're taking the time to do lots of remote obs and further analysis of mini-TES whilst running test-bed scenarios - arguably the only sensible progression.

Doug

Anyone whos been sailing will know you cant sail straight into wind - you have to tack. If it appears you cant drive straight over a dune - we will have to do the same I guess

so - they can simply tax along the line of the dunes, then switch back

\
/
\
/
\
/
\
/

etc

Doug

If a wheel had locked up, the rover would have stopped driving immediately - and there would be engineering data to show it happening.

That it ploughed on for a few feet into the dune, and that there is no metion of such data - rules out a 'lock up' imho

Doug

Well - I'd quite like, say, an 8 x 5 mosaic looking back toward Endurance (the middle of the Lion King pan was 5 frames high iirc - and the Larrys lookout pan is 4 frames high in places ) - that would be very very nice. Do it at 456, you've got an afternoons image taking to do

Make the L4's LOCO compression ( 6.24 bits per pixel ) thats 261Mbits
And the L5's and L6's as ICER compression ( 1.13 bits per pixel ) thats 94 Mbits - 355 Mbits to do a fantastic 40Mpixel high quality mosaic of Meridiani at its best - hell, do the lot at ICER, and it's only 150 Mbits

STEVE - JIM... DO IT - Chuck the RAD's up and I'll do the rest

I mean - it's obvious Oppy's got stuck because she's jealous of Spirit's Larrys pan being released



Doug

Well - you'd have to have a power source, a data handling system, instrumentation, comms packages, in a place with no mass budget, no volume.....

Doug

From http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html

April 29

Airlift to Mars

NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is winging its way toward the red planet. That is, via a C-17 Globemaster aircraft headed today for the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.....

I'll be keeping an eye on http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/index.cfm and the webcams to see the new bird

Doug

This is where I feel the phrase 'Mars Scout' really should stick to it's title. Scout out new ground and terrain types for investigation by main-stream expensive missions.

Even with HiRISE - we need a ground truth of some sort for each different terrain type to extrapolate from - and thus netlander type missions would be very valuable - and infact, a balloon even with a very small payload (nIR->nUV band camera, flexible solar array on top of baloon, UHF package, perhaps 10-20kg all up?) even just circulating in prevailing winds would be an excellend way of doing this.

Doug

Well - the reason you can see joins is because they took it over 4 different sols - so it's essentially 4 mosaics side by side - and to be honest, instead of going thru the pain of doing all 4 together - which has been done fairly well by the team look at that - I'm going to stick to doing one mosaic for one sol in most cases

Doug

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_im...o448_tracks.jpg 580kb

Doug

Look at the MI campaign on this puppy It's got to be a 4 x 4 frame MI mosaic

http://qt.exploratorium.edu:16080/mars/spi...cam/2005-04-28/

Doug

I can well understand why he wouldnt actively participate here. He's a hellishly busy man with a very busy mailbox, and he doesnt need us lot going nuts at him

Doug

He probably is - we're the MER fanclub afterall, and everyone writes newsletters to their fanclub

Doug

Just so I'm clear - should the ??? and %% stay as they are - or do they stand for a range of variables etc?

Doug

Making a 10kg rover tilt ever so slighlty when pressing a simple mechanism onto soil is fairly understandale.

Taking a 175kg rover and trying to move it with a 5dof arm...isnt

Doug

Looks like it might work - could it be rewritten to copy something into each folder as well? - I'll give it a try later



Doug

IDD couldnt can only reach the area between the two front wheels - and the rover was driving backwards (and will do most of the time since the steering actuator issue) - and I say again - you try and use it to get out of a situation like this, and it WILL break - no question about it.

They drove into this situation - it's very likely they can drive straight out again.

Ratting is no use - you'll just stir a small circle of dirt.

Talk of using the IDD to aid mobility in anyway is madness

Doug

The wheels will be pointing in funny directions because at the end of a drive they turn the rover in place to put it in the best position for the UHF passes that afternoon and the following morning

Doug

Infact - I think they're getting the place ready for it to arrive soon - that white pipe will be to vent the spacecraft with clean air, and the cherry pickers will be so they can get to the top of the spacecraft (MRO is seriously big)

I used to watch MER testing and assembly more often and more dedicated than any fan of Big Brother

For those trying to get bearings - Camera 5 is looking down the length of the building - and Camera 13 is situated on the left wall just out of view of Camera 5 - looking down at the right wall.

If you want to point something out specifically (they will pan and zoom eventually) - then best to save an image and attach to your message

I cant wait to see the solar arrays - for some reason as a 3d animator, I've always loved solar arrays - they're an animation conunderum

Ahh - they're shutting the far end, I guess they'll unload form a truck into there, purge it clean, the open the partition again - then bring the spacecraft thru to this half.

I have got a program at work that's saving them to our webserver so I can check in and see if there's any action

Doug

I like to keep on eye on proceedings at KSC..

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/countd.../video45lh.html

and this place..





has just had a webcam turned on - looks like the old MER final build facility - and I imagine MRO will go there as well before being integrated to the launch vehicle down the road at the LockMart facility.

Doug

Sols 464 and 465 were a joint imaging campaign it would appear...



http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_images/meth.jpg
197kb

I think some more images may yet come down - so I'll wait for a few sols and see if they do before doing the full res version at at least 5k across

Doug