Leave a few for us!

Phil

Is an image available at full CTX resolution but of the entire Gale Crater? How about HiRISE resolution of the ellipse or larger area? I'm thinking of something suitable for printing very large.

Not yet! (yes, the images exist, but no, not yet available mosaicked for download). But I expect so later from someone other than me. Those would be BIG files.

Phil

Phil,

Hope you don't mind, I took your great pic and put the landing ellipse over it (taken from one of the pics shown at yesterday's press event).



Busy place...

(Doesn't line up perfectly, I know, some ghosting here n there but just meant as a rough guide...)

That's what it's for!

There's a lot going on. As they said at the briefing, there should be some alluvial deposits derived from the crater walls in the middle of the ellipse.

I'm impatient for some more placenames now!

Phil

These are all the HiRISE images that I have analyzed for traversability.

If you go to the HiRISE server that lists all the DTMs http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/dtm/ you can download the DTMs and orthophotos for both "eyes". I stitched them together pretty easily just applying a horizontal and vertical offset. My 1mpp mosaic is about 30000x46250 pixels. Managing the mosaic at .25mpp proved to be a bit cumbersome.

ESP_011562_1755
ESP_012551_1750
ESP_018854_1755
ESP_019698_1750
ESP_023957_1755
ESP_024102_1755
ESP_024102_175N
ESP_024234_1755
PSP_001488_1750
PSP_009294_1750
PSP_009505_1755
PSP_009716_1755
PSP_010573_1755

There are some additional HiRISE mono images but I don't have a full list but I can find out if anyone is interested.

Paolo

I did. Those dunes are oriented mostly SW to NE and the slopes between crests are relatively benign. The tests we have done using Scarecrow both at Dumont Dunes and in the Mars Yard show that we should be able to navigate through them. While there are areas with steep slopes the vehicle should be able to drive off of them and reach a gradual slope. In short, there are no rover traps there.

Paolo

Several minutes of google did not reveal the coordinates and orientation of the new landing ellipse (or old one for that matter). Could someone please post those coordinates?

Really?

Read the MSL Landing Press Kit.
or here with pictures!

Re: The pic Stu posted with the target ellipse.

Will MSL be coming in W-to-E, or E-to-W?

I'm assuming N is "up" in that pic.

North is always up in anything I do, unless I forgot...

Phil

From the west, travelling east.

The press kit includes that info
"While descending from that altitude to the surface, the spacecraft will also be traveling eastward relative to the Mars surface, covering a ground-track distance of about 390 miles (about 630 kilometers) between the atmospheric entry point and the touchdown target."

Astro0 just linked to it - I'll link to it again - http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/pdfs/MSLLanding.pdf

Phil, your mosaic looks correct but the ellipse major axis that Stu added seems quite off. I think it is 87-89 deg from North, this one looks more like > 90 deg to me.
And yes, MSL will be flying West to East.

Paolo

I should be more specific and say that north is close to 'up' in this image, but it's still in its raw image orientation and has not been aligned exactly with north. But at least it's not east up or south up...

Phil

Less braking is needed when they come in from W to E (with the planet's rotation) compared to E to W (against the rotation). I don't know for sure if that's the reason, but I'd definitely wager a Mars bar on it!