Yeah - TPS is having server issues.

One entry is up. The next is submitted. Another two are getting written now

Yup - the BBC are overstating there. Being equatorial, and clean, Oppy doesn't suffer anything like the trouble Spirit does.

Doug

I think HiRISE data would probably reduce the number of candidate landing sites. It's not about rover longevity. MER still can not be guarenteed to do a 'drive to' with a range of, say, 6km and an ellipse 10x that distance long. It's about safe, interesting landing sites - and for MER, there are not very many.

As Mike Caplinger has said several times, MER heritage is in the box level...the pieces of the machine. Navcam and Hazcam and going on MSL. Various other components might find use in other vehicles.

And even if we had 100 brilliant, safe landing sites for the MER design - the question still remains..

Who's paying?


Doug

Two main reasons why not.

1) There are not that many safe places that are scientifically interesting to land MER style landers

2) Are you paying?


Doug

That's a LOT of fun

Err - we know exactly how far away Endeavour is. It's twice as far as Endurance is from our current location.

As for HiRISE with Low Sun. Not going to happen - HiRISE is in a sun-synch orbit (at about 3pm local I think ) whereby anywhere other than the poles has basically the same lighting whenever you image it.

Doug

Yup - I would go

Green : Flat Soil ( like near Fram )
Yellow : Small Ripples ( like Endurance to James Caird )
Orange : Large Ripples ( like Purgatory )
Red : Dune-like-objects (like the northern rim of Erebus - but not, as understand it, actual dunes by definition)
Blue : Outcrop (like East end of Erebus )
Purple : Outcrop with Ripple ( like Erebus-to-Beagle )

AND

Mark interesting features, like linear things in the outcrops in some way.

Does that not invoke the entire known Universe?

Stop reading minutia detail into every single word I've said, and without meaning to call offense - stop being so damn pedantic. Don't take offense when it happens - it's just judgement calls I make based on how I steer this place.

It's very very easy. If I think a thread is appropriate for UMSF and UMSF is the most appropriate place for that discussion to take place - it can stay. Otherwise it goes.

People who want to have a longer debate about it than that can find another forum to get pedantic in.

I really do not have time to hold all of your hands in this - and even if I did - I sure as hell don't want to. The scope of UMSF has grown beyond MER. And it's grown and grown and grown - and at some point, sorry, I'm just saying 'enough'. I'm not interested in administrating an astronomy forum - subjects like this are astronomy. It doesn't interest me. Not what I made UMSF for. Not what UMSF is ever going to be. If you guys want to discuss that sort of thing - then go to BAUT or somewhere else. The reason UMSF is how it is is because we exclude a lot of stuff. There is no reason why astronomical discussions should be here. There is no reason why they can not be somewhere else.

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_009141_1780 is probably the best for heading south

Basically - due south it awesome for about 1km
Then it sucks for 2km
Then it's OK for a km
Then it rules turning east.

Doug

My version of the same thing

Doug

I hadn't heard that bit before I had to set off to Muenster for EPSC. But I have now



We only have a DEM of Victoria.

Doug

I'd like to see end to end HiRISE imagery before we set out - a month, maybe two - and seriously - there is still fun to be had at Victoria anyway.

How else are we going to play the part of noisy back-seat drivers?

Some people, PERHAPS, are, MAYBE over analyzing the minute details of forum name lexicon.

We all know what UMSF is for. What it's not for is general astronomical discussion. There are far FAR better places for that out there.

Doug

Rui, do you not approve?

Every day? No.

But back in the day - James Caird to just before Purgatory was getting on for 1.5km in 30 days.

Doug

Because we have no missions to observable places outside the solar system. So - indirectly - yes.

Just got word from SS - the name Endeavour is unofficial at this stage.

Sorry - if I didn't make it clear - yes - it is - and they've named it Endeavour

Hubble or Keck looking at some nebulae or frankly, exoplanets - both off topic.

Hubble or Keck looking at a target also being observed by spacecraft - on topic.

That Hubble is a spacecraft is essentially irrelevant. It's just a telescope.

Paraphrasing Squyres :





Alfred McEwen -



Rui.... you have clearance to explode.

"What's next for Opportunity - time for another martian road trip - perhaps a really long one?"

Tune in now

Round up a bit. 66 deg FOV, 22 deg out-from-Nadir pointing.

That means 22 degrees of FOV inside of Nadir from the camera, and 44 degrees outside of Nadir.

Assuming a height of, say, 100 cm...

I make it 40cm of terrain inside a point directly under MARDI and 96 cm of terrain outside it ( Tan Theta = Opposite (the distance on the ground) over Adjacent ( the height of Mardi above the ground ) )

They drive a motor to pull focus - so that could cause vibrations to move material.