Cape York - Shoemaker Ridge and the NE traverse, Starting sol 2735 Options

[Explorer1]

If I didn't know better I'd say Cassini took those photos!

[PaulM]

Scott Maxwell tweeted 10 hours ago:

"We now officially have winter plans: heading for the north side of Cape York. Nice northerly (sunny) tilts + good science = our winter home."

There seem to be large rock outcrops up there and so we can expect some nice color panoramas throughout the winter.

[Tesheiner]

Here's a mosaic of the "post-drive" navcams from today's batch corresponding to sol 2749.

[Matt Lenda]

Scott Maxwell tweeted 10 hours ago:

"We now officially have winter plans: heading for the north side of Cape York. Nice northerly (sunny) tilts + good science = our winter home."

There seem to be large rock outcrops up there and so we can expect some nice color panoramas throughout the winter.

You bet! We'll sniff out those phyllosilicates on the way back south after winter is over... we just can't support the amount of activity and power that MB/APXS/MI'ing would require through the winter. We had some epically bad timing in getting to Cape York right as we hit Fall...

No biggie, there are great science things to get done while we map out the north side of CY and while we park for Solstice. (A park that, really, shouldn't last too long.)

-m

[fredk]

Hmmm... Solstice is still over five months away - I wonder what current projections are saying about when we may need to park.

Too bad they couldn't find a nice north-facing clay-bearing outcrop to park on and MB for months at a time...

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

The power must be really bad if they are thinking about parking already.

[Tesheiner]

Low, perhaps; bad, not really.
As far as I understood, they are predicting potentially low power around the winter solstice. Being that the case, you should start looking for a "parking area" while there's enough power to drive and absolutely not when you are already low on power.

[Bill Harris]

It's probably CYA ("Cover Your Anterior") contigency planning. Here we have a geriatric Rover, decreased Winter light levels, dusty solar panels, a wheel motor wih a history of elevated current draw and a defunct sister at Gusev, so they're being cautious.

Being no Spring Chicken, were I out on Mars doing this traverse today I'd certainly pace myself...

--Bill

[Deimos]

Hmmm... Solstice is still over five months away - I wonder what current projections are saying about when we may need to park.

But aphelion is sooner, and near the Martian equator, that is as big a deal. With extra dust on the arrays and extra dust above them, and the sort-of sine-wave slow approach to the minima, power to support driving to a lily pad goes away sooner rather than later. Add a local SE facing slope and it is not like lily pads are dotting the landscape, so they would need to be found and proven to be real (easy to get false positives from a DEM). Hmm, almost convinced myself there....

[centsworth_II]

Throw in an unexpected sand trap or mechanical difficulties and waiting 'til the last weeks, or even last months, to look for the best wintering spot is a recipe for disaster. Better to be prudent with foresight than regretful with hindsight. Besides, all those who wanted desperately to check out that "mystery crack" at the North end of Cape York must be happy, whatever the reason for heading North.

[mhoward]

360x90 Navcam anaglyph sol 2750

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[djellison]

The power must be really bad if they are thinking about parking already.

This statement really does baffle me.

Do you not remember the mad rush before Winter Haven 1 on the SE side of Home Plate or WH3 on it's Northern slope.

Is Troy really that long ago that you've just forgotten how we lost Spirit?

Or maybe you always let the fuel light on your car come on, drive another 50 miles and let the engine start spluttering before even thinking about a gas station.

I don't, and fortunately, neither do the MER folks.

[centsworth_II]

The power must be really bad if they are thinking about parking already.

Besides what's already been said, Opportunity will not be "parking already". The idea is to find an area where exploration can continue with a minimum of energy worries and where a good parking spot is close at hand if it becomes necessary.

[fredk]

But aphelion is sooner, and near the Martian equator, that is as big a deal.

Of course, thanks for reminding me of that. At Oppy's latitude of about 2 degrees S, the Sun would be only marginally lower (4 degrees, actually) in the north during (southern) winter solstice than it is in the south during summer solstice. So ignoring the other effects (distance from Sun, dust, tilt), winter solstice wouldn't be too much worse power-wise than summer solstice.

I can see perihelion having a big impact on available energy. But I wonder as well about the temperatures. Presubably there's a "perihelion winter" effect, even though we're sitting almost on the equator so normally you'd expect only subtle seasons. So perhaps we also have to factor in a greater need for power to keep heaters running through perihelion.

[stevesliva]

The power must be really bad if they are thinking about parking already.

They're pretty open about the dust/insolation/power numbers here:
http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/mission/status_...rtunityAll.html

With her solar arrays dustier and atmospheric opacity higher than in past years, the winter will be more challenging. So, Opportunity has been surveying regions with favorable northerly tilts so she can spend the winter months actively exploring. ...
As of Sol 2744 (Oct. 13, 2011), solar array energy production was 316 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.791 and a solar array dust factor of 0.498.

That watt-hour number is not significantly worse than the previous few weeks. It is substantially worse than the previous months.