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 9 2012, 03:01 PM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 4252 Joined: 17-January 05 Member No.: 152 |
For sure it could, but the press release said "the rover team decided to refrain from using the rover's robotic arm", presumably until they identify the piece and determine that it won't harm the arm to move it.
MC100 won't match the resolution of chemcam, but will give some colour information. Has anyone identified earlier images of that patch of ground, with any camera? |
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Oct 9 2012, 03:46 PM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 112 Joined: 20-August 12 From: Spain Member No.: 6597 |
I've tried to make a quick match of Sol 60/61 pics of the same zone. Due to the resolution of NavCams only a little dark patch is visible, but I don't know if it's due to a shadow of a little rock or the grey strip seen on MastCam pics. Take a look by yourself:
Mod: EVERYONE! Read again rule 3.5: Avoid excessive quoting. If your reply will immediately follow the post you're replying to, do not quote it at all. If your reply refers to a post farther up in the thread, quote only that text that is relevant to your reply. Avoid quoting images. |
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Oct 9 2012, 04:50 PM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 276 Joined: 11-December 07 From: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Member No.: 3978 |
From your animation parais. there doesn't seem to be any difference. I would agree that the dark feature in the navcam images is in fact 'Little shiny' as dvandorn called it.
Mod: See above. Whoops! Sorry there. -------------------- |
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