MSL landing sites |
MSL landing sites |
Apr 5 2007, 11:27 PM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 428 Joined: 21-August 06 From: Northern Virginia Member No.: 1062 |
As there are some pictures being released from HiRISE of proposed MSL landing sites, I thought I'd give you what little I know about the process. As of the HiRISE team meeting a month ago or so, there were about 40 proposed sites to land MSL. These sites were prioritized, and are being photographed roughly in priority order. Each site requires a picture from each of the 3 main cameras (CTX, CRISM, and HiRISE) in their highest resolution in order to proceed. If it's determined that there can be a safe landing site, as well as interesting science targets, then they will advance to the next level, where I presume they will "wallpaper" the areas with HiRISE and CRISM (CTX, well, they get the whole landing ellipse in one shot, I think...). They likely will also photograph science areas near the proposed sites to look for interesting targets. After that, well, your guess is as good as mine. Note that none of this is official, but it's what I would expect. Also note that the landing site selection is still opened to new suggestions, the ones they have so far are not a complete list. The priority also doesn't mean anything right now other than they are the targets which will be photographed first, these priorities are still subject to change. But, well, I thought I'd send this out there for you all sink your teeth on, it really is quite interesting!
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Jul 26 2010, 01:56 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 808 Joined: 10-October 06 From: Maynard Mass USA Member No.: 1241 |
...more musings on a caffeine powered Sunday night (I should really do something about that)
I was over at the MSL Landing Site Workshop website for a few hours and ...boy.... PLEASE PICK GALE! 5km central mound that's traverse-able (that's Pikes Peak tall, 14,000 to 16,000 feet, depending where you are in the crater) layers, sediments, most likely an ancient lake was there, and the mystery -- the mound itself. The top is higher than the crater walls. Good Luck MSL Steering Committee with your final choice next year! Have there been any known recent active gullies spied at Gale? -------------------- CLA CLL
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Jul 26 2010, 04:15 AM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 715 Joined: 22-April 05 Member No.: 351 |
...more musings on a caffeine powered Sunday night (I should really do something about that) I was over at the MSL Landing Site Workshop website for a few hours and ...boy.... PLEASE PICK GALE! There, however, isn't a good model for how the clays and sulfides got into that peak. They could be thin layers that would be useless geologically. Right now, the debate over the landing sites is between those where the geological story is clear and where the remote sensing says the interesting materials are. Remember how we got skunked by Gusev Crater. Things turned out interesting, but what if the rover had landed to far away to reach those hills? -------------------- |
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