The way I read the recent activity.

Sol 25: Acquire sample to be delivered to all three instruments Microscope, Wet chemistry and TEGA. Open TEGA doors for the sample which fails.

Sol 26: Delver sample to Microscope

Sol 27: Recover from safe mode

Sol 28: Deliver sample to Wet Chemistry

Sol29: [tosol] ???

Interesting. SSI took a image of TEGA yestersol with the partially open door 5. Maybe they are trying to open one of the doors on the other (visible properly with SSI) side tosol? I'd be temped to try this if I were them.




True.

Navcam Pan

I think the front hazcam is my favourite

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...B0P1211R0M1.JPG

No day off, there was a drive planned yesterday according to the tracking site.

I was waiting impatiently for data yesterday yesterday as well. But now we are so close to the cape the Odyssey passes are going to be a lot more restricted and I can imagine a few passes may be missed. Hoping to have my socks knocked off later today.

James

Notice that is either TEGA or Wet Chemistry, not both for minimum mission success.

For those in a optimistic mood, we only need 3 TEGA measurements for full mission success. No evidence we won't make that, one out of two so far.

This image was taken before the attempted opening so all your seeing is oven 4.

Tosol (26) we have: "SSI doc TEGA, 1318" which will be our first look like that since the opening.

Split posts to Rosetta flyby of Asteroid Steins

Agreed, moved posts to Water Ice Confirmed!

I'm glad somebody else heard 5. Because I started to doubt myself. I don't understand the numbering sequence if this really is #5, does that mean the numbering starts from 0? (0-3 on the other side) It would make more sense if this was #3 (5-8 on the other side). Or are there 5 on one side like it appears in the image peter59 posted above, unlike the 4+4 arrangement in the image here?

Did they not say in the teleconference that they were opening oven 5 ready for the next sample?

I posted that image while listening to the conference in that background and was pretty sure of myself then, not so sure now. Anyone else remember hearing this in the teleconference?

James

Sure they can try, but remember the first oven was vibrated a LOT to get the sample in and the partially opened door on that oven hasn't moved at all, so I wouldn't hold out much hope if the same problem is responsible here.

That's right, it's a once only deal, now that they have been released there is no way of moving them again. (Short of using the arm as others have suggested, something I'm pretty sure we won't see until well into any extended mission and after all ovens have been tried, if ever.)

Besides I don't think the problem is with soil obstruction. The fact that both the doors opened the same amount is telling I think. And remember that the first oven had a similar problem when there was no soil anywhere near it.

Looks more like an issue with the design operating in Martian conditions to me, although I'm at a loss to come up with any good ideas as to the mechanism.

James

No. I believe that the doors are spring loaded. A catch is released and the doors open very quickly.

Note that the soil on the left door (as we look at it) has been catapulted off and can bee seen on the surface near the top-left of the image.

Animation of the attempted opening of oven 5

And now for the bad news...



The doors on TEGA oven 5 have not opened properly.

The team were very confident that the soil piled up would not impede the doors. I really hope there is not a design problem here, only 1 out of 4 (2 per oven) doors have opened properly so far

James

And that sequence is labelled as: pancam_drive_dir_L7R1 !!!

Amazing.

I was thinking the same about this being a nice spot for lunch.

James

There is just a 3x2 section to complete the horizon pan, the actual horizon bit (3x1) was taken on sol 22 but I believe lost due to the anomaly. Four pointings of the near field were also taken and downlinked on sol 21. I suspect we'll get most of the remaining data with the 'most-data-rich-sol-ever' going on tosol as a result of the anomaly.

James

Looks useful, I refer to the CSV file from MMB quite a bit so something that saves me sorting that file is good.

One feature request, it looks like at the moment I can only choose specific az and el values, it would be great if I was able to specify a range instead.

James

Thanks for the quick and detailed reply Mark, an interesting insight into the sol to sol operations.

Glad I haven't missed anything, but sorry some has been lost - looking forward to more when you get it.

James

I'm confused...

Starting on sol 20 the Peter Pan sequences transitioned to 'near field' work which implies that the horizon pan was done.

However I can't find any images taken (or planned) between 90 and 130 degrees. Am I missing something?

James

Where are the anaglyphs of these photos??

Looks like a fun night.

J

Genius!

Yes. Once the oven is closed that's it, it can't be reopened to add another sample even if you've baked what was in there to nothing.