Journey to Mt Sharp - Part 3: Cooperstown to Kimberley - Waypoint 3, Sol 453 [Nov14,'13] to 595 [Apr9,'14] Options

[charborob]

Sol 453 navcam pan:

We're moving again!
(Mods: I suppose it's time to start a new thread?)

[Phil Stooke]

Off we go - this is a circular version of the 3/4 pan we have right now.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Location after the sol 454 drive. We only have a few pics and I have not yet located this spot on the map. EDIT: Got it! - not where I expected.

Phil

[neo56]

Panorama acquired with MastCam 34 on sol 453:

[jvandriel]

The Navcam NL B panoramic view on Sol 454.

Jan van Driel

[Phil Stooke]

Here is a circular version of the panorama jvandriel posted just above, much more complete than my earlier one. Quite a rugged area. I expected we would go southwest but we turned due west. I see some thick protruding veins or fracture fill 120 m ahead in the HiRISE images (unless they are drifts, that could very well be... is it too late to retract my suggestion?), but it's perhaps more likely that the route will just turn SW past the big crater south of us. Another drive today - we'll see where that goes.

Phil

[PaulH51]

but it's perhaps more likely that the route will just turn SW past the big crater south of us. Another drive today - we'll see where that goes.
Phil

EDIT : Probably all AutoNav due to the duration of the drive (~195 minutes).

[James Sorenson]

My version from Sol-454.

[Gerald]

Sol 455 drive, seen from FLB, fisheye-corrected 125°, magnified twice:
(4MB), and post-drive MAHLI:

[James Sorenson]

Cool Gerald!

I made a couple of clips of my de-fisheye processing of a video that I am producing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2er8ESNrQE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TFKmSNbSb8

[charborob]

Here's the sol 455 drive from the navcam perspective:

[James Sorenson]

Not sure where to post this, But here is our entire Journey so far from Landing day all the way up to Sol-456

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT480b8s5i8

[Gerald]

Great! Supercool!

[jvandriel]

The Navcam NL B panoramic view on Sol 456.

Jan van Driel

[Phil Stooke]

Circular version of the above. I got the impression from a recent article - but can't recall which one - that we might bypass Waypoint 3 and move straight to Waypoint 4 (which looks fascinating and very different from this area). Time will tell.

Phil

[Greenish]

James, that video is amazing, really impressive work. Somehow you managed to make the quality high enough and the motion smooth enough so that it really flows. Music choice works too!

[Phil Stooke]

I second that emotion!

Phil

[Ant103]

Sol 456 Navcam pan

[James Sorenson]

Awesome Damia!

Here is the Rear Hazcam view video from Landing all the way to Sol-456. Not as many images as the front Hazard camera of coarse, but my best attempt anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5N-oxoQAmm4

[jvandriel]

The Mastcam L view on Sol 456.

Jan van Driel

[pospa]

Ken reports some issue with wheel stall and electrical problem during Sol 455.

[jvandriel]

The Mast cam L view on Sol 455.

Jan van Driel

[Greenish]

Ken reports some issue with wheel stall and electrical problem during Sol 455.

I wonder if that has anything to do with the funny route, or if that was planned. Per the curiositymsl.com* and Midnight Planets maps, the rover turned around and looped back more than a few meters, and is facing SE instead of SW as usual at the end of the drive. Per the speed/elevation plot, it looks like there were some steep slopes and higher speeds (including one spike) at first, then the second part of the drive was slower, and you can see where it retraces the elevation curve.

I try not to read too much into this preliminary telemetry data, but it's fun to try to figure out.

* I know the underlying terrain is getting out of sync with the map, for reasons Joe has explained elsewhere, but I am looking at the shape of the path, not the features underneath it.

[Greenish]

Here's a navcam stitch looking ENE, from about halfway through the loopback I mentioned in the previous post.

[Astro0]

Another view from Sol455.

[fredk]

Update on the electrical problem.

[CosmicRocker]

That update on the electrical problem has me a little confused. Maybe an engineer will add some clarifying comments.

If a device has a 32 volt bus, shouldn't the deltaV between the bus and the chassis be 32 volts in the absence of any soft shorts? The update mentions soft shorts that dropped the deltaV from 16v to 11v to 4v, but was there an earlier event that dropped the voltage from 32v to 16v? Or, is there something else I am missing that causes the deltaV between a 32v bus and a chassis to be only 16 volts?

Also, is it correct to suspect that with only a 4 volt margin remaining after 5 volt and 7 volt soft shorts, it is unlikely the electrical system can survive another, similar soft short?

[mcaplinger]

If a device has a 32 volt bus, shouldn't the deltaV between the bus and the chassis be 32 volts in the absence of any soft shorts?

The MSL bus is set up so the chassis ground is nominally halfway between the voltages of the battery and RTG terminals.

[Phil Stooke]

At last! Sol 462 - some new images are on the ground.

Phil

[djellison]

That update on the electrical problem has me a little confused.

Read up on 'Floating Bus'

[James Sorenson]

Kind of sound's like the grounding issue that happened on Spirit.

The drive conducted on Sol 2117 had been planned for one sol earlier, but was delayed after analysis of the Sol 2113 test led to discovery of a new electrical issue on Spirit. Engineers learned that a persistent voltage now exists between the rover electric ground and the rover chassis where no voltage should exist. This condition might be related to problems with the right-rear wheel.

http://marsrover.nasa.gov/spotlight/20091217a.html

Is it simular? And is the Rover wheel stall issue caused by the problem?

[mcaplinger]

Read up on 'Floating Bus'

Technically chassis ground is referenced to the actual surface (more or less, though if you were to drive a metal rod into the surface of Mars and measure the impedence to chassis ground I'm not sure what you'd get), so it's not really floating. It's more that the low side of the battery is intentionally not at the same voltage as chassis ground.

Appendix A of https://standards.nasa.gov/documents/detail/3314876 shows the Cassini balanced bus, which is similar.

[bobik]

Read up on 'Floating Bus'

[mcaplinger]

Is it similar? And is the Rover wheel stall issue caused by the problem?

The Spirit description was less than crystalline to me, but I think the wheel problem was more a cause than a symptom of that bus imbalance (if that's what it really was.)

In all honesty, though I'm probably supposed to understand this, I'm not certain what the advantages of a balanced bus are. I think it just gives increased visibility into current paths. I do know that the low side of the bus could be completely shorted to chassis and our instruments would work just fine -- in fact, that's how we usually operate them on the bench.

[Phil Stooke]

A wee bird tells me that, though we see very few images, the arm was busy over the weekend and there will be more drives very soon.

Phil

[blueaeshna]

There are a couple of Sol462 hazcam images down, looking hopeful!

[Phil Stooke]

Wow - look at those wheels!

http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MSL/ima...000E1_DXXX.html

(no, not because they are dinged up a bit - because they look great!)

- and then look beyond them at the mountains. Even more wow - I don't know if they have ever looked so clear.

Phil

[RoverDriver]

Kind of sound's like the grounding issue that happened on Spirit.


http://marsrover.nasa.gov/spotlight/20091217a.html

Is it simular? And is the Rover wheel stall issue caused by the problem?

No, the RF drive actuator for Spirit has nothing to do with floating bus or the steering actuator stall. The best explanation that came out was that the actuator stopped working due to a thin layer on the motor commutator that prevented current from flowing through the rotor's windings.

Paolo

[jvandriel]

MAHLI panorama of the wheels on Sol 463.

Jan van Driel

[blueaeshna]

Latest news on the fault http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-340

[Ant103]

My take on the mosaics taken on Sol 463. Separate parts, because the centers of the mosaics is not the same.

[jvandriel]

The Mastcam L view on Sol 463.

Jan van Driel

[charborob]

Sol 465 partial navcam pan:

[Astro0]

Just concentrating on the crater rim.

[Ant103]

Yes Very good visibility this sol

My take on this panorama :



And Sol 463 Mastcam34 pano :

[Phil Stooke]

It's great to have these nice panoramas again after a bit of a break. This is Ant103's navcam pan in circular form. EDIT - OK, I updated mine too... it's hard to keep up with you! (EDIT - replaced for a second time)

Phil

[Ant103]

Thanks Phil ^^

In my previous post, I've updated this panorama with the last frames

[Phil Stooke]

And another product derived from Ant103... this time the Mastcam34 panorama. I subjected the horizon section to a bit of a vertical stretch (moderate, for me) to separate out the various ridges. Here they are with locations identified on a map of the landing ellipse. The black dot is Curiosity's location.

Phil

[ngunn]

Nice one Phil. I was wondering what those low hills were.

[Ant103]

Sorry Phil, but I think that you will have to update for a third time your polar projection

[Phil Stooke]

OK... gasp... I can just about keep up - not as young as I used to be - gasp. I replaced the previous image with the new one rather than posting again.

Phil

[Gerald]

Sol 465 MAHLI, rotated 150 degrees, white balanced and stretched by some lower region of the sky:

and MARDI of the same Sol:

[James Sorenson]

The Right Mastcam Pan for Sol-467


http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/145576

[Gerald]

What a landscape!
Just one of the Sol 367 MR images, white-balanced using lower sky, 4-fold enhanced:

[Phil Stooke]

Yes, it's amazing - and just wait a bit and we'll be right in there among those hills. Fantastic place!

Phil

[neo56]

My take on the MC100 panorama taken on sol 467:


In false colors, to highlight colors differences between rocks:


I removed the "black dots" which appear on every MC100 pictures (dust on the CCD ?) with the GIMP cloning tool.
I'm not totally satisfied with the blending process, seams are too pronounced.
I'm using PTGui to make my pans. I select "PTGui" for the option "Blend using...". I tried using "Enblend plugin" but the result is worse. I also tried the option "Perform automatic exposure and color adjustment" when aligning images. Seams are less pronounced but there is a gradient of luminosity from the left to the right part of the panorama.

James, your result is much more better. Could you tell me what software do you use to make your pans ?

UPDATE: after flatfielding MC100 photos using sol 36 pictures of the sky, the result is much better and seams are no more visible (thank you James for your help! )

[James Sorenson]

PTGui, Autopano Pro Giga, and Photoshop. PM me if you want further help, I'd be happy to.

[wildespace]

Sol 469, MAHLI looking at its wheels again. http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/?s...mp;camera=MAHLI

One of the wheels is balanced on a rock!

[Astro0]

Sol468 - Area around the wheels.

[charborob]

Sol 470 partial navcam pan:


Edit: added recently received images.

[Phil Stooke]

Charborob's partial pan in circular format. Three rocks nearby on the west side are visible in HiRISE to give a good location for the map.

Phil

[charborob]

I edited my previous navcam pan for sol 470, as some new images have been received.

Maybe I should curb my panorama-making enthousiasm and wait until all images are available.

[EdTruthan]

Sol 470 - Nine Frame Navcam Anaglyph...



Personal Note: An unusually brisk period of business and family related activitities has kept me from posting much of anything the last few months but I've been keeping abreast of things as time allows and enjoying the posts and graphics from everyone here at the forum. As usual, excellent work from all! Finally had a few moments to knock out an anaglyph from yestersol's position. Looks like some rough country ahead...

[jvandriel]

The wheels seen on Sol 472 by the MAHLI cam.

Jan van Driel

[Phil Stooke]

Very nice pictures.

This is the sol 472 partial pan (roughly thrown together) in circular form to help locate the rover.

Phil

[jvandriel]

The partial Sol 472 pancam NL B view.

Jan van Driel

[Phil Stooke]

As of sol 472 we are on the verge of entering a new map quadrangle. The science team divided the landing region into map areas called quadrangles for geological mapping before landing. Each one gets a name and a scheme for feature names. The first one, the landing area, was Yellowknife Quadrangle, with names taken from northern Canadian geology. The second, Mawson, took names from Antarctic geology. Cooperstown (Waypoint 2) was in a third quadrangle whose names come from (as far as I can tell) the NE USA/New England region, but I don't know the quadrangle name. And now we are about to cross into a new quadrangle, but the name has not been released yet.

If anyone can fill in a little more information, please do!

Phil

[James Sorenson]

A few images left to go, but here is the Sol-468 M34 360 Pan.

http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/145852

[Astro0]

Gale wall crop from Sol468 pan



This has been reduced in size from 19000px to 13500px wide.

[James Sorenson]

http://makeagif.com/i/3PRsJK

http://makeagif.com/i/P4xEyf



EDIT:

[jvandriel]

The Navcam NL B view on Sol 474.

Jan van Driel

[Gerald]

Sol 474 RLB 5-image wheel-watching:

[PaulH51]

Sol 474 RLB 5-image wheel-watching:

Looks like the suspension is getting a good workout

[Phil Stooke]

Just a short drive to the west, and given the many images of the wheels I might speculate that it was mainly for wheel mapping.

Phil

[EdTruthan]

Sol 468 - MC34 - 360 Panorama is now complete...

Click thumb for a Quarter Sized Version (at 7500 x 2194 pixels - 3.49MB):


...The Full Resolution version came in at a bit over 32,000 pixels in width. Here's a near Full Resolution at a whopping 29,999 x 8,774 pixels (had to reduced the width slightly for some Photoshop handling)....

>>>> 35.51MB Zip File: Sol468-MC34-360-Degree-Panorama-29999x8774px.zip

[EdTruthan]

Sol 474 - 360 Degree Navcam Anaglyph (bottom cropped)...



Can't see that large crater just a few meters off to the SE yet due to what appears to be it's slightly elevated western rim, but it'd sure be nice to mosey over there and get a view of it. Especially that picturesque dune field on it's floor...

2-D View - (NLB - full frame)...

[jvandriel]

The wheels again on Sol 476

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

The Mastcam L view on Sol 474

Jan van Driel

[Gerald]

After quite a while, a News Briefing today at AGU at 9 a.m. PST.

Sol 476-477 Update On Curiosity From USGS Scientist Ken Herkenhoff: Good Time for an Upgrade

The MSL weekend plan includes more MAHLI imaging of the rover wheels and a short drive to a location that looks good for dumping and examining the drill sample. If all goes well, most of next week will be spend upgrading the rover flight software.

X-Eyed view of where we'll probably stay this week:

after a bump of about 6m.

[Ant103]

Just to say : I have moved from an place, to an other, and while the Internet is coming back at home, I will not able to do a proper work. It will just be a matter of Sols. I mean… Days ^^

[fredk]

After quite a while, a News Briefing today at AGU at 9 a.m. PST.

And another briefing on RAD an hour later.

[MarkG]

After the first briefing, I'm left with one question that this group could anwer...
Any young impact craters on proposed path of Curiosity?

[Phil Stooke]

The target area KMS_9 mentioned in the announcement is the same as Waypoint 4, looking back at the map showing the waypoints. I don't know what the KMS refers to.

And as far as I can see there are no really fresh craters along the way.

Phil

[peter59]

I didn't notice earlier this large crater on the inner slope of Gale crater.
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/ms...1000E1_DXXX.jpg

[jvandriel]

The Mastcam L view on Sol 477.

Jan van Driel

[fredk]

I didn't notice earlier this large crater on the inner slope of Gale crater.
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/ms...1000E1_DXXX.jpg

Good catch. I think we're seeing this crater, circled in white:

[mhoward]

Yes, the crater in question is about 10º south of west, and everything seems to line up with the map. Nice indeed. What a view!

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[jvandriel]

Nice view.
Just part of the Mastcam R panorama on Sol 467.

Jan van Driel

[craigmcg]

Stunning. Are we there yet?

[Ant103]

Here is my version of the Sol 468 Mastcam34 full color pan It's a pretty heavy pan ^^

[dilo]

Marvellous, Damia! I used this and another clear view made by you (Sol437) to make a long baseline stereogram near "Entry point":

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[serpens]

The layering of the dark beds looks to be pretty much planar and therefore could / should have extended well beyond current bounds. There has obviously been a lot of Aeolian erosion since the massive depositional sequence. The upper mound seems to fit Kite's model but not so much the dark layers. Has anyone seen any "official" speculation on the depth of material removed from Opportunities (oops edit Curiosity's)current position? The Yellowknife Bay scarp retreat model reflects some 3 metres over 80 Myr, but that is in an essentially benign environment.

[elakdawalla]

It's hard to say. The minerals can't ever have been heated to high temperature: "The presence of smectite, magnetite, and akaganeite suggests that the mudstone has not experienced burial heating above ~200°C." (Farley et al). But the geothermal gradient at Gale is quite low (15 degrees per km) so they could've been buried by several kilometers and not experienced such a high temperature. I recall someone saying at AGU that they were likely buried at 10s to 100s of meters but unfortunately I can't remember who said that or how they supported that statement.

The scarp retreat numbers are not 3 m per 80 my. Scarp retreat is a horizontal process, not a vertical one, and the number they reported is 1 meter of scarp retreat per million years. The surface of the Sheepbed unit is also deflating vertically but that's happening substantially more slowly.

[serpens]

Thanks Emily. I was actually referring to vertical deflation as a function of scarp retreat. Analysis suggests the sample was close to the surface at around 80 Myr ago but prior to that (over 80 Myr ago) it had to be protected by at least 3 metres thickness of material. The lower reaches of Mount Sharp seem to imply at least hundreds of metres of deflation. It took years to get a handle on Meridiani - Gale may take longer.

[jvandriel]

The Mastcam R panoramic view on Sol 475.

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

and the other one from Sol 475.

Jan van Driel

[Gerald]

I recall someone saying at AGU that they were likely buried at 10s to 100s of meters but unfortunately I can't remember who said that or how they supported that statement.

A try of a transscript of John Grotzinger in the Televised News Briefing: Results from NASA Mars Rover Curiosity, 05:38-06:21:

So if you allow for the fact that during the dry periods, when the lake may not have been present, there could have been a groundwater system.
The geological context of all these rocks: there is obviously material below these outcrops, and we know there was rock above these outcrops, because we see fractures exposed in the rocks, which means the fractures must've been developed at some depth of burial.
So by a fairly simple geological interpolation we can assume that these rocks probably were once 10s of meters to may be even 100s of meters thick, and that they therefore represent on the order of millions to even tens of millions of years of time, which is quite a long window of habitability.

[pospa]

Any news about ongoing rover flight SW upgrade ?

[Phil Stooke]

Installed, tested, nearly ready to use. Should be active again pretty soon (a little bird tells me).

Phil

[Olivier]

Was the power glitch from Nov 17th related to the software upgrade (and glitch) from a couple of days earlier, or it only (unfortunately!) happened one after the other?
Olivier