Yes - if dust storms did nothing but deposit dust - then the entire planet would be exactly the same colour

Doug

Ah haa...

http://www.msss.com/mer_mission/finding_mer/index.html#PROTO

HiRISE will already do it internally



Doug

I've got £5 that says it's the batterys (because of the temp and charge cycles)

Doug

You didnt have Mars Odyssey safe mode on you as WELL did you

Dial up - broadband was the analogy I used to explain it to my other half

Then again - T1 is a smidge more than 'broadband'.

Doug

Just checked the specs for Amie - and yes - it is a 1024 x 1024 CCD, so the concept of Cproto would not work - the only way to get higher resolution would be to get lower.

MRO could, technically, be commanded to do a motion-compensation technique to get higher than 30cm downrange resolution. How succesfull it would be, I dont know. Frankly - the data output from HiRISE is so enormous - I'm not sure if the supporting electronics would be able to cope, but I'm sure the same was said of MOC before they tried.

Doug

There's some elevation in there I think.

For those that use 3d programs - take something like eagle crater - then scale it in X and Y only ( not Z ) by 10000% - and I think that's what erebus will be like

Doug

It's fine here

Doug

Bingo -

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/r16_r21/narrowangles.html

Although - nothing new in the MER sites apart from the two track images we've already seen and nothing of Victoria.

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/r16_r21/im...6/R1602188.html - Oportunity with tracks - very washed out

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/r16_r21/im...0/R2001024.html - Spirit tracks - clearer, and also..

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/r16_r21/im...8/R1800734.html - another image of the bottom section of the first.

Doug

er yes
I'm going back to bed

Doug

Evidently we've gone from Viking to Victoria - http://qt.exploratorium.edu:16080/mars/opp...GYP1607L0M1.JPG

Doug

IIRC - the Smart1 Camera is a discreet 1024 x 1024 pixels, so you couldnt do the cproto type imaging which can only be done with a push-broom single line type of camera.

Doug

Well - imagine a 1hr UHF pass at 128kbps whilst MRO is in an elliptical orbit.

Thats 460 Mbits right there If 256kbps is possible at that sort of range - you can double it

They have a ceiling of 600Mbits in flash I believe - but you could do something like navcam-movies in that period - take, process, transmit, delete. Would take some clever sequencing - but it's tehcnically possible (they lifted the 'ban' on taking images during UHF passes a while back after running some tests with Opportunity during a UHF pass back in Endurence crater )

Doug

Well - we were told Wednesday

Maybe tonights UHF passes will be nominal - and I imagine they will use every single UHF opportunity there is for the next few sols, even the poor ones, to get as much back as possible.

Doug

Well - that would have been about Feb 10th

If they run spacecraft like most people write software or name 3d objects in animation - there's some comedy variables in there

Doug

If anyone wants to poke around somewhere they probably shouldnt be...


http://mgsw3.jpl.nasa.gov/seq/odyseq.html

there might be something in there somewhere

I've got to spend the rest of the day on the wonderful M1 visiting Watford - but I'll be chasing this topic VERY hard tonight and sending emails to appropriate places.

I did find this though...

0790454015:3 2005-017T18:30:15 ci2905 d:/seq/copy_rw_failed_to_cmic RELATV 9F0664FD
0792456839:5 2005-040T22:50:36 ci2960 d:/seq/solar_array_cycle_05_040 RELATV 3D68978F
0792531971:6 2005-041T19:42:48 ci2980 d:/seq/mmc_fubar_mem_fill_05_041 RELATV 76242CDA
0792940586:3 2005-046T13:13:02 ci2982 d:/seq/themis_4w_htr_on RELATV 7BB8E9C9
0792982744:3 2005-047T00:55:40 ci2983 d:/seq/themis_4w_htr_off RELATV 7A0F71F
0794187466:3 2005-060T23:34:20 ci2977 d:/seq/dpt_init_124k_relay RELATV 5B60AB8E
0796506249:0 2005-087T19:40:39 ci2997 d:/seq/crc_check_file_seq_pt1 RELATV CF6DDCD5
0796584494:1 2005-088T17:24:44 ci2998 d:/seq/crc_check_file_seq_pt2 RELATV CCA359FA
0797013133:8 2005-093T16:28:43 ci2262 d:/seq/safe_mode_daily_diagnostics RELATV 47A47FFE
0797091539:9 2005-094T14:15:29 ci2262 d:/seq/safe_mode_daily_diagnostics RELATV 47A47FFE
0797188568:1 2005-095T17:12:37 ci3007 d:/seq/rexmit_050405_upgo RELATV 3C447CF7
0797189118:1 2005-095T17:21:47 ci2262 d:/seq/safe_mode_daily_diagnostics RELATV 47A47FFE
0797197803:1 2005-095T19:46:32 ci2698 d:/seq/heap_reinit RELATV 53EA825F
0797203805:1 2005-095T21:26:34 ci3005 d:/seq/map_sm_recovery_upgo RELATV 939F56E1

April 1st was DOY 91 - so that last uplink was, I believe, 21:26 April 5th - i.e. late last night.

Doug

I'm quite disgusted by the lack of information from JPL to be honest

I'm sure odyssey will be back up and relaying shortly - but that it's a 5 day old situation and we still have no proper news is a disgrace.

Then again - why would the break the 2 year 6 month tradition of not giving a single Mars Odyssey status update http://mars4.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey/mission/status.html

If this is a bigger problem than just a small safing issue - then we're in trouble. I would hope that ESA would bend over BACKWARDS to assist with MEX given the enormous effort by JPL and MSSS in relaying and imaging attempts for Beagle 2.

Doug

Except for MEX

Doug

I dont think they'll have spent very long going downrange on the chute - from chute deploy onwards it's mainly downward motion - but as I said - I think it's best to look up range, down range, left range, right range - it could be anywhere

I think Gusev will be an easier 'spot' as the surface is much brighter and the sub-surface much darker than at Meridiani.

Doug

So basically we should be scouering MOC images west of the landing site in this release - http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/r10_r15/mc19.html - and the next release due very soon. The landing site is near the top right - you can tell from the little strip of lots of MOC images. At the moment - most of the images in there are pre-landing - but the next release will all be post-landing.

Doug

Well - yes - you have all those things on the plus side...but...

About 1 in 5 days is 'restricted' due to scheduling

Doug

There's something on the ESA website about planned imaging of the sites later, at v.low altitude I believe

I thought the same thing as you at first.

Doug

No - the cruise stage is totally dead once it's seperated, it cant do any sort of deflection burn.

It'll either be uprange a bit, or downrange a bit - depending on it's relative deceleration and profile thru the atmosphere compared to the nominal EDL sequence of the rest of the spacecraft.

Part of me thinks that it's fairly large and comparatively light - so it would slow down quite quickly - but then perhaps the fuel tanks would seperate from it and go further down-range. Frankly - I have no idea

Doug

The thought has crossed my mind - I'm not sure if any studies have been done. I imagine SOME of it would make it thru -fuel tanks in particular ( a delta II second stage tank can make it thru earth entry, after all ) - but I dont know if they'd be uprange or downrange.

Doug

In all honesty - I'd say that we're nearly half way thru the 1000 sols, so we're about as likely to cover as much ground as we've already covered in that time.

Doug

They're not going to occur till it's in it's lowest possible orbit - some months away yet

Doug