And that's my updated traverse map (Sol 446 to Sol 563 (yesterday)).

http://xs43.xs.to/pics/05344/Opportunity_Sol_563_map.jpg (144 KB)

Opportunity doesn't seem to be making much progress towards Erebus lately

I'm interested in seeing Erebus, but the tile floor is worth looking at closely. Also Erebus is an old crater full of dust and sand, so I expect that we won't learn much from it. It's the next big crater to the South that holds a lot of promise.

OK, is done (hard to play with so many arguments... )

dilo, it's been said many time before, but your work is astounding.

It looks as if they now need to decide whether to continue southward over a patch of probably higher sand dunes/ripples, without the help of clean outcrops to drive on, or make that left turn onto the highway. A few sols ago it appeared that they carved deeply into one of the dunes and had to struggle a bit to get through it.

So, which will it be?

I think going into highway is longer but safer and more interesting. However, I hope they do not stop to study each outcrop... Victoria is waiting for us!

They took already the decision to drive east, to catch the highway, instead of going straight ahead (south) to Erebus.

Dilo,

Any possibility of draping these over MOLA data? Maybe in cooperation with NIX?

Don't know if the resolution is too low to add any useful info in this scale.

Dilo, that is a great image. After all the excitement surrounding the Columbia Hills, it highlights that Meridiani is really ... flat

Now THAT shows me where we are! Fantastic. I know there's good science to do where we are, but I am looking forward to getting to Victoria Crater.

yeah. They are working thru some software issues...

I had the feeling that something might be worng.. hope it's not too serious.

If it truly is only a software issue, it should not be too bad. Software can be repaired; or is there a kind of software problem that can't be repaired (other than a failure of the core functionality to receive and execute commands)?

I would think Spirit would be having all the problems, climbing up a big (relatively) hill rather than traversing flat plains, but then Opportunity did go into that crater whose name I forget and there was that dune thing, so hey, why not. I too hope it is not serious.

From
http://planetary.org/news/2005/mer-update_0826.html :

Quote:

"Opportunity suddenly came to a stop last Wednesday, her Sol 584, as she was heading to the 'onramp' of the Erebus Highway. No one knows why yet, but the rover experienced an unexpected reset. In other words, her computer re-booted. When that happens, the rover basically stops all activity and waits. "We're in the process of trying to understand why this happened," said Callas. "The vehicle is otherwise healthy we believe, but she is currently stopped where she is and is in quiescent state. We're asking her to return more diagnostic information before we proceed from here." So for now, Opportunity is taking an unplanned rest, about 150 meters from Erebus Crater. "