Think they'll drive in? With the slipage they've been getting at Meridiani I think they'll skirt around the edge to the right to where that dusty section rolls down into the crater - but then leave - getting a rover stuck with 170 estimated days of life left is probably not a popular thing to do.

To be honest - I cant see any of the bedrock they harked on about IN the crater - but I can on the rim to the right of where we are now

Doug

I dont like stitching Navam imagery - it's always crap - too wide angle to work well - but in THE ABSENCE OF ANY PANCAM YOU NASTY NASTY JPL PEOPLE it's the best one can do

Doug

Pancam image will be on the ground- just with-held from the public so they can wow the press ( about 5 people will show up I'd imagine ) at the press conf later.

Doug

I've not seen anything that would suggest biology at all - but plenty of things that can form geologically.

Doug

I think it's only a 6 week eclipse season - but I imagine it might come around again before mission-end

Doug

Looks like they cant get pancam frames taken quick enough to do this properly

None at the spirit site yet though

Doug

They are quite obviously sandbagging the pancam imagery of the crater now they can see over - no doubt at all - another breach of the promise by Steve pre-landing

Doug

HOW DID THEY DO THAT

Grr - I hate them sometimes

Doug

I dont think it's as deep as I was expecting. It's often a misconception that they're about half as deep as they are wide - whereas it's more like 5 - 10% as deep as they are wide.

It's more like a dinner plate than a cereal bowl

Doug

You just KNOW they're teasing us with the exporatorum pages. THe first pancam images from any sol are ALWAYS the 3 or 4 stereo pairs in L7/R1 looking forward - but Noooo - not today - not when there's something interesting in them

Doug

The big difference I've seen is between L2 and L4 of Endurance crater. L4 is mild, L2 is almost GLOWING! a full composite, and an L456 of that should be very different


Doug

Someplaces it looks fairly dangerous - some places it doesnt look TOO bad - but with the ammount of slipage they get just climbing 15 degrees - I wouldnt be suprised if they elected NOT to decend into the crater and instead headed for the hills after extensive pancam and mini-tes work

Doug

I ran a 4-5-6 x 7 in Photosop



Nice to get these full 2->7 sets isnt it!

Doug

I emailed Colin. P. asking how I can demonstrate my support and desire for the goverment to reach into it's pockets and fund a '07 follow on to Beagle 2 - and his suggestion was to email my local MP. Which I have done. This is what I wrote..

I am writing to urge you to investigate and promote the governments spending on space science.
I attended a meeting at the Royal Society on Monday (8th March) at which Professor Colin Pillinger, head
of the Beagle 2 project reasserted his aim to assemble and fly another space mission in the 2007 time
frame. It is impossible to underestimate how much has been achieved and learnt in the design, building and
flying of Beagle 2. Whilst as a mission it has failed, in promoting science and engineering to the youth of
today, it has been a glorious success. Investigation into why the mission failed is ongoing but the team is
convinced that the opportunity to fly again in 2007 must simply not be missed. Leicester played a pivotal
role in Beagle 2 as you will be aware. Much of the instrumentation was designed, built and managed by the
University of Leicester, and the Lander Operations Control Centre have been an enormous focal point in
interest at the National Space Centre. We helped build it and we should be damn proud of that. Taking into
account the mass, power, financial, volume and time constraints into consideration - it is a miracle and
testament to the abilities of the engineers and scientists at the University of Leicester that Beagle 2 even
made it as far as the launch pad in Baikanour, let alone all the way to Mars.
The opportunity and the technology is there to try again, to learn from the Beagle 2 and put together a new
mission for 2007 - but funding is needed to do this. It is impossible to underestimate the importance of such
a mission in terms of science, engineering, and education. There is little for this country to be proud of at
present, but a new mission to mars would be one. I believe the proposed mission would be around 100
million euros, and the intention is to build two craft similar to Beagle 2, and a mother ship dedicated to flying
them to mars, and deploying them to the surface, and thereafter act as a communications relay from
Martian orbit back to earth.
I am utterly convinced that this mission would be worth each and every penny that it would cost. It would be
a crime to allow to astonishing talents of the people here at the University of Leicester, in Stevenage at
Astrium, and at the OU in Milton Keynes to go to waste and not fund - fully - this follow on mission. The
potential for learning is enormous - and Leicester would once again be the focal point of the mission.
I will also be attending a public meeting at the National Space Centre tomorrow evening (11th March) at
which I intend to voice my support and echo this request that the government fully funds such a mission,
and does so immediately. To have achieved so much with so little help from the government with Beagle 2-
I would find it a disgrace if the possibility for enormous success is left untapped, because an amount of
money totalling less than £2 per person can not be found to fully fund such a project
I urge you to raise this matter at Westminster, and offer it your full support - as our representative, as a
proud Britain and resident of Leicester
I would be happy to enter into discussion on the matter via email if you would like to further investigate the
matter

Any UK chaps ( are there any in here ) who feel the same - use www.faxyourmp.com and contact your MP and tell them that you think the goverment should back this thing to the hilt. Hopefully - if there are enough voices, we'll see some action

Doug

Well - with opportunitys pancam - they've basically pointed it at everything inside (and outside) that crater already. Most of the data budget is being filled with MI and Spectrometer data.

Doug

Are you talking from about 50% to about 70% of the way along the horizon, or the right extreme? The right extreme is the Eastern hill range.

Doug

Almost certainly.

Compare the skyline of that attached image to this one - http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/na...11P1515L0M1.JPG

However - I do think there are hints of the far side in other imagery

Doug

jm - could I ask a favour? Would you be able to whack together an excel spreadsheet, or even a graph or a table of values for that for the less initiated? Would be interesting to have a chart showing the pixel-shift vs distance, and then at that distance, what 1 pixel is in size.

i.e. 17 pixels = X metres. 1 pixel = 18 cm

Or something like that

Doug

Sorry - I had the two mixed up. I cant see ANYTHING even slightly leaflike in the one you actually mean. I thought the one thats been split in two was what you were describing as leaf like (not that I would have thought as much myself)

I cant see any relation between the projected disk, and a leaf.

Oh - hang on. Now I get what you mean. Nahh - doesnt look like a leaf


Doug

Had to laugh at that - did they have to leave the surface after 90 days before the new projection

Quite astonishing news. I was thinking perhaps 120 - 180 - but wow - 240 - that takes us to solar conunction in September.

Doug

Leaf like?

You mean the one that's split in two?

Some people have very active imaginations w.r.t. describing things

DOug

Well - quite a good evening, not a presentation as such, just a q'n'a thing

Basically - he wants to try and do a 2007 mission for approx 100 - 150 Million Euros that will fly two new design Beagle 2's on a carrier craft that will enter mars orbit before releasing the landers and act as a relay not only after landing, but during descent as well.

Suggestion is that the unusually thin upper atmosphere would have delayed the opening of B2's parachute to a point too low to the ground - or even too late to matter (splat )

Mike Malin is being amazingly cooperative with his camera on board Mars Global Surveyor and is helping hunt for any evidence of Beagle 2 on the ground.

Someone asked the question I was going to - about there being some sort of public funding on a subscription type basis, (my idea is a supporter club in the mould of the Mach One club for Thrust SSC - which ended up being the single biggest financial contributor to the entire project)) - but Pillinger said it wouldnt really work without numbers in the hundreds of thousands. I dissagree and I'm going to propose some sort of supporters club idea to him via email, citing the Mach One club as a way of it generating hundreds of thousands of pounds in very short order.

There will be an on demand video of it at the Royal Socitey website soon ( http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/ )

I'm the one toward the fromt left with the mad black hair, and a greyey blueish long sleeve shirt

Doug

Isnt that like, err, Mars?

There were a whole sequence of images taken with that camera - we only ever got to see the one though.

Doug