Not arranged N-S - are you feeling alright Phil?

Should be more like this I think.

Helvick.

One thing that struck me last night. The amount of incident sunlight absorbed by dust on the panels must be quite inclination dependent. (Think of the size of the shadow of a dust grain, or the path length through a thin dust film as the the angle varies) Maybe this is the reason for the power falling off faster than expected?

If this is the case then as we appoach the solstice the rate of change of this effect should decrease and even better, give more power than expected as spring arrives.

Does this make any sense?

James

It says 11 months transit each way.

It also says the lander is designed to last a year on the surface.

I'm all for giving things names but can't we keep things simple and use the JPL name when there is one. Even if it is a rubbish one like "Red Rock"?

James

Note that Victoria isn't even in your second image - that's one of the small craters south of us.

That's still all near rim in the first I'd wager.

James

OK, as soon as I put up that map, Exploratorium come back up.

Here is my best guess from sighting features for Sol 883.

Still no Exploratorium.

So here is the route map based purely on the tracking data (36m S, 2.5m E) (Good guess algorimancer!)

Edit: version based on images is two posts further down...



James

Yeah, I noticed your hint as well fredk

Here is my version of the sol 870 drive direction mosaic.



James.

@Ant103: I really would advise not using the words 'approximate true colour' unless you are using the calibrated images - the jpegs are not and never can be.

Now try again with another set of stars - see if the match is any better or worse.

I notice you've deleted quite a few stars in the comparison (in the middle) - did the neolithic guys get so drunk they couldn't finish it?

I remember seeing an overlay once of a good match between a set of stars and New York subway stations or something. That was a good demonstration of what you can do with star patterns.

James

Well it has been the weekend so no surprise that we've been stationary. (although somewhat surprising that there was no 'preprogrammed' drive at the end of the weekend (yestersol))

The lack of anything on the tracking site for 882 is strange - could be rebooting into the new software I guess

James

Edit: Crosspost. I was going to suggest a problem/lag with the database as well - but it's generally been updating well today. We'll see...

If my data tracking skills are up to scratch then then I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when you see the 881 pancams.

I beleve that "881 p2551.16 13 13 0 0 2 28 pancam_redrock_L234567Rall" is pointed in the direction of that rock. (no thumbnail images at the tracking site to confirm this yet though)

James

EDIT: And in case your wondering the other 881 pancam target "Preston" appears to be the other nearby rock.

EDIT2: Thumbnails are up - this is confirmed.

Don't worry, there are plenty of people to carry on the route map work - I've covered for Tesh in the past but there are many others as well.

I'll be able to do it for a couple of weeks but then I'll also be off till mid August! (Really hoping not to miss Victoria arrival, note to rover drivers - not before August 16th, ok?)

James

Just to add one more memory.

I was in Madagascar doing voluntary work in April - July '04 and was totally out of touch with the outside world. I remember checking into this forum from an airport terminal in Mauritius on my way home expecting that at least one rover would be no more (it was getting on for twice the mission liftime after all!). I was so thrilled when I read that not only were they both still alive but that Spirit had made it to the hills and Oppy was down inside Endurance!

James

P.S. I use "we" all the time as well.

Last drive of the week tosol (878) - note the work volume pancams.

Hopefully we'll be near Alpha and can get some decent weekend images.

I remember talking to my dad about Beagle 2 and saying that 1. I thought it would probably fail and 2. That if it didn't it was going to be totally upstaged by what the Americans were planning!

Even so I don't think I really had any idea of how spectacular it was really going to be, I think my mindset was infuenced too much by Pathfinder - I didn't expect the rovers to go trundling off over the horizon! After all they were only going 600m - you'd still be able to see the lander.

I remember seeing the Dan Maas animation and thinking that the terrain looked rather optimistic. I expected it to be much rockier and harder going. I was really surprized at how accurate the animation turned out to be when Spirit landed. Then came Oppy!

Just after the primary mission was over I remember a figure of 250 sols being mentioned and thinking, "no way, that's crazy".

I would have laughed at anyone crazy enough to suggest numbers like 900, (I still find it hard to beleve!) or that both rovers would drive 'miles' - Oppy driving out of the landing ellipse, Spirit not only making it to the hills but climbing to the top of one, etc.

I didn't expect to be so 'involved' - just read the press releases look at a few images now and again. I never expected to know the downlink times, and wait impatiently for the new images. Then examine them all closely - measure angles - identify features - stich - make colour from the different filters - spend 'hours' working on large pans - spend 'months' writing and refining my own image processing software. And best of all, getting to talk and share it all with so many like minded folks! (Thanks)

James

Here's a better web link - http://www.solarsailor.com

From the technology FAQ:

One time limit on the rovers is the use of a 9 digit time in the image filenames.

If my maths is right then 1,000,000,000 seconds after 1/1/2000 11:58:55.816 UTC is on 9/9/2031.

That's sol 9841 for Spirit and 9820 for Oppy. Mark you calenders!

James

In Sydney we can go one better.

Solar powered ferry whose movable 'wings' can also also be used as wind 'sails' - looks cool too.

http://www.solarnavigator.net/solar_sailor.htm

Southwest it is.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...23P1211R0M1.JPG

Looks like JPL is having a go at colour anaglyphs.

The high res version is truly awsome!

When a drive is aborted I think the flight software then moves onto the post drive imagery and takes it as normal. I imagine that they expected Beagle to fill those frames if the drive had gone as expected - if they had continued south then Beagle probably would have been east/south-eastish.

James

Me again.

5x vertical streach of the horizon in my 871+873 mosaic.

The angle I think Victora covers is marked with a green bar, coresponding to the angle between the green lines on the attached map. I've also indicated two features that I think can be identified in red, particuarly the dark mark left of centre.





James

Since we didn't end up moving very far on sol 873 I've made a mosaic using both the 871 and 873 pancams (which are pointed in different directions) there is a gap in between which I've filled with a bit of navcam imagery. The match is pretty poor in the forground but is ok at Beagle.



James

Are you sure Doug? Isn't Victora almost directly behind Beagle now?

Your red shaded area is off toward the big ESE crater 'left' of Victoria. Victoria's rim is along the right half of the horizon in that mosaic.

James

Looks like there WILL be driving on 875



James