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.

[Tesheiner]

Welcome Paolo! It's a real pleasure to have you here at UMSF.

First of all let me take this opportunity (no pun) to say you and the whole MER Team thanks for this incredible and unforgettable experience. The whole mission of both rovers and the way in which it is/was made available for us to follow them since the beginning (and even *contribute*, wow!) is something that, IMO, has changed the perspective from which all of us could follow the exploration of the cosmos.

Second, and speaking of route planning, I haven't yet taken the time to look at the HiRISE pictures of the terrain ahead but in the first approach to plot a "hypotetical path" I will use the following guidelines:
- Drive E when moving on flat terrain
- Drive SE when moving by the dune fields. I'm here assuming these fields follow the general direction as the ones on the path from Erebus to Victoria.

[SFJCody]

- Drive E when moving on flat terrain
- Drive SE when moving by the dune fields. I'm here assuming these fields follow the general direction as the ones on the path from Erebus to Victoria.

Agreed. So, for safety puposes I think the rover should drive CCW around Victoria keeping the same distance as it did when travelling CCW to get back to Duck Bay when the initial recon was over. Once on the eastern side drive due east across the annulus until the increasingly large ripples begin to become a hazard. From there SSE using a 'stair-step' approach; following the trend of the ripples and using gaps/areas where the ripples have lower crests to cut east.

Looking at this HiRISE image the ripples diminish in size in the SE corner of the frame, this looks like a good point to move east.