Yes, the Doppler shift of the UHF can be used to locate landers. This was planned for MER using MGS but never needed, see:

http://www.msss.com/mer_mission/finding_mer/

Which is good news for us, although it does mean I have a lot more images to sort out!

Yeah thought so, the MPL landing ellipse seems to be littered with rock carvings of back-shells, parachutes and landers!

This is going to be hard...

This caught my eye, back-shell top-left, parachute bottom-right:



I don't think it can be though as they are separated by 80m, I assume the parachute lines were a lot shorter than this?


James

This one by Astro? (10th March) Not far from where we are now.

Looks like a lot of us Europeans will be needing some...



J

Your link seems to be broken, try:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7397951.stm

Indeed, that surprised me too. I can only imagine that we have some kind of break that is closed by the thermal expansion of the wire during the day.

Sounds quite promising that they may get some movement out of the joint after all, something I really didn't think was likely. A good news update, especially with a bit of dust cleaning as well!

No, not really, but to be honest I only really do finishing touches in GIMP/Photoshop.

Nearly all my MER image processing is done using home grown routines, within those I'm storing data at 32-bit depth. I wouldn't want to do any serious processing of images at 8-bit.

James

That sounds about right, I conversely, I often get frustrated with not being able to work out how to do something in Photoshop and end up firing up GIMP instead.

I've had no problems accessing the site from work but just tried it at home now and I get a "Failed to open page".

Of course that is either a mis-quote or a slip by Steve, the Mini-TES is both inoperable and not located on the IDD (which was what Steve was talking about at the time)

I'm pretty sure it is visible, I remember seeing it while fitting bits of the Bonestell Pan together. I'm not at home right now so I can't find the raw image/MMB, I'm sure it'll be visible in a MMB pan.

James

EDIT: Left side of this http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p...0P2298R1M1.HTML
and right side of this http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p...0P2292R1M2.HTML

Ryan has posted another update on Martian Chronicles:



Not a surprise in my opinion, I was surprised it ever was an option. What was the point of making sure the arm was un-stowed after each drive for YEARS to keep it available if the joint failed and then deciding that you'd rather have it stowed anyway when it did fail!

James

Right. The problem joint is the one that swings the arm 'out', not the one moving here.

I would think that a logarithmic scale would work though.

That's a nice graphic paxdan, thanks for pointing it out.

Yeah £169 now or wait for 3G. Think I'll hold out for 3G especially as I think I'll need more than 8Gb if I have MMB

Hmm.

I think the lesson I'm taking away from the imagery is that the motion of the platform is too great for the camera to deal with. The payload must have twisting on the line connecting it to the balloon quite severely which ruins many of the images.

I'm sure the balloon itself is a much more stable platform. I think it would be a good idea to try and couple the payload to the balloon better to stop this rotation, using multiple lines or a stiff connecting rod rather than cord (I think there are laws restricting the strength of the connection so this may be a no-no)

Cross posted with Andy - That's a good idea as well - anything to reduce the rotation of the camera housing.

Oh heck I was really trying hard not to buy a IPT/IP and now you go a spring this on me!

Interesting. Thanks Phil.

Am I right in thinking that the crater just north of the D in Scandia is the big one on the map Emily posted above?

btw, does that crater have a name?

James

Spaceflight Now are reporting that the service/propulsion module may have failed to separate properly.

Well it looks to me like the problem is with the shoulder joint again. I find the fact that it moved a bit then stopped a bit worrying, the usual problem with the shoulder motor causes it to stall at the beginning. I think there is a very real possibility that the second winding could have broken during deployment which would be very bad news indeed, especially given the current position of the arm (not stowed yet not in a useful deployed position)

I hope Alan doesn't mind but here is that Powerpoint image in png format.

Clearly the deflection by Pluto (+moons) is going to be tiny - but I'd be interesting to know just how tiny is it?

NH trajectory through the Pluto system (from NH website)