First day, Post-EDL |
First day, Post-EDL |
May 26 2008, 02:31 AM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 428 Joined: 21-August 06 From: Northern Virginia Member No.: 1062 |
So, I think we can say now that we are in post-EDL operations, now that the solar panels have been verified. Still on the list of things to come:
1. Full panoramic from Phoenix, I would expect it to be coming in pieces over the next day, every hour and a half or so. 2. Imagery from HiRISE and possible Mars Express, which might show Phoenix while landing. The odds of success are slim, but it sure would be cool! 3. Imagery of HiRISE on it's landing spot. I find this unlikely to come by this Wednesday release, for a few reasons. First of all, it's likely due to a late parachute opening that Phoenix overshot it's landing a bit. If it overshot it far enough, then it would miss a HiRISE window (Remember, the FOV on HiRISE isn't that high...) Secondly, it takes about 4 advanced notice to change an image location, so the next opportunity won't be for a while. Given also the length of a downlink, I put a HiRISE image for the 4th of June. Anyways, please post your topics on Sol 1 (Or is it 0) of Phoenix. I have a hunch we'll have to do a post for each of the first few days, but... By the way, for those trying to see the Phoenix Images, and want to download the JPGs, look at http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/ , and then click view images now, then the image you want, then look at the right. You will see an area to download the image now, in JPG format. |
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May 26 2008, 11:48 AM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 156 Joined: 18-March 05 From: Germany Member No.: 211 |
What a night! I also stayed up until the first pictures came down and went to bed around 4:30 am
That makes working today quite hard. Thank you everybody for posting these fantastic pics! I am so excited about this new mission and hope to see the first Martian water ice soon! I just found what seems to be a "true" color image of the horizon, on Spiegel Online: Source: http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltall...,555297,00.html Edit: Now I did: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/...r_postcard.html It is an approximate-color image "inferred from two color filters, a violet, 450-nanometer filter and an infrared, 750-nanometer filter". The colors are very close to what we already know from the two rovers, I think. Congratulations to the Phoenix-Team! Outstanding job! Can't wait to see more! Michael |
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May 26 2008, 12:16 PM
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#3
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 94 Joined: 22-May 08 From: Loughborough Member No.: 4121 |
Folks
Forgive my inorance, or inattention if its already been pointed out, but is it possible to hazard a guess as to the scale involved in the nearby features above ie what is the approx width of the closest of the polygons? |
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May 26 2008, 12:55 PM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 156 Joined: 18-March 05 From: Germany Member No.: 211 |
Folks Forgive my inorance, or inattention if its already been pointed out, but is it possible to hazard a guess as to the scale involved in the nearby features above ie what is the approx width of the closest of the polygons? If you go to this page http://fawkes3.lpl.arizona.edu/images.php?gID=440&cID=8 and mouse over an image, the pointing elevation of the camera is shown. From that and the fact that the cameras are situated about 2 m above the surface, plus the knowledge of the field of view of the camera (14°, see here: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2008/pdf/2156.pdf), you can calculate the distances and the scales of the objects (assuming that the lander is level and the ground, too, which it pretty much is). Distance of the center of the image from the camera: dc = h / sin(a) Top dt = h / sin(-b/2 - a) Bottom db = h / sin(b/2 - a) Where a is the pointing angle (eg. a = -27.1185° for the lowest part of the mosaic), b the field of fiew (b = 14°) and h is the camera height (h = 2 m). So the center of the lowest frame (see below) has a distance from the camera of about 4 m. The width of the frame at center is: wc = 2 d tan(b/2) = 2 h tan(b/2) / sin(a) So the width of the field is about 1 m and so is the polygon in the lower part of the mosaic. The larger pebbles to the left (image below) are about 5-8 cm in diameter. I hope I got the maths approximately right. It seems the polygon is a little smaller than said by Smith? Michael |
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