That was an albedo pan ( i assume tied in with the MRO HiRISE obs ) - so the frames are downsized to begin with. And I for one am glad they're small...backing up this forum has gone from a 1.2 gig operation to > 2 gig almost entirely due to the huge number of attachments that are being uploaded recently.

Doug

2am-ish for the UK - I probably won't stay up for it as the weather is looking fairly no-go for launch. Sadly no ISS passes over here in the next few weeks so I wont be able to give my new camera a workout and get the cool picture of both STS and ISS flying overheard

Doug

Well - it's projected at 25cm/pixel - the actual image was 27.1cm/pixel

Adirondack was actually - about that size... 25 or so cm across, now - it's probably not right to say that adirondack has been 'resolved' - but it's certainly contributed enough to one or more pixels to make itself visible.

Doug

30 months really isn't that fast

Doug

Not THAT much - you can still see the three airbag lobes at the point where it dropped into eagle

Doug

And they're all OVER the place

Personally - my pin is near the fwd egress aid

Doug

Yes - but not on the actual trajectory as dictated by IMU data and matching the bounces as seen in the reconstruction of that data

Doug

Yup - not quite visible in this but you are right...

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA05227.jpg

I've looked for bounces at Gusev....no luck ( maybe the first, but none after that )

Doug

I would say those older than about 18 months all but have already.

Doug

Well - it's a lot more muted, and you can't see any tracks to speak of for the first 200 sols of driving at least....and the rover is filthy

Doug

I think you have it about right - the challenge is now to try and figure out the config. of the backshell on the surface - see how broken it actually is....and that isn't easy

Maybe they could abandon Victoria and just nip back to check it out.....





Doug

The MPL landing site is in darkness now - it's north polar regions that are currently visible.

The 'known' landers are MERA, MERB, MPF, V1 and V2. Getting 'four' could be 2x MER + 2x V

The known unknowns are B2 (a fairly small ellipse) and MPL ( ditto )

The unknown unknowns are the older spacecraft, i.e. the earlty Russian efforts - they will be hard to find - particularly as their largest asset - their parachutes - are..going on the viking chutes.. going to be hard to find.

Doug

It's impossible to know where smoke ends and facts start with NW nowadays - it's turned into KC's personal ranting-blog instead of a reliable news source, a pity really. However the AW speculation is likely to be fairly sound.

Doug

Perhaps it was the first chance to do some coord. obs with Opportunity - but with DEM making, I would have thought more is better, and a really good DEM might give us results that let the team make major rover planning decisions that might save weeks or months of rover ops.

Doug

I would certainly tick the box for both Sashimi and Adirondak...spot on.

Doug

Well - technically they now have 3 'pairs' (image 1 and 2, 2 and 3 and 1 and 3) - so it means a better DEM I suppose.


Oh - and 'because they can'

Doug

Bouncey bouncey....

Ties in well with
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA05225.jpg


Doug

Well - that chute really doesn't need a question mark Awesome images! That the chute is at all visible after 30 years is amazing.

Doug

The backshell is really getting my attention. The immediate thought from MOC was that the backshell was on the left with the parachute to the right. What appeared to be the parachute it now seems was just the surface disturbance from a very high speed impact of the backshell.....let the gif load for a while, it shows both.

VEERRRYYYY rough maths. Altitiude of 278k for one ob, 269 for the other - call it 274 average.

20 degrees, 274km..... the 'eye distance' is about 96km between observations.

Doug

I have a new and cunning way of looking at MER imagery....it only works for MI images though - but it is as close to 1:1 scale as I can get.

It'll be out when it's out. Hysteria, begging and second-guessing the HiRISE team won't change that
4 posts of that nature deleted...come on guys, grow up.

Doug

It was at the top of the thread

Doug

Another new MUBSS which talks about the recent Spirit MI's and future target plans, and Opportunity making it to Bottomless Bay and why they've not had the arm out much.

Doug

Nope - you're right, I think I had the local geography screwey in my head.

Doug