I think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here, Opportunity has to reach Victoria Crater first, something I don't think will be easy. I'd be elated if Opportuntiy made it to Victoria and sent back a nice panoroma of it.

Well Spirit was able to drag itself part of the way up the Columbia Hills with one wheel not doing anything, and that's pretty rough terrain. Opportunity is in much sandier terrain, so it might dig itself in if it tried the exact same thing. However, it seems that the right front wheel can still move. It's just not directed the right way. So they could possibly drive backwards, with the wheel spinning, but just program the rover to make occasional course corrections, as they did with Spirit.

Are we ever going to get an update on any progress (or lack of it even) on that bum wheel actuator?

I agree - it should be a wonderful set of images should Oppy make it, and I've got my fingers crossed.

Semi-related, I've gotten frustrated trying to find MSSS images taken of Oppy's environs at www.msss.com. Their page for the MER missions seems incomplete, as I've seen images posted in these forums that aren't there. That leaves me poking around in the date-based galleries, which I find is hit-or-miss, given my limited knowledge of what passes happend when.

I know we don't have detailed coverage for the entire Oppy area, but it sure would be nice for a "mapquest" style interface to browse around the images we do have.

Or am I just missing something? How do you guys find your orbital images?

Thanks for any help...

If it would be of any help I have made an overview on my site of rover's location orbital imagery. There is more data for Spirit indeed. There is a lotta stuff from Odyssey however I need to check up on too.
Nico

Yes - it's a great help. Thanks a lot!

http://moc.rlproject.com/end_vic_4m.jpg goes some of the way

Doug

I wonder what's going on on Mars. Squires gave a piddly little update about dust devils in Gusev. But, we really don't know a thing for the past week or so.

They're taking lots of pictures with pancam of Methuselah to decide which spot to take a close look at. No idea what's happening with Opportunity - we will have to wait for the latest images to be posted.

Things sure have got quiet around here since the exploratorium stopped posting pictures.

Oppy is moving south, slowly but surely. They are looking at some software issues though so not much science is being done until that can be sorted out...

Oppy where are you!???

Haven't seen any hazcam pics for a week now



Can you elaborate on that software issue?? Something with the driving commands?

That's a strange coincidence, didnt Spirit also have some software problems recently too?

My guess would be that they're doing some tweaks to account for the stuck steering actuator. Maybe they had Oppy do a donut to see how the motion system behaved, and are making adjustments to get better performance

It would take NOTHING for someone at JPL to post a few paragraphs per day about that's actually happening with each rover.

FRUSTRATING!!!

After 15 months, I'd have thought everyone would have got over the fact that stuff will just appear as and when it does and theres nothing we can really do

Doug