Strange Mi Images |
Strange Mi Images |
Nov 26 2005, 09:39 AM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 578 Joined: 5-November 04 From: Denmark Member No.: 107 |
All the latest MI images from Opportunity shows this part of the rover:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...KCP2957M1M1.JPG The only thing I can think of is that it is an image taken with the IDD stowed. Actually the front hazcam pictures confirms this. What can the reason for this be? A problem with the IDD so it didn't unstow, but somehow the MI carried out its tasks? -------------------- "I want to make as many people as possible feel like they are part of this adventure. We are going to give everybody a sense of what exploring the surface of another world is really like"
- Steven Squyres |
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Dec 6 2005, 09:01 AM
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#2
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3419 Joined: 9-February 04 From: Minneapolis, MN, USA Member No.: 15 |
So, Oppy's endgame begins to play out... It's obvious that her IDD, if it can be made to work again, only has so many deploys left in it.
As Steve Squyres said in one of his many public speeches since the MERs landed, near the beginning of the mission, they would "whip out the arm" any time they got close to anything that looked even remotely interesting. But now that the rovers are getting older, the MER team is getting more cautious using things like the IDD, which could wear out and stop working at any time. The arm can only be deployed a relatively few more times. The question now becomes, when and where? I think the MER team needs to make some hard decisions. Do we continue to work up the interesting bedding and mineralogical differences we're seeing at the Erebus rim, or is there enough more to be gained by arriving at a locale like Victoria with a functioning IDD that would justify the risk of a mad sprint? It would be very, very hard to sprint through the expanse of sporadically exposed bedrock that lies between us and Victoria without giving in to temptation and stopping to investigate. But, but, but -- can we deploy the arm 20 more times? Ten? Five? Two? We just don't know. And we probably *won't* know until we rudely discover that the remaining number is zero. IDD deploys may have just become the coin of the realm at Meridiani. Let's hope (and trust in a bit of luck) that we can spend it wisely. -the other Doug -------------------- “The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right.” -Mark Twain
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