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Unmanned Spaceflight.com > All posts by a member| Posted on: Feb 9 2004, 02:29 PM | |
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Founder  Group: Chairman Posts: 14457 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 
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Colin P has mentioned the chance of using one of the spectrometers on MEX to detect Ammonia from the airbags. Essentially - there's a few cubic metres of gat that shouldnt be on mars that's been taken there in the gas bag inflation devices. As the airbags deflate that gas gets release into the atmosphere. If the bags actually inflated, there there is a chance that gas could be detected - but it's a very very slim chance, and an absence of proof in this is certainly not proof of absence. Doug |
| Forum: Mars Express & Beagle 2 · Post Preview: #27 · Replies: 3 · Views: 23534 |
| Posted on: Feb 9 2004, 10:49 AM | |
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14457 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1
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 Looks like about a 3m drive due south - followed by a T.I.P. Brave stuff to go straight over Adirondack - I like their style  Doug |
| Forum: Spirit · Post Preview: #22 · Replies: 2 · Views: 7804 |
| Posted on: Feb 9 2004, 08:43 AM | |
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14457 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1
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Adirondack looks very odd in both 456 and 457, this is a 456 image. Clearly lots of problems with the processing of the raw images before release to get results like this, as with many of the Opportunity images. |
| Forum: Spirit · Post Preview: #21 · Replies: 1 · Views: 7248 |
| Posted on: Feb 9 2004, 08:35 AM | |
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14457 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1
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4,5,7 image (tweaked a bit) to show the route one can presume they're taking to the crater - somefairly clear pathways with almost perfectly placed little stop-off-points of interesting rock groups. |
| Forum: Spirit · Post Preview: #20 · Replies: 1 · Views: 7248 |
| Posted on: Feb 9 2004, 08:27 AM | |
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14457 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1
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Well - they've elected to not visit the heatshield at Spirit's site, as it's not on their planned route ( a lot more meters to drive to go to the edge of boneville crater than to drive all the way around the back of it ). I dont think they'd actually want to get too close to the backshell and parachute - the chances of the chute material being caught in a bit of wind and tangling in the rover is probably very small, but it's just one of those risks they dont want to take. The heatshield should be fairly harmless however, and there is a very bright single pixel object away off in the plain visible thru one of the crater wall low points from Opportunity that could be the backshell (and if not, what IS it ?) Hopefully they might pancam that target in that navcam shot today. Doug |
| Forum: Opportunity · Post Preview: #19 · Replies: 1 · Views: 7006 |
| Posted on: Feb 8 2004, 10:28 PM | |
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14457 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1
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source - http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...unity_p015.html This place gets stranger and stranger  Doug |
| Forum: Opportunity · Post Preview: #15 · Replies: 0 · Views: 5043 |
| Posted on: Feb 8 2004, 10:16 PM | |
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14457 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1
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Are the spheres eminating from the outcrop as the outcrop erodes over time? I'm not so sure. They do appear to be embedded in the outcrop a little, but not in the volume I'd expect if you look at the quantity on the soil. Also - comparing the odd blueish colour one can get in pancam imagery of these spheres to the colour of the distant plain (the same odd blue) I'm not so sure they're coming 'from' the outcrop as much as dribbling over it into the crater from the plain beyond. Who knows They're going to be the story to follow with Meridiani for sure.Doug |
| Forum: Opportunity · Post Preview: #14 · Replies: 6 · Views: 7306 |
| Posted on: Feb 8 2004, 10:13 PM | |
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14457 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1
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The Mars Exploration Rover Spirit will leave its first rock subject late Sunday and begin the long journey toward an impact crater, a day later than planned after a self-imposed software hold. Meanwhile, Opportunity has commenced its examination of the rock outcropping at its landing site by taking amazing microscopic images. On the Saturday afternoon/evening (U.S. time) workday for Spirit, known as Sol 35, the rover wasn't able to begin driving away from the rock Adirondack as expected. Instead, Spirit collected more information on the rock that had the small hole curved into it late Friday using the Rock Abrasion Tool. "On Spirit we intended to drive today but we weren't able to accomplish that. We did a lot of remote sensing," mission manager Jim Erickson told reporters in a teleconference. "One of the things we did accomplish was Pancam and Mini-TES of the RAT'ed part of the rock, the RAT hole." In the upcoming workday, Sol 36, a single command will be sent to Spirit to clear the software hold placed against driving. "It turned out back on Sol 18 when we had the original anomaly, one of the things the vehicle did was safe itself and it marked a flag that said 'don't drive until you really mean to.' It will know that you really mean to by resetting the flag. It looks like we missed that when we were getting everything back in order for driving on Spirit," Erickson said. "Not a big a deal, but unfortunate." Roughly 20 meters could be traversed on the first day of driving to a large impact crater nearby. "We are intending to drive around the lander and beginning to drive to an area called Bonneville," Erickson said. Meanwhile on Opportunity, the rover has begun exploring the exposed bedrock features in the crater wall where the craft landed. "On Opportunity today we just finished pretty much a great day," Erickson said. "We were basically acquiring images in preparation for driving, and using the instrument arm. We got some magnificent images through the Microscopic Imager of one of the areas we are in right now -- both soil and the first part of the outcrop." The latest highly detailed microscopic images show the bizarre sphere-like materials as were seen in other patches of soil that Opportunity has examined in recent days. "They are showing up both in the soil and in the outcrop," Erickson said. Other imagery taken by Opportunity appears to show the backshell and parachute resting on the Meridiani plains outside the crater. "We'll have to wait and see if that's really what's in the image," Erickson said. On the next workday, Sol 16 beginning Monday morning (U.S. time), the arm will be retracted and Opportunity will begin the multi-day drive along the bedrock to survey the features. Stops will be made for the science instruments to do their work. "One of the things that science wants to weigh in on is exactly how often we stop as we cruise down the outcrop, examine it, and begin to set the overall context for what we will then return and take specific observations. "I think of this as just cruising past the buffet and coming back and sampling later," Erickson quipped. "We are beginning to do the long-term study of this rock outcrop, which is the first one we've ever seen on Mars. We will be here a while, taking lots of data trying to understand the area that it is in as well as the rock itself." Spaceflightnow |
| Forum: Forum News · Post Preview: #13 · Replies: 0 · Views: 4551 |
| Posted on: Feb 8 2004, 09:29 PM | |
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14457 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1
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JRC from #maestro has an automated website doing merges, fantastic site - http://www.lyle.org/mars However - the 2-5-6- of the same target looks very dull - http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/color/1-129517471-6.jpg Invision board's are great - so easy to setup. I'm not kidding, this took 20 minutes to get running, tops. Doug |
| Forum: Opportunity · Post Preview: #9 · Replies: 2 · Views: 9063 |
| Posted on: Feb 8 2004, 09:08 PM | |
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14457 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1
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I've guestimated the catagory and forum sections for this place, but I'm sure I've got it very wrong. Any and all suggestions for a better structure would be welcome. Cheers Doug |
| Forum: Forum News · Post Preview: #7 · Replies: 0 · Views: 6443 |
| Posted on: Feb 8 2004, 08:40 PM | |
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14457 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1
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Made with L4, L5, L7 - and testing the image attachment feature in the forum. I adjusted the levels on the finished image, it was hellishly dark. Doug |
| Forum: Opportunity · Post Preview: #5 · Replies: 2 · Views: 9063 |
| Posted on: Feb 8 2004, 04:29 PM | |
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14457 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1
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Welcome to your new Invision Power Board! This is simply a test message confirming that the installation was successful. You can remove this message, topic, forum or even category at any time. |
| Forum: Spirit · Post Preview: #1 · Replies: 0 · Views: 7533 |
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