Don't get me wrong I think there definitely is still a drop off ahead (see my earlier posts). Just pointing out it's already quite steep!

I don't see the point of looking for 'paths down' as I see it we can see an easy 60m ahead then the terrain gets steeper and we can't see any of it for (guess) ~50m. All we can say so far is that it is at least 2 degrees steeper than where we are (as we can't see it), probably quite a bit more looking at the orbital data. That is probably not the problem though, we are now going across the layers of the dip slope so we could easily come across long outcrops running along the side of the hill which could be very tricky obstacle (think about having to go right over the top of Larry's lookout!)

For the record I think that it will be passible, any outcrops are very unlikley to be unbroken over any great distance. I just think it is silly to be saying "I see a way through!" at this stage when the steepest bit of the decent is hidden and could be anything from an 'easy' 20 something degree slope to great meter or more high vertical outcrops stretching right across the eastern side of Husband hill! We just don't know yet! Which of course is one of the reasons the MER missions are so exciting, we get to go and find out!

Cheers, James

Just been looking at the images from Sol 637 again (yestersol) (no 638 yet ) and noticed how close to the top edge of the frame the horizon is in the front hazcam shots, Spirit is at quite an angle already.

Looking at Front and rear hazcams from the summit I think the curve of the horizon should get to about 200 pixels of the top of the hazcam frames on level ground (at the summit height above the planes). On Sol 637 there is only ~35 pixels to the top, with 0.12 degrees per pixel that means Spirit is tilted forward ~20 degrees already.



James

Where are you getting your information about the 'step' being a "high area of sand" and "relatively flat"?

I don't think we'll have any idea about the terrain conditions until we are right on top of it. For example a vertical 'cliff' will remain hidden until parallax enables to to tell that two rocks seemingly next to each other differ in range, even then you don't know it's vertical, you only have a lower limit on the gradient given by the angle you are looking at it. i.e you don't know it's a cliff till you lean over the edge.

James

The upcoming Sol 638 should get us a bit closer.

Sol Seq.Ver ETH ESF EDN EFF ERP Tot Description
--- -------- --- --- --- --- --- ---- -----------
638 p0655.03 0 0 0 0 0 0 navcam_5x1_az_90_3_bpp
638 p1201.15 0 0 0 0 0 0 front_haz_penultimate_1_bpp_crit_16
638 p1214.05 0 0 0 0 0 0 front_hazcam_ultimate_4_bpp
638 p1301.04 0 0 0 0 0 0 penultimate_rear_hazcam_pri_16
638 p1312.09 0 0 0 0 0 0 ultimate_rear_hazcam_2_bpp_pri15
638 p2514.05 0 0 0 0 0 0 pancam_clast_survey_L7R1
638 Total 0 0 0 0 0 0

Whoa there Doug! Lets not forget about that steep step!

There appears to be a ridge across those navcam shots, here is the left one with a line to mark it.



Using the Parallax calculator that ridge is about 60m (\pm 10) away, which is probably about right for the steep step (it was only ~100m from the summit). Features beyond that ridge are out of range of the calculator >100m.

Lets wait another couple of sols before declaring "plain sailing ahead"!

James

Decent Space Review article this week, giving a good overview of the various unmanned lunar missions currently planned. LRO, Chang’e-1, Chandrayaan-1, SELENE, etc and various follow ons.

James

I was not slating the BBC about using the word astronauts, thats forgivable, rather there insistence on putting the line - "China hopes to set up a space station within five years and eventually it wants to put an astronaut on the Moon." at the end of any article about the Chinese space program ( the landing article today is the same). China has never said that it it's aim is to put anyone on the moon. It's either there because the reporter hasn't done any reserch, or that saying it makes the whole Shenzhou project part of another race to the moon, and hence more interesting for the general public.

Gosh, how poor is that when compared to Dilo's maps!

Unusually bad BBC article about this.

BBC Article

"is in a low enough orbit to be affected by the Earth's gravitational pull."

"China hopes to set up a space station within five years and eventually it wants to put an astronaut on the moon."

Is their usual reporter on holiday or something! Very poor.

James

Only 250 Sols of course

I'm sure once MRO arrives we'll have some fantastic images of the parachute after a 1000 or more sols. May we even be able to see it move in the wind?

James

Or (more probably) here?

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...indpost&p=16232

linking to

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/r10_r15/im...5/R1500822.html


Edit: Which although is a couple of months old was quoted in the last few days here

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...indpost&p=23175

You mean here?

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...indpost&p=23165

linking to

http://www.msss.com/moc_gallery/e19_r02/im...2/R0200357.html

James

Well they are reentering right now and Spaceflightnow usually have a fairly detailed commentry of the landing process.

James

Look at the rear hazcam

e.g. Sol 603 Rear Hazcam


Looks like slipping in the left (right of picture) track like we saw at Purgatory.

Here is one of dilos elevation maps with a bit of annotation.



Note the vertical scale is exagerated x2, but that slope still looks challenging, and I doubt it's going to be paved like Karatape!


James

Nice work.

I don't think my image really helps in assessing how insane the Haskin ridge route is going to be. I'm sure that the most difficult bit will be in the initial steep ENE decent and the 'steep slope' which cannot be seen.

The big broblem with the decent is that we'll be driving across the layers of the dip slope as opposed to along them (as was the case on the acent). You can see the line of the 'steep slope' all the way along the side of Husband hill and into the East basin in the MOC images. I have visions of this being a long, steep, rocky outcrop as far as the eye (pancam) can see, that could be a pretty impassible barrier.

James

When I was thinking about this problem before getting up this morning (I don't know what that says about me!) the only thing I could come up with would be shadowing from all the stuff on the rover deck, particuarly the PMA. I'm sure it's not 20% but it probably makes a significant difference to the total power generated by the arrays.

Cheers,

James.

After re-reading your post I think we may be disagreeing on the position of the steep step. When you say below the work 'crater' do you mean under the ER or the C.

I agree with odaves guess in the route map thread as SS says its at the bend from ENE to ESE the other dark shadow that could be a 'steep step' is at a bend the other way around (from ESE to ENE). Confusing

I think the 594-597 Inner Basin pan will be better than the summit pan as it shows much more of the Haskin Ridge, including most of the ESE section. I'll attach a full resolution crop from my inner basin pan for mapping purposes.

James

Good idea to get a new thread running for the decent.



I'm not so sure you can see it in that (or any current) Pancam image (I'd love to be proved wrong).

In that Pancam image the nearest bit of the Haskin ridge visible is where it turns to the left a bit, this is visible in the orbital picture and is much further away than the steep step (holding pen upto monitor: about 300m). The step is less than 100m away and well hidden from the summit.

I'm sure one of our talented menbers will produce a image of what can and can't be seen from the 3D models. Hint

James

Thanks Alan, and good luck over these last 100 days. Hope everything runs smoothly and nothing like MER's pyro problems happen!

Cheers, James

Don't worry, the UHF is fine, that's the low gain antenna thats broken and it's not used much!

Edit: Just to add some useful information the UHF antenna is the much smaller one on the left (in that image) of the rover deck.

Quick stitch and colour of the Sol 610 Pan.




James.

I've made considerable improvements to my Inner Basin pan, more images, better contrast, better brightness, better colour. Much happer with it now.

At home on dial up at the moment so you'll have to wait for the high resolution version. Attached is the full pan at quarter scale (420kB) and a sub image of Home Plate at full resolution (386kB).

Enjoy.

James.

Indeed!

I was rather thinking of the other definition my dictionary gives:

"A place or situation in which someone expects to find great happiness"

I have high expectations Spirit! Keep

OK, inspired by all the great work done by some of you guys, I've decided to jump on board and have a crack myself. I'm still not completly happy with the results but they are becoming passable, so it's time to start sharing...

Sol 594 - 597 - Inner Basin



Half Resolution (395kb)

Full Resolution (1.4Mb)

Enjoy,

James