So it raises the question - why was MTO proposed in the first place, and why was it described as being so important only a few months before it was pulled.


Doug

Shouldnt have bothered.

Must remember to celebrate my birthday a day late this year then



Doug

Nope - I googled a lot on this one, it's 668.something sols in a martian year.

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclope...ing_on_mars.htm

"On Mars, the northward equinox year is 668.5907 sols, the northern solstice year is 668.5880 sols, the southward equinox year is 668.5940 sols, and the southern solstice year is 668.5958 sols. Averaging out over an entire orbital period gives a Martian tropical year of 668.5921 sols."

Doug

Just to let everyone know, cards are going in the post today to the MER Engineering team at JPL and the MER Science team at Cornell...printed inside is the message

"To a special little person,
On a very special day,
Have a very Happy Birthday,
You're one year old today!"

And I've written
in the one to the Engineering team..

To Jake, Byron, Bill and the MER Engineering Team,
HAPPY SOL 668

Many thanks for your hard work, dedication and the director updates, your efforts in keeping them roving are hugely appreciated

With best wishes

Doug Ellison and everyone at Unmannedspaceflight.com
(PS - Flight Director gets the badge!)


and in the one to the Science team

To Steve, Jim and the MER Science Team,
HAPPY SOL 668

Many thanks for your hard work and outreach efforts in sharing the greatest field trip the solar system has ever seen

With best wishes
Doug Ellison and everyone at Unmannedspaceflight.com
(PS - SOWG Chair gets the badge!)
(PPS - Sorry - no Cake - it's an ITAR thing)

And on the back of each envelope

NOT TO BE OPENED UNTIL SOL 668A!!

I checked with SS and I managed to find appropriate addresses which should get thru to the right people.

Given the state of the postal service here, I thought it best to get them sent off sooner rather than later. JUST after I sealed the envelopes, I thought of writing (PPS - Sorry -No Cake - it's Pathfinder heritage and needs a total redesign) in the engineering one


Doug

I'm trying to think what it might be able to do. I think the HGA size is probably limited by the fairing size of the Delta II, but advances would surely allow more bandwidth from a similar dish. Perhaps it could be tied in with the SAR mission that has been proposed on the Odyssey platform. Heaven forbid we have another Galileo incident, but a deployable large HGA ( much like the TDRS design ) could probably fit under a Delta II fairing (it did under an Atlas 3 iirc ) and offer something fairly large that could be used both in a Cassini/Magellan way, AND for high bandwidth earth comms.

Doug

We used to have this 'purpose' discussion when I was at school, late into the night we'd try and figure out why we all existed.

As a species, our purpose is to continue the existance of our species, maintain our survivability. How do we do that? Reproducing. But what's the point - what is the poing in continuing the species at all? Why do the obscure animals that have rare, complex mating rituals which barely work and struggle for survival etc bother doing it? For humans, it's not hard to figure out why we do it, but a spider, or a fish or a toad or a fly or a Marmoset or a Badger....why do they bother?

We never figured THAT one out.



Doug

It is THE best way to see Pancam data - kudos to both of you...

There are three things that get audible 'ooos' when I do my talks

1) The Front hazcam anaglyph from Endurance Pan Position 2. (i.e. right on the rim)
2) Any big MEX HRSC imagery
3) Panning around dan-o-vision mosaics in MMB

all we need now, hint hint, is for you Dan, to process Navcam IMG's to be nice JPGs , and you Michael, to drop THOSE in as well

Doug

Hi MC, I appreciate your comments, and it's good to know that the Des movie is something that WONT go, BUT....

End of the day, MSL will return less data to earth because of the loss of MTO, or to put it another way, the potential to return more data is not there, and a price will be paid for all MSL data in the loss of potential MRO data.

Once could draw a comparison between MSL with MTO+MRO and MER with MODY+MGS, MGS was dropped from the MER relay for reasons that havnt been publicly explained, but there's two I can see. 1) Not as efficient or productive as MODY, and 2) MOC science is more valuable given the MGS downlink rates.

The question is - what potential data will go and what impact will it have.

I agree - MTO was looking very very expensive, and there's a case to be made for dropping it to plough the funds elsewhere, but if there's no impact from it's cancellation, then why was it planned in the first place MTO was too much, too early. I think an Odyssey+ platform, i.e. Odyssey's infrastructure, but larger arrays, more powerfull transmitter, and you could have something that would be very valuable in a medium altitude orbit. The limiting factor that I can see in the current on-orbit comms infrastructure is the short duration of each UHF pass.

Doug

There wasnt actually any driving on 628 - the giveaway is no Ultimate, Penultimate and Stumble Hazcam imaging.

You can image in a planned drive direction without actually driving that way yet

Doug

Obviously MOC WA will be catching this lot, but it's fortuitously also Hubble time, Jim Bell et.al. had one and have another session, so they should have caught it in all it's glory as well - a nice flow of data if they get it right from Hubble, to MOC WA, to MERB

Doug

It's about 550ish images. I downloaded them using some little tool I found online for looking at MER images...cant remember it's name...usefull little thing...



Am I right in thinking MMB happily downloaded the newest images from Dan, but doesnt quite know what to do with them till you've sorted the new metadata?

Doug

Youcha. I think a lot of that is because of the low sun causing an awkward stretch of the JPG - but the rover has got a LOT of camera-dust recently.

This one is stretched back a bit because of the missing data and it feels very very strange..

http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/f...23P1211L0M1.JPG


Doug

And woo yay - http://www.lyle.org/~markoff/Opportunity_p...ex_361_380.html



I am now running round the office going "YAY - DATA"

This is known as doing an Emily.

Doug

Great driving ahead

Doug

I think they should be some discussion of the Falcon lauch vehicle. IF...IF it works, it would undercut the EELV's by a factor of 4. Are they being considered a serious prospect for future beyond-leo-missions if found to be a reliable platform. What impact might this have for Lo-Mart and Boeing.

Phoenix, MSL and MRO outreach efforts. Are they intending to exercise a similar system to that of MER, and with MRO, is the infrastructure in place to allow the promised online access to images very rapidly - what sort of turn-around-time will be expected for MRO images to get online?

Any end-of-life-predictions for MGS, MODY and MEX w.r.t. acting as a backup relay for MSL. I think the loss of MTO as you say Bruce - WILL impact MSL -without doubt. Some of the largest data products such as HDTV res des-movie, 5fps movies on the ground etc, will surely be lost.

Comments on the demo-transition of MER-A to UHF operations only - does this impact planning in any way? Are there savings to be had w.r.t. DSN requirements by doing this?

Has the recent JPL lay-offs impacted MSL development in any way?

To be honest, you're a harsh bastard, so I cant think of anything scathing that I know you wont have thought of already

Doug

I dont bother making any anaglyphs for RAD's - so I dont need them

If I did - it's only a few frames to grab direct from the workbook

Doug

takes me about 3 days to grab each dataset download wise, cant find anything intelligent enough to not download thumbs, ESF's, or right eye images.

Doug

Well - I'm not sure about Phoenix, but Jim is on the team for Mastcam for MSL and I'm sure he'll be doing his best to have similar facilities as for MER.

Doug

I'm giving a talk next Thursday - and hopefully all the new data will be sorted and I can drop it into MMB -it's my mid-talk-break-wow-factor during the break for tea and biscuits

Doug

We're staying IN Salobreña

Doug

2 for 3 on cubes isnt bad actually - given that they cost less than the average projects accounting error

Sad for the Ncube guys though - this will be their second lost cube

Doug

I wonder what imagery Damien Peach has managed to get.

Doug

Hopefully, I may be at the eyepiece of something more powerfull after a talk next Thursday

Doug

I think that the type and availability of data might have upset the - I know, I know, it sounds silly, but there are people who might have considered it a national security issue.

Rumour has it they're going to try and re-deploy the system for the likes of us so we can keep track of things, in a way that doesnt upset the powers that be.

Bottom line. They know. We now know they know, and we now know that they're trying to sort it out so we can see something again so we can know....you know?

Doug

Yum.....data....and a new batch of colour images for MMB

Doug