And what were the submersibles named after

Doug

They could certainly do something a bit like this when they do IDD work on the magnet targets at the front of the rover - have pancam look down, snap an image of itself

If Spirit's stuck potato had been a front wheel - it could have given them an interesting extra p.o.v

Doug

So - if we take it that the samples were installed a few months before launch - we're probably getting on for 2 years - so we're down to about 17 odd % of the initial source strength - and about 35% of the strength on landing.

So an 8 hr integration from Sol 1 will now take 24hrs

Doug

v.cool self portrait pics - hadnt thought of doing that

What looks like the outline of a person in a lab is infact a dark coloured hinge bracket that connects the rover WEB to the left solar array and can be seen in this image

http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/images/large/03pd0955.jpg
(big JPG)


Also remember - the radioactice sources in the spectrometers are decaying (quite a lot at this stage ) - so integrations take much much longer than before.

Looks like they might be done now though - possibly a sol of remote-obs of the mess they've made, then set off

Doug

(tried to find out half-lives of the radioactive sources in the APXS and Mossbauer - CM244 in the APXS had a half life of 18.1 years - and the Mossbauers Fe57 doesnt decay at all - but I specifically read that decay of the radioactice sources was a problem for the spectrometers )

It was taken a 4.29pm local - so the sun would have either set, or just about to set, thus the lack of shadows.

Doug

Yup - I bought a lot of glasses and took them with me - I think the anaglyph from right on the rim of Endurance at Pan Pos 2 was probably the shot of the whole talk

Doug

Well - it went very VERY well

I had far too many slides, and I went hiddeously over on time, but I gave everyone a chance to leave at about half-time if they needed to get away, and no one left. Not only that, but I've been invited back for an update around Easter.



Doug

I emailed Jim Bell about this one - asking where it was, as I'd stitched some mosaics from it.

He says that the Pancam team submitted it to the Photojournal and the JPL Website people and that they just didnt post it.

Doug

768 bps isnt too bad actually

given say an 8 hr DSN pass - that's 21.6 Mbits

One a day, for a week = 151 Mbits

Heck - 8 Gigabits.





Doug

Rotated to IDD on the Scuff mark it would appear. This is important science guys - dont get down about it

Doug

We've had much worse gaps in Exploratorium before

and anyway - we got SOME pictures back yesterday
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...cam/2005-02-07/

Doug

There's a good 3 or 4 days to poke around a trench - then a couple of days to poke around the scuff.

Add in a couple of restricted sols and there's nothing suprising

Doug

It might tie in with two craters west of track on here then
http://moc.rlproject.com/end_vic_2m.jpg

Doug

Whatever it is - they look at it anew every single day with L456. You're right -it's off to one side of track - perhaps the pair of small craters to the west, there's nothing that size/distance to the east except a eagle-like crater the best part of a km away

Doug

It'll have have been trench-mania for the weekend, followed by scuff-obs as well ( you seen the MI images of the berries - it's like someone threw a pot of ballbearings under the 'scope)

After that, I imagine a big push south.

fwiw - I think I can see vostok in the distance, a curved white feature in L2/L4 images





The little horizon features being the rim of Victoria. I'll try and make some sense of the rough edge of victoria and correlate to that image at some point. Busy putting together an MER talk for Wed PM at the moment

Doug

A view to 'the other side'

AKK - those are NOT anaglyphs

Anaglyph: A moving or still picture consisting of two slightly different perspectives of the same subject in contrasting colors that are superimposed on each other, producing a three-dimensional effect when viewed through two correspondingly colored filters.

They're stereo pairs ( and very bad stereo pairs as well, I couldnt make anything from them at all )

This was the best I could do in making proper anaglyphs from them






Doug

Thats a good one - what sol was that?

I have a big stash of red-green glasses ( best design for the more 'yellow' anaglyphs I do ) - but a Red-Cyan analgyph can be made red-green just by turning down the blue channel in Photoshop

Doug

They recovered from that safing very quickly - and I would have thought some calib.type stuff would have been maybe 5, 10 days out ( a couple of lunar distances ) and would have been unaffeected.

Doug

Yup - they spent months at Clovis - and then when they release a panorama, they call it after a rock they moved to about half a meter away

Doug

Thats what I mean by Clovis really



Doug

I wonder if DI's done any Earht Observations as a calibration exercise as it was leaving
?

Doug

Quite simply, Spirit would have died a couple of weeks ago when the Tau got REALLY bad if it had traversed straight up. Being on a N slope is keeping it alive

Doug

I'm doing a lecture at the Uni of Leicester's Astronomy Society on Wednesday..I'm gathering a few vids, many of my own mosaics etc but what would you considre unmissable imagery in telling the story of the two rovers to date?

For me - the images I HAVE to include are...

Inital Pans for both rovers

Brushing Adirondack and the empty-nest mosaic
Middle Ground
Imagery at Bonneville
that rock on the way out of bonneville
the pan and trench position at half way to the hills
the foot of the hills
Clovis
Rim of Gusev Crater
The Turkey pan ( newly released )
Imagery up toward Larrys Lookout
the two MOC images of Tracks
the MOC anaglyph of the columbia hills

mosaics of the outcropping including MI mosaics of the layering
empty-nest pan
the Lion King Panorama, featuring the heatshield, backshell and endurance
Anatolia
Fram crater
Endurance from Fram and closer
L7 mosaics of the tracks back toward Fram and Eagle
Pan position one and two for End. crater
Anaglyph of Hazcam at the rim of Endurance crater
Burns Cliff Pan
Image back up the rim looking at rat holes
Imagery at the Heatshield including MI images
MOC imagery of the tracks and down to Victoria

I dont have long so it has to be fairly 'abridged'

I've also got video footage of the rover being tested on the ground at KSC, the EDL animation, and Opportuinty from chute openeing to rolling on the ground at the mission control centre

Doug