Well... that got such a good response that I will post my Spirit map in a similar format... maybe later today, and in the appropriate thread.

Phil

Very very nice new map!!!!

Thanks!!!

Phil, a very nice and descriptive Spirit transverse.

I would like to suggest you to include the traveled distance in meters at every sol points so that I can update weekly an outlook about the probably arriving date on Victoria Crater according to the present peace advancement. That kind is good for Oppy instead of Spirit since it is in cruise stage.

Rodolfo

Phil:

Great maps - they really bring out just how far Opportunity has travelled.

Bob Shaw

Lovely map Phil hopefully it will get a lot longer and it will eventually be nice to scroll down past Victoria.

Roy F

What a stroll down Memory Lane! The map detail adds to the warm-and-fuzzy feeling.

The coordinates are set on a 100m grid with the lander at the origin. Do you have secondary control points to the south at Erebus, etc, or are you placing the individual maps on a best-fit basis on the grid?

--Bill

Fantastic Phil! Pour yourself a Labatt's on me!

Bill asked about the grid.

All I'm doing is placing a 100 m grid over one of the map-projected MOC images, after scaling it to the pixel size I want to use. There is no more control than that, nor is any more really feasible given the available information.

Somebody suggested adding lat-long coordinates. I could, but the location of this area (or any place on Mars) relative to the lat-long grid is still uncertain. I'm not up to date with the uncertainties - somebody might look that up for me.

Rodolpho suggested adding distance labels. I think I'll leave that for somebody else!

Phil

I don't think that reads exactly as you planned

oo-er matron

oo-er matron is right! If I had that Labatt's I could think of better things to do with it than pour it over ElkGroveDan. I live in the home town of Labatt's, in London Ontario... but unfortunately I'm more of a wino myself.

What I didn't say about the maps is that they are a sort of proof of concept thing for a future atlas of Mars exploration. Each 500 m square would be one page, with room for a bit of text. Places which needed extra detail - like Eagle crater - would get additional maps like those I posted elsewhere in this MER section.

Phil

Great map Phil. Thanks! I look forward to seeing your Spirit route map also.

This is what Phil was referring to.

Mike Caplinger has been involved in some work to reduce that uncertainty.

The uncertainty seems to be 0.004deg or around 250m unless someone has improved on that in the meantime.

An updated route map after today's (sol 781) drive.
As already noted, Oppy is moving quite fast and was almost at the bottom of the map's background image, so it was time to shift the picture up. Here is the result.

(335k)

Rushing in where angels fear to tread, don't we have more precise initial positions for the rovers from delay/doppler measurements on the direct to earth links and the Odyssey relay passes. (No, I can't find the references). As I understand it, this ties the rover's landing points pretty well to the defined rotational coordinates of Mars and to inertial space.

Relating those positions to points on the ground is another matter.

Waiting to be corrected once more.