MSL at Rocknest, First scoop samples - sols 57-101 |
MSL at Rocknest, First scoop samples - sols 57-101 |
Oct 3 2012, 12:30 AM
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#1
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Administrator Group: Admin Posts: 5172 Joined: 4-August 05 From: Pasadena, CA, USA, Earth Member No.: 454 |
Curiosity has put more than 400 meters on the odometer and tosol (sol 56) she bumped up to a sand drift that we now know (via Twitter) is named Rocknest and will be the site of the first sample grab. In last week's press briefing, John Grotzinger warned that we will be here for "what seems like a very long time," 2-3 weeks. They will have to run several samples through the SA-SPaH (Sample Acquisition, Processing and Handling subsystem, pronounced "Saw-spa") and in particular CHIMRA (Collection and Handling for In situ Martian Rock Analysis, pronounced "chimera") in order to "clean" it of any remaining Earthly contamination with good Mars dirt before they deliver the first sample to SAM or Chemin. So this seems like a good place to start a new thread.
As usual, discuss stuff that happened through sol 56 in the previous thread. -------------------- My website - My Patreon - @elakdawalla on Twitter - Please support unmannedspaceflight.com by donating here.
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Oct 7 2012, 12:29 AM
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#2
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Member Group: Members Posts: 222 Joined: 7-August 12 From: Garberville, CA Member No.: 6500 |
Damien's (Ant103) much better at seamless stitching of Navcam mosaics than I, but I just had to see this one ASAP.... so here's a quickly stitched anaglyph of the Sol 60 Navcam panorama. Gives a pretty good impression of the lay of things around MSL today. Phil's "sea lions" can be seen in this one too just above and to the right of the RUHF antenna. I'm fascinated by the long "petrified tree" looking formation on the ground in front of them. You can see it even better in the Sol 54 MC100 mosaic. What the heck is that? It looks for all intents and purposes like a fallen log...very strait, very long, and even looks very round...hmmm. Here's a closer look at it.
-------------------- "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." -T.S. Eliot
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Oct 7 2012, 02:43 AM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 252 Joined: 5-May 05 From: Mississippi (USA) Member No.: 379 |
I just had to see this one ASAP.... so here's a quickly stitched anaglyph of the Sol 60 Navcam panorama. Gives a pretty good impression of the lay of things around MSL today. That is certainly worth staring at. Trying to place the terrain from the orbital images with the panorama view. I have no trouble identifying "rocky point" - particularly if I look at the crater rim in the background. That gives me an additional check! Those 360 panoramas are handy orientation devices. However: In the North East direction, there is a somewhat circular depression that is possibly a crater or perhaps a deeply eroded basin in Glenelg. I can't really place it with the overhead view. A lot would depend on it's distance from MSL. Trying to tempt some Pano/orbilal comparisons. With the MERS we had programs that allowed distance information to be recovered from NAVCAM images, but I haven't used then for years and anyway the cameras are different. ~ North East Cropped section of Ed Truthan's Pano: edit corrected direction |
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Oct 7 2012, 09:54 PM
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#4
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 59 Joined: 12-March 10 From: Austin, TX Member No.: 5262 |
However: In the North East direction, there is a somewhat circular depression that is possibly a crater or perhaps a deeply eroded basin in Glenelg. I can't really place it with the overhead view. I think it is the low area in this pic: http://petergrindrod.net/wp-content/upload...g-site-topo.png which is just above the second g in Glenelg. |
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