Ahh - perhaps they're rotating a little?

Doug

no 'penultimate' - so I don't think there's actually driving, just 'ultimate' as the last of the day to show where the iDD is.

Doug

Ustrax emailed him. He replied.

Doug

Well - actually, MER has 5 eyes on the mast. Two Pancams, Two Hazcams, and Mini-Tes...perhaps this is two variable focal length cameras, and then something TES like in the middle...OR...two wide angle navcams, and a zoom-able high res pancam in mono.

They had a great pseudo-replica of the Apollo 15 experiment at the new Space centre in the Wirrall ( opposite Liverpool ) - feather + lead weight in a pair of evacuated tubes...worked beautifully

Doug

one of many quite old images coming down the pipe, probably on an overnight UHF pass

Doug

http://www.planetary.org/radio/show/00000185/

Update from Rich Zurek

Doug

Corner crater might make an interesting venue for the new flight software uplink (assuming that will be done using long HGA passes ) - and they could even manouver for slight sun-favourable slope somewhere around its rim.

Doug

Yes - a few months ago we were talking about how they could use something similar to the optical sensors on modern computer mice. Somebody ( Sorry - I can't remember who - was it James?) - took the mechanism, added a 35mm lens to it and it worked at quite a range....certainly adequate for WEB-belly->surface measurements.

Doug

With it's foot to the floor, MER is creep-speed anyway

Doug

Yes it would. It get's pulled out automatically after EVERY drive as a matter of procedure since the trouble they had with it at Olympia.

Doug

I think the visidom combo they use is essentially blind-drive-for X metres, then do a short bump drive - compare before and after images of the bump to check what slippage is. If it's low, then blind drive for another X metres. It's a bit like walking a few paces, checking the terrain with a stick, then walking a few paces more. It's complex and convoluted, but just about the only way to do slippage check.

Real time slip-check ability is something that would be of huge benefit to future missions I'm sure ( i.e. Exomars and MSL)

Doug

A blind drive is still a blind drive. Previously - they would do blind drives "command 6m driving that way" and then autonav "keep going for X metres toward a goal, avoiding obstacles".

Then - visidom could be added into it, "drive for X, then check for slippage, then drive for X and check for slippage again etc"

But the terrain here looked so easy, I wouldn't be suprised if they blind-drived it for 25m. Just bad luck really.

I think the rear wheels are more dug in than the front, as the rover was driving backwards at the time.

I think, looking at the terrain that it was driving into, that actually a bad turn might have occured. I can't imagine they'd blind drive into this stuff..

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...GBP1311R0M1.JPG

Perhaps the preceeding turn did not occur as much as expected - I'm sure we'll get an explanation in the near future anyway.



Doug

Ahh - it may well be that 24m was the expected drive distance, but some in-drive visidom killed it. Those figures sound like the expected position based on predrive imaging.

Doug

where's the 24m figure coming from?

Doug

Ahhh - throw it way up in the air and pictures on the way down Cunning. Any pictures of the 'aperatus'?

I've been trying to find a way to simulate MOC/HiRISE push-broom imaging using video footage from a radio control plane...no luck yet though - somewhere there must be a sourceforge project

Doug

OO - is that a radio controlled plane?

Doug

A whole lot of doom and gloom when we don't know how stuck it is, how much driving took place.

Remember the mini-purgatory back toward the NE rim of Erebus. They were out of it a sol later, Give it 2 sols....THEN maybe there's grounds to be slightly nervous, but even then, we got out of Purgatory, this will be a breeze.

Doug

This forum is run on UT. The Voting closes at mignight UT. Debate over that time and further discussion will just get culled, it's reduced to a complete farce ove rthe past few days and I'm drawing it to a close. Time for some dictatorship I don't want to, but if I have to I'll just close the thread to stop it getting quite so childish. Fun and games are all well and good, but this was going around in pointless circles.

Doug has spoken.

It's not too bad - a sol or two and they can drag out of it. It's an NPE...Near Purgatory Event - like we had at the NE rim of Erebus - nothing to get too worried about.

(PS - we have no idea how much driving actually occured)

Doug

This whole near/far thing is getting a bit silly.

There will be arguments just as lengthy about which bit of rock we were ACTUALLY seing once resolved more closely.

Voting closes at 2359UT today (just over 17 hrs) - time to wrap it up - and then someone can start their own thread to argue to death the outcome over the next few months.

Doug

No football that I know of. Al Shepard played golf on Apollo 14 though.

Doug

I do a chart in my talks that shows the still of Dan's animation at bridle cut.....400,000,000,000 metres above the airbags, 6.3m below

Doug

You mean a 2ndary crater

Doug

It says what your limit is on that page.


Doug