Hi Doug and gang,

Stay tuned, we should be seeing MPF site in a day or so. (I think the HiRISE image was taken Sat , Dec 17th).

I did my own "Sojourner" pool around the lab and found that my MPF & Sojourner friends guess's are all over the map (literally). Some wouldn't even guess ("How would I know where Sojourner is? I was just the project manager!").

You probably know, Sojourner had a fault recovery mode where the rover was supposed to return to the lander and circle it to regain UHF signal with the lander in the event that it lost comm. The running joke around the lab is that Sojourner has carved a ditch around the lander.

Given that Sojourner's gyro had such a huge drift rate, I would not hold a lot of stock in its ability to drive in a straight line, let alone in a circle around the lander. That drift rate was the cause of that goofy rock climb onto "wedge" (if my memory serves me ... it is nearly 10 yrs ago).

I guess that Sojourner is about (0 , -20m) (straight south part way to Chimp). I hope we can see it, but the dust "fallout" there may obscure it or reduce the contrast. We'll see.

I am very very excited about seeing them again. MER certainly trumped MPF/Sojourner scientfically and operationally, but we could never have built MER without the design and ops experiences we gained on the MPF/Sojourner project. It really was a pathfinder.

Cheers and happy holidays!

-Rob Manning

************
Comments posted here are the author's and do not represent the views of Caltech, JPL nor NASA.

When one read/participate UMSF on a regular basis, he can see how MER is important to us. I'm even more impressed of the true LOVE for Sojourner that people feel.
Back in 1997, I followed the EDL on an old computer with an old modem which staid connected for 1-2 minutes, crach, rebooted, and did the process untill I get the confirmation that they've landed safely. MPF/Sojourner inspired a lot of people here and I'm looking forward to see them again...tomorrow
Thanks for the information Rob, I feel like if I'm waiting for another EDL

So we might see something this coming Wednesday?

Even assuming we did get Pathfinder in that picture (To which I can honestly say at this point in time I don't know), we couldn't release the picture for at least another week, because we need the Geometric projections. Also keep in mind that it's Christmas coming up, and while there will still be operations going on during the holidays, a significant part of the staff is on holiday, so there isn't as much time to do stuff like release pictures, write captions, etc. Just have patience, it's no more than we have to put up with as well (In a lot of ways we have to even have more, I remember seeing the first Victoria Crater image being downloaded, and only seeing the far side of the crater for 11 hours, THAT was quite nerve racking...)

Ok, so...
Place your bets, gentlemen! The pool is still open.

Oh, heck, why not...-4, -8.

What would be wild is if HiRISE's resolution is good enough to resolve Sojourner but it isn't found at all in the vicinity.

I'm sure the resolution will be good enough to resolve Sojourner, but the real question is will it be good enough to tell it apart from the rocks that are sure to abound in the area...

If Sojourner is "near" the lander, then I wouldn't expect it to be too difficult to differentiate; the near field is pretty well mapped. Further out, though, could be problematic, I agree.

I'm having a fantasy where they take two pics of the pathfinder site to get stereo data....

....and one of the rocks MOVES.

<I presume IRL <in real life> Sojourner wandered, hollering "MAMA!" till bumping into a rock and going safe-mode>

If the rover is not in the same position,, I think finding it will be difficult.

Same position as?

In front of Chimp

If there's color coverage of the spot where Sojourner is, IMHO it shouldn't be that difficult to distinguish it from ordinary rocks. It's just bound to have a slightly different spectra.

10 Years of dust accumulation may have turned it orange.