For you.

For Mark it's probably quite usefull in establishing the noise level of long exposures when the camera is getting hot at mid-day after lots of imaging.

Pancam has done plenty of similar things.

Doug

But you don't know that till you download it ( and Phoenix doesn't have the capacity luxury of saving all the images over several days for thumbnail downloading and selective downlinking thereafter )

It's classified as Sky survey tests, it's taken with a solar filter, thus it would be a very very very long exposure, thus it has a lot of noise in it. Given that there's no night-time to get noise readout images, it's probably the best they can do. Flatfield, bias, noise, are all important contributors to making sure you get the very best calibrated imagery that you can. So yeah - you may be thinking 'what the hell sort of a picture is that' - but it will make sure all the other pictures are as clean and calibrated as they can be

Doug

Mark - that's just ideal - perfect. Given how hard you must be working at the moment, this is above and beyond the call of duty!

Incidentally - I was hoping that the descriptions would help me figure out what one set of obs was....but I'm still none the wiser "11DE-0: SSI_MS_OFB_1200-1300" - is that part of the SSI hardware atop the mast or something? It looks a bit like some of the various brackets and so forth on the lander deck, but far too big.

Doug

Yeah - it's a very very expensive, but small, barn conversion

http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/images/gallery/lg_99.jpg

The ovens are side by side, not one above the other. That oven is the same level as the other 3 on that side, and the four on this side.

Doug

For those that wanted to have a look at the MMB movies that MH made perviously that were on his dot.mac webspace ( but got taken down due to bandwidth issues ) - we've got bandwidth to spare...so they're re-posted here : http://mmb.unmannedspaceflight.com/


Doug

You think you're funny... you THINK you're funny.

Actually - that is kind of funny. Hamilton could nudge it one way, Rosberg the other

Another one for the collection Good work guys!

Doug

Yeah - OK - forget what I said about Hamilton, he decided to drive into the back of a Ferrari parked at the end of the pit lane.

Oops.

Using midnight mars browser with Dan Crottys calibrated Pancam imagery, you can often see quite extensive sky surveys showing what you're after, I think.

Doug

Not a blue filter - blue LED's turned on. All I'm seeing is places where the scoop is clean, and places where it is not.

Doug

Looks about the same to me, you may well be comparing unlike filters.

Doug

Because that's the lazy thing to call it. Fines, regolith, whatever geologically accurate term you elect to use is fine - but 'common' english means that soil is the 'stuff' on the ground. It's a point that has been at some of the press confs.

Given the demographics of UMSF, Soccer is probably the better word to use

Honestly, I'm not a soccer fan at all. I'm a motorsport fan - so I'm REALLY pleased with Lewis Hamiltons amazing pole position for tomorrows Canadian GP


Doug

Mars 24 will do that for you.

Doug

But then it would take 12 months to dig a good trench

Doug

The partially open door hasn't been a problem at all - there's load of material in and around the mesh, which means the oven will have got a sample. The opening of the next door will almost certainly flick the soil out of the way for the next sample.

Using the arm to clear soil from around the TEGA inlets is a bit like clearing dust from the MER solar arrays with the RAT. Wrong tool to do a bad job.

Doug

Looks like the Sol 12 images are coming down
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?...3286&cID=50

Motion in the scoop for sure, so hopefully a full delivery will be imaged...in full.

The music goes like this :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T1pXsJp_go

And I think...I THINK... Colin Pillinger is in the video somewhere. I might be wrong on that one.

Doug

the %'ge is the %'ge of electricity produced as a function of the total radiation in watts / sq metre from the sun at that location

Doug

Compare the charts on post 12 of this thread. At Sol 250, the difference would be negligable. If the vehicle is still alive then, with or without a tilt ( and don't compare MER power requirements with Phoenix- there's a reason it's gettgin 2kWh now...it needs it ) it would be a miracle.

Doug

Mythbusters
"With enough lubrication, we can do anything"



Doug

This Christmas, I will celebrate the 9th anniversary of my 21st birthday

Doug

The ATV can't do racks - because it docks to the Russian side, and the russian hatches are smaller than a full rack - you've got to dock to one of the large US hatches, so it'll be via MPLM's, or possibly HTV, or possibly Dragon.