I was away in London today ( yuck ) so I didnt spot this - thanks guys - gives me some nice facts to moan at the host about

Generally, it's not to bad though.

Doug

More than enough to make anyone interested in the mission to go "damnit"

Doug

Anaglyph
http://mer.rlproject.com/newana_1.jpg

L7
http://mer.rlproject.com/newpan_1.jpg

They're parked over by that next outcrop now I think

Doug

If they can find the virgin mary in a piece of toast - I'm sure they can find better than a spec on a picture from mars

Doug

Who knows - a speck of dust - a CCD burp - I dont think it's a real object.

Doug

From the Sol 2 insurance pan This is a four frame part of a larger mosaic that Maki et al paper - and featured at the PDS somewhere - but I think this was the only really stitched section of the insurance pan - so I may do lots more as it was very low compression

Doug

NOW it makes sense - if they traversed straight up the ridge - they solar arrays would be orientated WNW. By going to the left edge of that image - then up along near the skyline - they're orientated N / NNW - much better from an energy point of view. Excellent work Alan!

Excellent view that last one - the navcam images make is look like spirit is more on the C of current location An interesting route though - one I assume taken on grounds of trafficability and sun angle


Doug

For some reasons - I have images of a red tie around the PMA - and the rover screaming BANZAIIIIIIIIII as it tackles that cliff-let



Doug

Karatape or whatever it's called is the Sllllow egress route - and that's where I think they'll go

Doug

Well - whoever they're from - please send my very very sincere thanks on behalf of the whole forum. It's very much appreciated. The press may have forgotten that they're still hard at work, but we havnt, and we watch in complete awe!

Doug

If they go straight up the ridge of the spur - they'd often be south facing - but by running along it's northern edge, they can be north facing almost all the time

Doug

Well - going straight up west spur would have left them very UN north facing - so traversing along it's northern edge is probably the best way forward.

Doug

Yup - taking a route that essentially runs along the northern slope of the spur that leads to Husband Hill. The power budget for spirit is VERY low - <400Whrs is not a lot at all - iirc, basic housekeeping requires >200Whr/sol - so they have to tread quite carefully!

Doug

Listening to that week+ old teleconf - I heard that they intend to inspect the front edge of one of the solar arrays to try and identify the mechanism for array output increases ( i.e. the cleaning events ) - I guess that means an MI obs. of them - as someone touted previously - should be interesting

Opportunity is at 80% of it's orig. power - almost full caperbility ( 820Whr/sol
) . The spectrometers are getting a little tired - their sources are decaying obviously.

Spirit's getting 350-400 Whr's a sol. Eek. Poor thing

Doug

Nope - $410m got you the first 90 days The rest is from the Extended mission budget.

I maintain - that nice though the view from the summit will be, the science on the way is even better, and I would hate for them to ignore the science ( which is why they went ) just to get a better postcard.

Of Course - there is some science to be had from the view at the top of the hill - but the best science is the rocks they'd drive straight over if they were to go rambling without intention.

Of course - the manpower isnt in situ to have day after day of driving. Running on fewer 'drivers' and 'planners' it takes a sol or two to figure out a driving sequence, a sol or two that is best spent doing in situ science using the arm. So - drive for a day or two, spend a few days doing in situ science. Drive for another day, another couple of days doing in situ science, drive for another day or two, then have 3 in situ days of observation over a weekend. It takes longer to make sure they can park Spirit in an N facing direction at the end of a drive. A bad end-of-drive position now could kill spirit within 24 hrs, and that isnt an understatement.

There's 6 scientific instruments on each rover. (MB, APXS, MI, Mini TES, Pancam, Magnetic Targets) - only one, perhaps two will benefit from driving straight to the hill.

So - take things steady - do things carefully - look after these assets, priceless as they are, but dont rush to the top of a hill just to see what's there, chances are you'd trip and fall in the process.

Hare and Tortoise and all that.

Doug

Guys - yeah - we would all like the pan from the top of the hill - but THE great finding of Spirits entire mission, might be that rock they stop at for a fortnight while going up this hill.

They're not sightseing, they're geologists

Doug

Where do you find these Pando?

Doug

Yup - NASA do their Anas very quickly and dirtily. Us PTGui Artists ( ) use a little talent and a little time to make them much better

One thing you might want to do - is open it up in photoshop, and take the blue channel and tone it RIGHT down - to 20% of current brightness, and then you get the ESA anaglyph colourscheme that I find works even better!

Doug

Well - we all knew they'd be doing it anyway

Doug

You can speculate that there is a feature that might be blueberries - but you can not say that that is what they are for sure.

Go and use similar filters as with MER - and in MER images, they come out a bright bright blue - is the same true of MPF stuff?

Doug

(Edit - I've tracked down pathfinder .img's - and browse jpgs - and found the closest filters to L2, 5, and 7 in MER terms In MER - these are at 753, 535 and 432 nm respectively, with 20, 20 and 32 bandpass. With MPF - R6 is 750, R9 is 530 and R0 is 440 - fairly similar - and you just dont get the shocking blue that we see with Oppy - sure - maybe similar geological processes creating similar objects, but they're not the same thing we're seing @ Meridiani )

Works fine here- looks like he fudged it using L2 + L5. I imagine L7 will be down over the next few sols

Doug

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...cam/2004-11-08/

LOTS of L2+L5, which means L7 will follow A pan, or more probably a partial pan of Burnsie

Doug

Not sure if the arm could even manage to MI any of the solar arrays - a bit like patting the back of your head with the top of your hand - a bit of an awkward move

Doug

It's got to be dust-devil activity hasnt it? Pity there's no pressure/temp sensors on board or they might have detected them

Ironically, Spirit's not had the same luck, despite being in the moor devil-rich environment


Doug