Is the raw data for that stuff available anywhere?

This sort of thing - http://history.nasa.gov/SP-168/p50b.jpg

Doug

Very coarse grained stuff...

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/mi...00P2937M2M1.JPG

Doug

It's an epic vehicle, pity it had trouble on its first launch.

Doug

EDL would have to be totally different obviously, but I think the 'chassis' design is good, however given that you would be doing something more like real time ops instead of daily uplinks, you would have to redesign the systems quite a bit, 'video' cameras not stills etc etc

Doug

From the pancam site, it looks like an MI mosaic, then the Mossbauer onto the sand, with some next-drive-direction-Pancam imaging ( one assumes slightly left of straight toward HP)

Doug

I wonder if an MER would overheat during a two-week-long lunar day, and if it would die during a two-week-long lunar night?

Doug

Actually having VEX in 'shot' is a no no in the competiton description

Doug

Despite the fact that my mum lives on the coast south of Granada 6 months of the year, my Spanish is utterly non existant

Doug

It would make so much sense - I dont think we need to consider anything else to be honest

Doug

Anything and everything much appreciated, I've had a play with the middle part of that mosaic but it's no use to be honest.

I dont mind sharing my ideas - I want to have a full venus globe with clouds, then in the middle the clouds sort of 'part' to show a window into the surface to demonstrate the sort of 'peering thru the clouds' effect of picking certain wavelengths for the onboard camera etc

But under the clouds, obviously, I need something with some value, so the elusive elevation map remains a must-have

Doug

I've had a thought. Do you think the hotwheels Sojourner and this MER are similar scales?

They're not far off

It's such a pity that the likes of www.realspacemodels.com cant exercise their talents on Pathfinder, Sojourner and MER due to the patent/licence issues. The commercial models that end up in the market are always so much of a lesser quality as a result.

Doug

I've been trying to find a nice elevation map of Venus from Magellan data on which to start my work for this competition....and it's NOT easy - I found some .img's here
http://www-pdsimage.jpl.nasa.gov/data/mgn-...0/mg_3001/gtdr/

and attached is a mosaic I've put together of them all. It's a nightmare. I may just pull the section in the middle out as it's the only section without gaps, and then level off the values and see how it works as a terrain map, but I thought this would be an easy thing to find

Doug

No microcraters suggests, one presumes at the macro scale as well as the planetary scale, that it is a younger surface -and that aeolian activity at Meridiani is a much slower process than here at El Dorado

Doug

A full NC mosaic instead of a partial + few L7/R1 PC frames suggests that this is

- a new 'site'
- somewhere they instead to camp for a few days

But...umm..yeah, we're here

Doug

I suppose I could probably blag press being Mr UMSF. It's a thought.

Doug

http://www.cafepress.com/unmannedspace

I'm going to take some items down and replace them soon - the logo comes out a bad colour at the moment. The Mugs, Keyring, Badge and coaster are all good though

Doug

Perhaps if we offer to give talks locally during the week? I'd be happy to do that

What we need is something of a handle of numbers - both people wanting to attend, and people who could present at our conference, and then we can go to the IAC2K6 people and say "look -we can give X talks on A,B & C to locals, schools etc, can we strike some sort of deal?"

Doug

So - do we schedule for just before or just after the big conference
(and can anyone find a price for entry to the main conf? These things are usually anything from about $80 to $500 - I cant find anything yet)

Doug

AND it has a local airport...

http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/dests.php?flash=chk
Ryanair from London Stansted, Brussels, Milan and Rome

http://www.easyjet.co.uk/EN/Planning/Destination/index.html
Easyjet from Stansted, Bristol, Berlin an London Gatwick

Thomsonfly do Coventry-Valencia

I'm not up to speed on German, French etc cheap airlines - I'm sure there's options though.

AND - it would just be possible, with a late night return I'd imagine, to do a day trip to Madrid for the DSN

Doug

Hmmm - might get in touch with them and try to open up some channels of discussion

What I need though - is a list of people who might like to give presentations at a conference. Typically these things are about an hour - techniques, results, mission specific stuff - if you have something you think you could contribute, let me know

Doug

The prevailing wind is from the NNW however, look at all the DD tracks crossing Gusev Crater

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/0...02.R1101577.jpg

Doug

Some two-frame mosaics from this rev



Doug

http://www.codecguide.com/
Tip: QuickTime HD clips
Here is a tip for all those people that want to play QuickTime HD clips (the ones that use the new H.264 codec) without QuickTime (Alternative).
You can play them if you hae the K-Lite Codec Pack installed. Download a .mov file to your harddrive. Then simply rename the file from .mov to .hdmov.
The required components from the K-Lite Codec Pack are:
- ffdshow (for H.264 and AAC)
- MP4 splitter
Playback will be faster and better than with QuickTime itself! Note that this method only works for HD QuickTime clips, not for normal QuickTime clips.

http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=QuickTime_Alternative

There's options out there

Doug

I dont think it is fine particles. I imagine it is sand, darker basaltic sand. The lighter coloured, beigey dust remaining suspended in the air while darker particles get dropped as the wind stalls over the hill

Doug