I too believe that those long drives (100m or so) will, and should be, something of the past.
More important is the "lesson learned", which IMO is not related to the distance but with the drive *mode*.
Longer drives may be seen again in the future, but I won't expect long blind drives anymore.

My updated route map.

http://xs45.xs.to/pics/05366/Opportunity_Sol_578.gif (90 KB)

While the matches between the satellite map and the on-ground observations are good enough to leave me in no doubt that it's the same terrain, there are some puzzling discrepancies. Notably, "Erebus Highway" in the satellite imagery looks much brighter and more continuous than in the ground images. Is this simply due to a defect in the lower-resolution orbital images? Or could it indicate recent deposition of dune sand onto the "highway"? Would it be worthwhile for Opportunity to take a look at areas that look different enough to possibly represent short-term sand movement?

Looking at that updated route map...it doesn't look like it was worth diverting to the "Erebus Hhighway"......the rover has nearly come to the end of it.

The Erebus Highway may look brighter and more continuous on the orbiter image because it was taken from overhead. Dilo's route maps begin as oblique views from the rover's viewpoint. That causes the horizontal patches of bedrock to be foreshortened. Also, portions of the bedrock are also hidden from the rover's camera by the dunes/ripples. I think the vertical reprojection Dilo does would correct for the foreshortening, but there is no way to add in the bedrock areas hidden behind the dunes.

Exact, CosmicRocker. I cannot see through dunes, at leat for the moment!
Anyway, as Oppy approach the highway, discontinuites are disappearing (see previous Sol panoramas/projections)... so is only matter of time!

Hehe. But dilo, you are already doing such amazing things with these maps that I must believe it is only a matter of time before you perfect a "show hidden outdrop" projection.

After looking at SigurRosFan's comparison, it also occurred to me that the improved resolution of the ground-based imagery is another reason for differences in appearance.

Can you explain better this item?

I only meant that the higher resolution of your route maps compared to the orbiter imagery also probably contributes to differences in appearance. The comparison I referred to was this one.

Or the distribution of dunes not is different compared to the time when the orbital images were taken?

This is also the David hypothesys, and appear reasonable but.. I tend to think that is mainly a dune-hidding perspective issue, based on changes visible in the projections as Rover moves around.

I think the exploratorium site might not be updating again......the JPL RAW site has now caught up with it.

Right.

And I believe that MER & Exploratorium problems may be due to the same reason.
I'll try to find on the "other" forum a post from months ago related to a similar issue, with a response from the Exploratorium team explaining how the pictures get there from NASA servers and where the problems may be.

Edited: Found it. Have a look to reply #6 here: http://www.markcarey.com/mars/discuss-2774...um-updated.html

While none of both sites have really new images, let's say that Oppy drove again on sol 580 and was searching for dust devils on sol 581.

-------------

2. What EDRs do we have on the ground from sol 579, 580, 581?

Actual number of EDRs by sequence number and image type:

Sol Seq.Ver ETH ESF EDN EFF ERP Tot Description
--- -------- --- --- --- --- --- ---- -----------
...
580 p0705.03 10 0 0 10 0 20 navcam_5x1_az_180_3_bpp
580 p1214.05 2 0 0 2 0 4 front_haz_ultimate_4bpp_pri15
580 p1920.04 10 0 0 10 0 20 navcam_5x1_az000_1bpp_pri29_42
580 p2364.06 10 0 0 10 2 22 pancam_drive_direction_3bpp_L2R2
581 p2694.05 0 0 0 0 0 0 pancam_dust_devil_hunter_waitfor180_L6
581 p2694.05 3 0 0 0 0 3 pancam_dust_devil_hunter_waitfor180_L6
...
Total 299 46 44 69 26 484
-------------

Edit#2: After a while being down, now the MER Pancam Data Tracking Web Interface says:

"September 12, 2005
One of the computers at cornell is currently down, preventing database updates and access to jpeg images. This version of the database is correct as of September 11, 2005. Stay tuned for updates."

Another symptom of the same illness?

Opportunity is moving again

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P1214R0M1.JPG

I think this must be the Erebus Highway

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P0705L0M1.JPG

It looks to me as though some of those big dunes cutting through the Highway, which aren't visible on the satellite images, are quite real on the ground.