To the Cape!, Quackmire and arm troubles Options

[djellison]

"Hey folks! I’m on-duty with Opportunity this week and it’s going to be pretty exciting. We are in the process of driving the rover over to the wall of Cape Verde to study the layers of rocks there in much greater detail. I will be posting updates all week with the spectacular new pictures that we should be receiving. Stay tuned, it’s going to be a pretty cool week!"

Thanks for the update Ryan : http://martianchronicles.wordpress.com/200...ng-to-the-cape/

I wonder how close they'll get. I think no closer than the height projected from it's base ( i.e. 45 degrees )

[Astro0]

That's some drive ahead of Oppy.


Anyone want to pick the route?

Astro0

[djellison]

Anyone want to pick the route?

left 40
go 10
right 90
go 5
end

MER works like a LOGO turtle right?



Doug

[helvick]

Judging by Horton's animation it seems that the Oppy's Solar panel deck is effectively already in shadow by 4:30-5:00PM local time. That makes sense as it is at around a 15 degree incline facing away from the setting sun which would correspond to about an hour or so of sunlight.

The shaded zone at Midday seems to be pretty close to the wall so I think that they can probably manoeuvre fairly close in and keep the rover in direct sunlight until ~3:00PM without too much trouble. That would keep the power impact below about a 5-7% reduction from the levels it currently achieves.