Via twitter - I've learnt it was a coincidence

It means it's been scheduled as an observation, so the 'request' to take the image is now retired.

I don't know if that image ID is in the past, or the future, so I don't know if it's been taken or not. I can't find a place to tell me the current orbit number to figure it out.

Or maybe it's not actually been taken yet - it was just added to the list of future observations on that date.

Beyond awesome, can't wait to see it!

Imaging the Spirt Lander/Backshell/Parachute/ is DONE

"ID 43290
Title Spirit Lander Backshell Heatshield and Parachute in color
Suggester djellison
Suggestion Date 2010-01-31
Number of Observations 1
Primary Theme Future Exploration/Landing Sites
Secondary Theme Landscape Evolution
Retired By ESP_016677_1650
Date Success 2010-02-11"

If I'm reading that right - the time between my suggestion and the image being taken is just 12 days. I'm going to make the assumption it was planned for anyway.

The Third Opportunity Award goes to Alice Wessen and the Cassini Outreach Team, for taking the public to Saturn with the release of raw images, and eight inspiring rounds of the Cassini ‘Scientist for a day’ program.

http://www.umsfawards.com/?p=93

NIgel, after a brief google, appears to be in Marketing.

With science like that - he would not be welcome at UMSF.

What I really can't understand is this. Why would you see that image, with the rover tracks leading right back toward our primordial primate...and NOT think "Oh - it must have been closer - I wonder if it took any pictures" I can't imagine anyone being inquiring enough to see the image in the first place, but not inquiring enough to look for closer, better pictures (which, as I've demonstrated, exist all the way to a full frame pancam image)

I just can't understand it.

It wasn't that taking photographs was prohibited - it was that the spacecraft had to orient itself to protect itself during the closest approach because of cometary particles etc, and then continue departure imaging thereafter. It was protecting the entire spacecraft so it could finish its mission, not the camera.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/deepimpa...line/index.html
"Flyby spacecraft enters shield mode"

My appalling typography skills come together with a couple of debunking images

Awesome :
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/...-from-Mars.html

(brought to my attention by a former colleague - I sure as hell wouldn't read The Sun's website)

Looks to me like MERA - just after Bonneville. Going to start looking with MMB

(a few short moments later )
RIGHT - It was Sol Sol 87 12:17:49

(I have been tweeting my analysis...how very 21st century)

Analysis of the Sun-Gorilla. Sol 87 was a 36m drive. Gorilla is 24m from end-location thus 11-ish- metres from Sol 76-87 site

AHh - Sol 87A drive was 36 metres, but distance covered as crow flies... only 20.5 metres (plus a 1 metre drop from rim of Bonneville)

And the Sun's Gorilla looks to me... to be this rock - http://bit.ly/dcUknh - now to check size with AlgorimancerPG tool from both sites

SEE... SEE... told you I wasn't exagerating my HiRISE DEM movies

(Although Adrian is producing far prettier results, in real time. I hate him..just a tiny bit )

The third award of the six, and the second Opportunity Award....

http://www.umsfawards.com/?p=83

Examples of exceptional public engagement are rare in Europe. But one small project has shone brighter than anything else, the reactivation of the Visual Monitoring Camera onboard Mars Express, and the interaction between the MEX team and the public that has followed. For that reason, Thomas Ormston and the Mars Express VMC planning team have been awarded the second UMSF Opportunity Award!

Like all the best funerals (and that's not a construct of words you use very often) it's about celebrating rather than mourning. It will be emotional, it will be frustrating, but it will be a chance to finally look back and appreciate all that has gone before.

After yesterdays first Spirit award - today is the first Opportunity award :

http://www.umsfawards.com/?p=43

It goes to John Spencer and the New Horizons Jupiter Flyby Planning Team for seeking and using public suggestions for Kodak-Moment imaging opportunities during the New Horizons flyby of Jupiter.

Guys - a polite reminder -this thread is for maps, or discussion of making/tweaking/interpreting the maps. There are routine threads for discussion of actual rover ops.

What makes you think it's slippage?

All we can see is a bit of sinkage.

Across the dune crests they're deeper than usual, but not deeper than we usually see on dune crests

The first award has been announced. There was only one choice :

http://www.umsfawards.com/?p=34

Steve Squyres, Jim Bell & the MER Science team, for establishing the new standard for rapid release of raw imagery from spacecraft exploring the solar system with MER and Pancam.

I can read it either way. The fact that there are two white patches just south of where the arrays are would to me at least, infer shadowing by the arrays hiding those areas from sublimation. I THINK I can see something where the arrays should be. I just don't know.

That's an MER wheel.

DEM is 1m

Texture is 0.37m

It takes two elements to do these things - the elevation model, and the texture map you put on it!

Careful - the background images you're using there are very very out of date.
http://trs-new.jpl.nasa.gov/dspace/handle/2014/41421 is a lot better

Yes - but does Canberra have a steel Loch Ness Monster sticking out of a dry lake bed?

Awsome news for an underfunded and vital asset!

NAhh - seems the right thread - while we're at it, here's my 'groundstation' for listening to the balloon payloads
http://twitpic.com/14cl0k

I've submitted it - lets see if they go for it

Yup - Monday thru to Saturday. I'm hoping that recipients will have hands-on their awards before they're announced, but that might not be the case for everyone. Fortunately the first one is a hand delivery in a few days time. I'll post here when te announcements occur, but the details will be on the awards site.