Solander Point, Sol 3387 - 3511 (August 4, 2013 - December 12, 2013) Options

[mhoward]

Opportunity is very close to Solander Point, so let's start the new thread. Here's a view just to get things rolling. There will no doubt be more and better images soon.

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[Astro0]

I am moved to MEME this

[Phil Stooke]

Turning that approach view on its head:



Phil

[Phil Stooke]

And this is the location I get from that view.

Phil

[SFJCody]

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...E2P2415L7M2.JPG

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P2418R2M1.JPG

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...TLP2417L2M3.JPG

I have a sudden itch to put on my sturdy hiking boots!


It's amazing how abrupt the contact between the blocky material of the hillside and the sulphate-sandstone plains is. Hardly any hillside rocks have been scattered out onto the plains. How many billions of years has this scene been sitting undisturbed, waiting for us...? <drifts off into planetary reverie>

[Phil Stooke]

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...E2P2415L7M2.JPG

So that's where I left that box of old floppy disks...

Phil

[Tesheiner]

The monthly report by Salley Rayl is available here: Mars Exploration Rovers Update: Opportunity Celebrates Milestones, Arrives at Solander Suburb

I just started reading it but would like to highlight this paragraph:

Actually, based on newly revised power predictions and the position of the Sun, the rover doesn't have to be up on Solander Point and on a north-facing slope, where it can angle itself and its solar arrays to the winter Sun, until the beginning of December, Callas said. That means Opportunity has about four months to explore the surroundings at the bottom of this part of the eroded rim of Endeavour Crater - and there's a lot to see and do.

[Phil Stooke]

3389 position and perspective view of the two frame navcam pan.

Phil

[walfy]

A quick stitch from the micro camera, Sol 3390:

[Tesheiner]

Some pictures available from sol 3391, telling that Opportunity backtracked a few meters from the previous site.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...A0P1952L0M1.JPG

And several features were imaged before driving, but they are still on the downlink queue:

03391::p2547::32::4::4::0::0::2::10::pancam_Mula_Mula_L257R2
03391::p2548::32::4::4::0::0::2::10::pancam_Tick_Bush_L257R2
03391::p2549::32::13::13::0::0::2::28::pancam_Red_Poker_L234567Rall

[jamescanvin]

Red Poker is the target she has just been looking at (she backed up a bit before taking the image to get a better view).

Tick Bush is where she drove to, ~4.5m away

[SFJCody]

A new update! :-)

http://www.nmnaturalhistory.org/rover-fiel...-from-mars.html

boulder field here appears to be mostly vesicular basalt

shortly Opportunity will drive northwest along the scarp at the base of Solander Point

[Astro0]

An earlier view of Solander Point with some sky added for effect

[fredk]

Long-baseline stereo view of the east side of Solander and across to Tribulation, from sols 3381 and 3385:


We're starting to get a good view of a prominent ridge on the north face of Tribulation.

[walfy]

This is Phobos partially eclipsing the sun, yes? The eclipse comes out much clearer in reverse where some light is getting refracted in Oppy's lens. From sol 3396:



It looks to be around the right size according to this recent comparison image from NASA:




If something else is going on, I'll eat my hat!

[fredk]

Yep, Phobos transit. Like we've seen before with transits, the jpl jpegs are stretched badly so we'll have to wait for PDS to get a better view. I'm not sure why the stretching gives such a different result for transit images than for the regular tau images...

[Deimos]

Most Sun images are taken with an automatic "Sun" subframe, that is nice and small. The Sun is a big part, so it stretches OK. The transit images are optimized for speed, which perversely forces a larger frame. The Sun is a small fraction, and the contrast stretch blows it away.

[Phil Stooke]

Looks like we've moved right up to the contact now:

http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MERB/im...0P1925R0M1.html

Phil

[mhoward]

The boulder that she seems almost uncomfortably close to on Sol 3398 is "Quandong Mulla Mulla" (really curious if anyone can track down the origin of that one). The big boulder on the far left of this view is "Cheese Tree".

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[charborob]

Quandong and Mulla Mulla are Australian plants.

[mhoward]

Ah, okay, thanks. Via @mikeseibert on Twitter, "Mulla Mulla" is the name of the boulder. "Quandong" must be a second target seen in the same Pancam image (my guess would be the outcrop next to Mulla Mulla).

[mhoward]

I spent a fair amount of time working on this long-baseline anaglyph from sols 3381-3385 before I realized I don't have any 3D glasses with me. So... somebody let me know if it works. Normally I wouldn't post an anaglyph without actually testing it, but I'm taking a chance. (I realize the images were taken outside the range of sols for this topic, but the subject is obviously Solander Point.)

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[charborob]

Looks OK to me.

[Astro0]

Sol 3400 Climbing Solander Point.



That big rock was pretty close

[vikingmars]

Sol 3400 Climbing Solander Point. That big rock was pretty close

WOW ! What a view : one of the best shots of the entire mission ! Thanks a lot to Oppy's Nav' Team (and to Astro0, of course)

[charborob]

Sol 3401. Anaglyph of basaltic (?) rock containing vesicles.

[walfy]

A nice map showing the planned route up the hill for this fall:

http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/assets/i...94_Srat_sci.jpg

I got it from this recent Planetary Society update.

[charborob]

With the December 12 position about 17m higher than the current position, that should give us a great view of the surroundings.

[vikingmars]

With the December 12 position about 17m higher than the current position, that should give us a great view of the surroundings.

Wintering at this spot means no great global views of Endeavour and of the surrounding plains until the end of 2014/beginning of 2015...
I thought they were to climb a little higher (white dot on image herewith) to get some spectacular views while spending a long time wintering at the same spot. An opinion focused on Mars outreach of course and to gain more public support for Mars exploration when times are tough to get more funds. Well... That's science !

[walfy]

This rock from sol 3398 renders nicely in 3D:

[walfy]

A micro from Sol 3392:

[jamescanvin]

Wintering at this spot means no great global views of Endeavour and of the surrounding plains until the end of 2014/beginning of 2015...
I thought they were to climb a little higher (white dot on image herewith) to get some spectacular views while spending a long time wintering at the same spot.

I don't think that the < 12th Dec (Station 5) is necessarily the spot for the whole winter. With such a large expanse of northern facing slopes I was under the impression that Oppy would inch her way up Solander Point rather than staying in one place. They want to be at that location before 12th December but could easily be up near your dot by the end of winter.

[CosmicRocker]

Yeah, that's what I thought. The "rove through winter" concept was mentioned in this TPS update, and may have been mentioned elsewhere.

[geoffrey.landis]

It looks to be around the right size according to this recent comparison image from NASA:

where did that comparison image come from? The size comparison to the Earth's moon looks quite a bit different from the version on the JPL site (www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/msl/20130815/pia17351-640.jpg):

[elakdawalla]

The one that walfy posted was taken down and replaced later with the version you just posted. See discussion of that here.

[walfy]

A 3D micro from the latest batch, Sol 3403, that was much easier than usual to put together:

[vikingmars]

Yeah, that's what I thought. The "rove through winter" concept was mentioned in this TPS update, and may have been mentioned elsewhere.

Thanks jamescanvin and CosmicRocker for your explanations. I feel really better... for outreach purposes of course !

[walfy]

Many nice images of late, many rendering wonderfully in 3D. Such desolate, ancient objects! And we can almost touch them. That big rock up close from Sol 3405:

[walfy]

Just one more for tonight, also from recent Sol 3405:

[atomoid]

sol 3397 an old tyme movie

[walfy]

Nice shot along the "banks," the planned route before heading up the hill:

[charborob]

Sol 3407 navcam panorama:

[mhoward]

Return of the partial-color drive direction mosaic on sol 3407. Yay!

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[jvandriel]

The panoramic L0 Navcam view on Sol 3407.

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

Special request.

The panoramic view taken on Sol 3389 taken with the L0 Navcam.

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

Sol 3389 the Navcam panoramic view.

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

and the last one.

Sol 3389. Looking back.

Jan van Driel

[Tesheiner]

Here's part of a "post-drive" navcam mosaic shot on sol 3410.

[jvandriel]

The Navcam L0 panoramic view on Sol 3410.

Jan van Driel

[mhoward]

"Coal Island", Sol 3412. After taking these Pancam images she turned around and advanced slightly toward the target.

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[serpens]

So is "Coal Island" the outcrop of what, from a distance, looks as if it could be more vesicular basalt, or the transition from planar to cross stratified laminae in the left image?

[jvandriel]

Sol 3412 the L0 navcam view.

Jan van Driel

[Phil Stooke]

This is the sol 3410 panorama posted by jvandriel (Thanks!) in a circular version. It gives a nice view of the tracks and surrounding features.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Another circular view from jvandriel's nice panoramas - this is sol 3407.

Phil

[charborob]

Two sol 3415 MI images stitched together:

[charborob]

Sol 3416 pancam mosaic (Coal Island):

[atomoid]

they seem to be doing some stereo imaging by pitching the camera vertically.. a new technique? i hadn't noticed this before. I rotated the images ccw with shadows down here as that goes easier on the eyes at least for these Sol 3415 crosseyes.

i see 'leg-o-lamb' on the left ?!

[Phil Stooke]

False color (very false) of the scarp from sol 3417. Interesting little 'red' pebbles here and there. Not really red of course.

Phil

[atomoid]

A few more interesting cross-eyes (ccw90 rotated)
Sol3378--> mudface Sol3380--> Sol3380-->

[fredk]

I'm sure many of us were surprized at how close we got to Mulla Mulla. It turns out it really was a close call. From the latest PS update:

While navigating the boulder field in mid-August, Opportunity apparently came frighteningly close to running into a boulder called Mulla Mulla. "It was a near miss," said Bill Nelson... "We could have easily collided with the rock and damaged the rover. Through sheer luck, we didn't."

As it turned out, Opportunity didn't even so much suffer a scrape... But it might have been mission catastrophic... and it happened because of human error. "This is an operational error and it's a big deal," said Callas. As a result, the incident generated what is known as an Incident Surprise Anomaly (ISA) report. "We want to thoroughly understand why our process didn't catch it, because it should have.

The issue stemmed from a mis-positioning of the 'keep out' zone around the rock. "In hindsight, if you look at it, you go - 'Oh yeah that 'keep out' zone wasn't positioned correctly.' But no one caught that," Callas said.

Yikes!

[dilo]

I guess Oppy wasn't in autonomous navigation mode, but I wonder there wasn't any sort of proximity alarm and automatic safe stop for such situations, eventually triggered by hazardcams!

[Tesheiner]

The F/R-Hazcams "per se" can't do that. You need a sort of hazard avoidance SW built on top to do that function. And IIRC autonav includes this feature but it is quite slow.

[ngunn]

I'm struggling to understand how colliding with a rock at a speed of a few centimetres per second could have been "mission catastrophic". (Just as well my car is more robust.)

[djellison]

It would probably damage solar panels quite badly. Moreover, you're then hung up on a rock with the arrays - you need to get 'off' that, which will cause more damage.

[Phil Stooke]

I would have thought that constant monitoring of tilt and engineering data from wheels etc. would stop the drive before anything got hung up too much. But obviously much better to avoid it than to test my assumptions.

Phil

[mhoward]

In stereo, it didn't look to me like Mulla Mulla was tall enough to hit the arrays. Unless she tilted more - which could easily have been in the cards I guess.

Wopmay looked scarier

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[Tesheiner]

Not tall enough but its size was only known with a given margin when it was seen from the position before that drive was executed. It might not have contacted the wings but damaged the wiring under them.

Regarding tilt and other data monitoring, I think that would not be enough to stop the rover in this kind of scenario.

[serpens]

Referring back to post 51, the PS update confirms that "Coal Island" is the contact between the planar and tilted laminae. But the planar bench ("Grasberg unit") was designated altered material eroded from old Endeavour rim "Shoemaker" material. Is this implying that the tilted laminae represents pre impact sedimentary layering rather than Grasberg unit material tilted due to a local subsidence?

[Phil Stooke]

The Grasberg unit is the lowest layer of the Burns Formation, the stack of sulfate-rich sandstones seen all over Meridiani. They sit on top of the layer of debris eroded off the Endeavour rim hills. The scarp here, the little step up above the bench, is presumably that eroded debris. The exact relationship is not easy to figure out just looking at the images here, but it seemed to be clearer at the north end of Cape York.

More interesting to me is the origin of the basalt boulders like Tick Bush. Are they ejecta thrown in from a distant impact? I don't see any sign of basalt flows in the vicinity.

Phil

[serpens]

Not sure that you are correct there Phil. On CY the Burns Formation sulphate sandstone onlaps the bench (Deadwood - Grasberg unit) which is eroded material from Cape York (Shoemaker), and the same seems true here. The basaltic boulders seem to be eroding out of the upturned rim remnant. Given that Endeavour was formed by an impact into hundreds of meter thick Miyamoto ejecta they could well pre-date the impact. Coal Island is a contact between two units with, in false colour, seemingly different lithology and what I find fascinating is the possibility that the tilted laminae could be a pre-impact deposit.

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[walfy]

Nice view of the "shore" in 3D, sol 3419:

[Phil Stooke]

Re: the Grasberg unit:

https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/webprogra...aper233091.html

"The bright outcrop margin (the “Grasberg unit”) is the most prominent of several successive onlaps of thinly-laminated sulfate sediments onto the crater rim inselbergs."


And also:

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2013/pdf/2292.pdf

"A stop at the site named “Grasberg” confirmed through MI and APXS analysis that this band is a material distinct from either the materials of Cape York or the Burns Formation.
Grasberg is an unusual composition with elevated Cl, and a grain-size finer than the MI resolution, in contrast to the coarse sandstone typical of Meridiani. This is a relatively thin
(several tens of cm thick) unit that unconformably overlies the slopes of an eroded Cape York."

Phil

[serpens]

I think the following paper goes a little deeper into explanation of the bench Phil: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2013/pdf/2294.pdf
To quote, A rock unit ringing the base of Cape York was investigated at Deadwood and again at Grasberg, at Cape York’s northern tip. This unit is bright-toned with platy, millimeter-scale layering. Its elemental composition is intermediate between the rocks of the Shoemaker formation and the Burns Formation, with elevated Ca and S concentrations, interpreted as a clastic sedimentary rock formed by erosion of the Shoemaker Formation and later modified to create the S enrichment. Squires also tributed the bench to shoemaker detritus in his Nature article Ancient Impact and Aqueous Processes at Endeavour Crater, Mars although he differentiated between inner and outer bench material (outer being Burns formation onlap which is quite pronounced to the west of CY). Identifying the bench as eroded rim breccia material seems an important call in defining Endeavour, confirming that the Burns unit was deposited a long time after the impact, when the rim had eroded away.

[MahFL]

I'm struggling to understand how colliding with a rock at a speed of a few centimetres per second could have been "mission catastrophic". (Just as well my car is more robust.)

Remember Oppy does not travel very fast but she has tons of torque, so she could crunch herself pretty bad.

[atomoid]

One wonders whether Oppy's accelerometers are used in general drive usage for instance to adjust drive behavior over small rocks, which should nullify hazards such as this, since any sensed impasse should signal to adjust suspension, wheel spin, etc. in adaptation to the terrain feature encountered... or maybe they are only used to measure degree of tilt? i'm sure im oversimplifying it and someone here is probably familiar with those specs..

[RoverDriver]

One wonders whether Oppy's accelerometers are used in general drive usage for instance to adjust drive behavior over small rocks, which should nullify hazards such as this, since any sensed impasse should signal to adjust suspension, wheel spin, etc. in adaptation to the terrain feature encountered... or maybe they are only used to measure degree of tilt? i'm sure im oversimplifying it and someone here is probably familiar with those specs..

On a typical drive accels and gyros are used to monitor rover attitude and the suspension system is also monitored but in this case they would not have detected a collision with such a big rock. And before you ask, no I was not on shift that day ;-)

Paolo

[atomoid]

interesting.. Thanks! I guess it really is hazardous negotiating boulder fields, Gusev probably proved to be quite the obstacle course in that regard, though I dont recall hearing any worries about that aspect, though that may just be selective memory and no similar scary incidents occurred as far as I know.

broken plate Sol 3420

[dvandorn]

I'll tell you one thing -- I doubt that you could have driven the MERs or MSL at, say, the Viking 2 landing site. Way too many blocks to work around at that location, at least for anything larger than a smallish toaster.

It just goes to show that, for rovers of MER and even MSL size, there is a lot of the Martian surface that is not easily trafficable.

-the other Doug

[RoverDriver]

I'll tell you one thing -- I doubt that you could have driven the MERs or MSL at, say, the Viking 2 landing site. Way too many blocks to work around at that location, at least for anything larger than a smallish toaster.

Is this a challenge? ;-)

It just goes to show that, for rovers of MER and even MSL size, there is a lot of the Martian surface that is not easily trafficable.

-the other Doug

That is true, but MER/MSL are quite capable rovers in terms of wheeled vehicles. The max traversable slope is slightly higher than that of a HMMWV, for example, end the size of a traversable obstacle is much better than a typical Earth vehicle. We have driven our testbeds on Earth in *very* difficult terrain but for obvious reasons we don't do that on Mars unless we have to.

Paolo

[jvandriel]

The panoramic view on Sol 3423 taken with the L0 Navcam.

Jan van Driel

[dvandorn]

Is this a challenge? ;-)

In no way... Although, if there was a chance that saying "yes" would magically cause a MER or an MSL to suddenly appear next to the V2 lander, just to take on the challenge, my answer would of course be different...

...MER/MSL are quite capable rovers in terms of wheeled vehicles. The max traversable slope is slightly higher than that of a HMMWV, for example, end the size of a traversable obstacle is much better than a typical Earth vehicle. We have driven our testbeds on Earth in *very* difficult terrain but for obvious reasons we don't do that on Mars unless we have to.

Paolo

Oh, understood, and I can imagine a rover the size of MSL might even be able to make, oh, 5 or 10 meters a drive at a site as boulder-strewn as the V2 site, climbing over one half-meter-tall rock after another. Perhaps less than that for a MER-sized rover. I wasn't saying you couldn't drive one of these marvelous wheeled vehicles over difficult terrain, just that it would make for lousy trafficability -- your forward progress would be slow and painstaking.

Come to think of it, rocky terrain hasn't been the rover trap some might have imagined, has it? The only time the MERs have fallen into traps, it's been in drifts or pools of fine, unconsolidated powdered rock, not up against walls of hard, unscalable rock.

-the other Doug

[RoverDriver]

...
Come to think of it, rocky terrain hasn't been the rover trap some might have imagined, has it? The only time the MERs have fallen into traps, it's been in drifts or pools of fine, unconsolidated powdered rock, not up against walls of hard, unscalable rock.

-the other Doug

I think you are not taking into account statistics. It is much easier to see a rock than to see unconsolidated sand and therefore the likelyhood of getting a rover trapped in sand is higher.

Paolo

[dvandorn]

Oh, no doubt. I can well imagine that this is what makes sand traps more dangerous than rock fields -- the latter can be much more easily seen and avoided.

Truly, I'm not in any way questioning the abilities of the rovers or their excellent drivers. Just noting that we've seen places -- like the V2 landing site -- where trafficability would be lousy for just about any wheeled vehicle. We've actually been somewhat lucky (or at least better at estimating ground truth from orbital imagery) in that the three rover landing sites -- Gusev, Meridiani and Gale -- show considerably less dense boulder populations than we saw at either Viking site or at the Pathfinder site. Indeed, Meridiani has a remarkably low boulder density, making for generally great trafficability, the odd soft dust ripple notwithstanding...



-the other Doug

[nprev]

I think it's wise to remember here that the Viking landing sites were selected in part based on Earth-based radar interpretations of surface smoothness in the 1970s, which frankly were kinda off the mark.

The VOs didn't have nearly the cam resolution that even MGS had, and all that came before them were the Mariners. We're kinda spoiled nowadays...not that I'm complaining.

Pains me to say it, but we were REALLY lucky that both of the VLs made it down safely. (To be fair, though, the history of science itself is replete with luck; serendipity is definitely a part of of the process of discovery.) As a result, we sent more spacecraft & learned enough about the planet so that we are now able to set down rovers in both terrain-accessible & geologically interesting locales.

Moving on now. Always.

[RoverDriver]

...
Truly, I'm not in any way questioning the abilities of the rovers or their excellent drivers....

-the other Doug

Doug I did not take your comments as questioning our driving abilities. I was just explaining some possibly underestimated reasons for our occasional troubles. I'm glad we never had to deal with a rock anomaly. That would be much harder to deal with (pun intended).

Paolo

[Phil Stooke]

To clarify nprev's comment, only Viking 1 had earth-based radar data to estimate roughness. Viking 2 was too far north. Reflectivity was measured at the sub-Earth point as the planet rotated, giving east-west lines of roughness data at various latitudes depending on the positions of the planets, but the Viking 2 site was too far north for that.

Phil

[vikingmars]

... we were REALLY lucky that both of the VLs made it down safely.

Well... And to complement Phil's good statement, the radar gave good echoes for the actual VL1 site (then named "Alpha") that predicted with good accuracy small to medium-sized rocks (i.e. no larger than 30 cm). Regarding the landing itself, it has nothing to do with luck. Hundred of major tests (plus thousands of minor tests) were designed by the engineers at JPL and at Lockheed-Martin PLUS an important margin for the deceleration with the parachute PLUS an important margin on deceleration possibilities with the retrorockets for the last phase of the descent PLUS a landing radar "à la Lunar Module" to trigger the final slowdown and for a last-second avoiding of big boulders. In fact, they were quite confident for mission success and even should the orbiter failed entering orbit, the engineers designed a "salvage" mission in which they were only rotating the orbiter to aim at the planet with a proper angle and then released the lander. In such a desperate case, Jim Martin and Tom Young, were still giving more than 50% probability for mission success... "...and that's better than no mission at all !" they said.

[mcaplinger]

PLUS a landing radar "à la Lunar Module" to trigger the final slowdown and for a last-second avoiding of big boulders...

Viking had no ability to avoid big boulders or any other landing hazard; its terminal descent radar only measured velocity vectors. See www.cs.odu.edu/~mln/ltrs-pdfs/NASA-76-cr159388.pdf

[Astro0]

Meanwhile (back on topic) at Solander Point, there's some fabulous rocks being photographed by Opportunity.

[atomoid]

sol 3422 outcrop features popping up all over the place

[jvandriel]

The Mi Cam Panorama on Sol 3422.

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

The Navcam L0 panoramic view on Sol 3425.

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

The L0 Navcam images from Sol 3425 and Sol 3426 stichted together
into this panoramic view.

Jan van Driel

[Tesheiner]

I think we are just starting to see again the plains on the right part of the mosaic, aren't we?

[ngunn]

I assumed that was Cape York on the horizon above the rightmost solar panel - is that correct?

[Phil Stooke]

Yes, you're right.

Phil

[fredk]

I think we're getting close to seeing the plains, but my impression is we're still a bit below plains level and are just seeing the rim. As we climb up Solander the view over the plains should open up quite abruptly. I can't wait...

[Phil Stooke]

This is jvandriel's new panorama in circular form. Since then we have driven slightly up onto the slope.

Phil

[jvandriel]

Here is the Sol 3428 Pancam L2 view.

Jan van Driel

[atomoid]

MI detail from sol3427