http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/in...fobjectid=36537

specifically - http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/do...fobjectid=36781 (4ish meg PDF)

It's an 'interesting' design - which would win astonishing ammounts of cool points for being sexy - cameras on the lander AND the rover on masts

Cant help but think that if that design is to go further - Pillinger should hand it off to an experience mission management team ( Huygens? ) and settle as a PI or Co-PI for it.

Doug

Flash was probably quite full - I noticed the Explo. had a LOT of images from the Vostok pan come down over the weekend. They probably spent the weekend doing all the UHF passes they missed last week, charging batteries and writing the sequences for this week in which, I imagine, we might well see some BIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiig Drives

Doug

No - if there were missed bits in the transmission of images, we'd have missing sections of images. It's an artifact of temperature and exposure, not transmission


Doug

Cunning flybys and aerobraking into titanian orbit for me please

Doug

Both I'd imagine. The fast moving air can carry a lot of dust, but would slow down in turbulance behind the HGA and drop the dust. Rivers do the same thing - dumping silt on the apex of a bend.

Doug

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_images/s_422_hga.jpg (670kb)

Interesting the way the dust has been dumped 'down wind' in the aerodynamic shadow of the HGA during the cleaning event a few sols previous to this being taken

Doug

I'm only 26, so I was about -8 They kept climbing and climbing thinking they'd get to the crater, but then they just had to give up with their walkback limit closing in on them

It was only after looking at the photos back on earth that they figured it out

I believe a case of scotch was forfeited over the whole episode
Doug

I did the maths and given 5m rim - Victoria should have been visible from as far away as Vostok at the very least - search the forum for it

Doug

Bingo

Imaging getting there, and then realizing that we missed important science on the way there

Doug

Well - it's getting warmer (spring is coming ) so the CCD will get a little noisier. That, and using the fairly dark L7 filter, late in the afternoon means a long exposure.

A warm ccd, with long exposure = hot pixels

They can process them out using calib data on earth I believe

Doug

The summit is still some way away. You'd have been useless on EVA with Apollo 14

Doug

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_images/s_445_nav.jpg (280kb)



Doug

They started drivin Spirit backwards after it's wheel issue - and that has since vanished

We have 12 healthy wheels on mars.

The only issues I know of are...

Stuck IDD heater on Opportunity that gets turned off via deep-sleep at night
Slight non-damaging short on Spirit somewhere
Oppy Mini-TES still off-line for analysis
Spirit RAT teeth possibly worn out.

The last point says a lot about the composition of the rocks between Gusev and Meridiani. As of December - the score was

Grind Brush

Spirit 11 39
Oppy 22 8

Now - since then, I believe we've done four rattings on Spirit, and 1 on Opportunity - so the score is probably around 15 - 21. Yet Spirit's the one that's worn out

Doug

Actually - a two year trajectory can be very efficient - do a lob out to an earth flyby 12 months later, which then gets you out to mars.

I still think we should be focussing on a Netlander type mission before dedicating funds to an all-in lander that stands little chance of success.

and the issue is money, experience and skills

Fortunately, the former buys you the last two

Doug

Yup - 257 in the first one

In the latter - I was getting bad saw-tooth-sky-gradients as one often does, so I rendered a new sky over the top as a gradient of samples taken from it - but probably went a bit too low on the left and culled some of Gusev

Doug

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_im..._422_viking.jpg (281kb)

I think Voyager is just off frame to the right of this unfortunately

Doug

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_im...443_ten_val.jpg (473kb)

One sol later - look across t'valley

Doug

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_im...442_lookout.jpg (335kb)

Unofficially, I call this Bruce's Hangover due to comments in another forum

Doug

That was the NOVA program - there have been two in total - the first was just the first few days of landing, and the new one does the first year - including some great animation by Dan Maas of Opportunity driving toward Endurance crater
They've available on DVD in the USA - but not in Europe

Doug

Yup - didnt hang around at Vik+VOy very long, especially with the crud downlink during that time. Hell - Erebus for next weekend

Doug

The black spot is basically exactly where Spirit is It's all the dust-devil tracks merged into one.

There were only the two MOC images we've already seen of Opportunity and Spirits tracks - I posted links in the MGS forum

Doug

Easy - it's the etched terrain that's essentially blocking the line of sight.

Doug

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_im...sev_flyover.gif (725k)

Various wide-angle images taken from a huge range of dates by MOC - but run in order so they appear to be a fly-over

I might do the same for Meridiani - but it's much less interesting

Doug

We've got Meridiani that suggests otherwise

Doug