First pictures, when and where? Options

[jabe]

Well,
since first pictures are coming up soon why not make a guess where?
Besides a picture of one of the rovers or other landing..or in some cases crash.. sites. Any one have any favorite spots?
The problem with high resolution pictures is when you look at rocks you just see smaller rocks so they can look the same..sort of like a nice fractal...
Nice to have an image with something that is recognizable.
I'm hoping for months end..I prefer tomorrow but I can wait til the end of September..but hopefully not October...
anyone elxe?
cheers
jb

[dvandorn]

I'm thinking that the area around Victoria Crater would be a high-priority area to get HiRISE images of, as soon as possible. That would allow the MER team to spend their time during conjunction doing some real planning. The MOC images we have are nice, but the HiRISE images of the site will be invaluable for planning the Victoria campaign.

Oh, and some good CRISM work in the area would be extraordinarily helpful, too.

In fact, I'm thinking that the first CRISM work ought to be at the MER sites. We have a lot of ground truth at those sites, which will let them approach the overall CRISM results with valuable information about how their readings correlate with what's actually on the ground.

-the other Doug

[mcaplinger]

I'm thinking that the area around Victoria Crater would be a high-priority area to get HiRISE images of, as soon as possible.

I can't speak for the HiRISE team, but I believe there's only one day's worth of off-nadir imaging allocated pre-conjunction, so if they don't hit it then, and they don't go right over it, it's not going to happen.

I don't think it's giving much away to say that the MER-B site is in the CTX target database.

And I think you're overstating the incremental value of HiRISE imaging over the MOC CPROTO for traverse planning, but I guess we'll see.

[Holder of the Tw...]

... And I think you're overstating the incremental value of HiRISE imaging over the MOC CPROTO for traverse planning, but I guess we'll see.

Isn't MRO observing from entirely different sun angles than MGS? I'm thinking that perhaps a combination of pictures of Victoria taken early morning and late afternoon might aid in understanding the lay of the land a little better than either picture set alone.

[mcaplinger]

Isn't MRO observing from entirely different sun angles than MGS?

No, MGS is at about 2 PM and MRO is at about 3 PM.

[Holder of the Tw...]

No, MGS is at about 2 PM and MRO is at about 3 PM.

Well, guess that's not a whole lot of help, just an hour difference. Thanks for the info, though. Somehow I'd gotten the impression that MRO had gone for a 9 am orbit.