Endeavour Drive - Drivability analysis Options

[djellison]

http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200809191

You can listen via NPR, or via one of the web feeds that are listed on the site, but make sure you do listen if you can.

[CosmicRocker]

Outstanding! I'd like to say so much more, but you people have used up all of the relevant superlatives, and have even invented a few new ones.
For those of you who, like me, missed the original webcast, here is a link to NPR's archived audio.

12 km at 100m/day is only 4 months, though

Just to put things into perspective for readers who may not be as familiar with the history of the rovers as some of us MER addicts, 12 km is approximately as far as Opportunity has already roved since it landed in Eagle Crater. As of the latest update, it has gone about 11,782.10 meters (7.32 miles).

Just got some words from SS...I never doubted that he was one of ours...the "Rove till Death Brotherhood"

"Well, we'll see what happens. The wheels could fall off tomorrow, after all... this is an old rover! But this is a good direction to travel whether we get there or not, as I explained in the interview. And, to me, this goal just >feels< right. Better to attempt something nearly impossible and die trying than simply live out our time doing things that have been done before."

Yeap...it feels soooo damn right! ...

I agree, Rui. We're all attracted to the MERs by the exploration aspect of this pioneer mission. Let's get on with it. It is not necessary to delay in this area, unless the team feels they have unfinished business here. We have enough HiRise and other imagery to get started. They should have plenty of time to analyze the October 9/10th HiRise imagery before before they run out of driveway.
..............................................................

It was great to get this very nice update from several Mars exploration teams, but NPR's "Click and Clack" format for this program was seriously annoying to me. This isn't funny, it's science, and it's serious. That is not intended to be overly critical. It was an excellent program that covered many aspects of the discussion, from geology to biology, and various areas in between. I'm happy about that aspect.

I would like to hear more about the columnar jointing and other theories that were discussed. The webcast sounded to me like a well rehearsed program, as opposed to a typical update from our various sources. What do you people think?

[BrianL]

It is not necessary to delay in this area, unless the team feels they have unfinished business here. We have enough HiRise and other imagery to get started. They should have plenty of time to analyze the October 9/10th HiRise imagery before before they run out of driveway.

That might not be the best approach. As was pointed out by Doug in the earlier discussions, there appear to be significant ripples on the direct path. I think the suggestion was a better route might be to head NE before heading south. This journey will be long enough and hard enough without getting part way then being forced to turn back. I would wait for the complete picture before committing to a route.

Of course, that's the intellectual part of me coming through, which in my case, will always be the minority report. The larger part of me did some mental cartwheels upon seeing this new thread, and wanted to shout, "Yeah baby, put the pedal to the metal"! Well, as much as a rover can, anyway.