The Start of the Drive East, Up to Cambridge Bay Options

[Stu]

I do love these rover self-portraits...

http://twitpic.com/2ddl4o

3D image

[Tesheiner]

Thanks for the prompt updates !
brief question: Is the current drive-every-other-sol pattern due to normal "restricted sols" or is the "resting day" in between drives still needed to to avoid elevated wheel currents ?

Here's the answer, I think. Yet another driving sol.

02327::p0653::03::6::0::0::6::0::12::navcam_3x1_az_90_3_bpp
02327::p1205::08::2::0::0::2::0::4::front_haz_penultimate_0.5_bpp_pri17
02327::p1211::03::2::0::0::2::0::4::ultimate_front_haz_1_bpp_pri_15
02327::p1254::02::2::0::0::2::0::4::front_haz_fault_pri15_4bpp
02327::p1301::06::2::0::0::2::0::4::rear_haz_penultimate_1bpp_pri17
02327::p1312::07::2::0::0::2::0::4::rear_haz_ultimate_2_bpp_pri15
02327::p1354::01::2::0::0::2::0::4::rear_haz_fault_pri15_4bpp
02327::p1757::01::14::0::0::14::0::28::navcam_7x1_az_270_1_bpp
02327::p1991::07::4::0::0::4::0::8::nav_2x1_rvraz_0_1_bpp_pri42
02327::p1994::06::1::0::0::1::0::2::nav_1x1_MovieFrame_Leye_1bpp_pri72
02327::p2601::05::4::2::0::0::2::8::pancam_tau_L78R48

[NW71]

Eduardo,

If sol 2327 is another driving day and if it's another 70 to 80 ms or so am I right in thinking the two rovers are going to be very close to a combined 30kms of roving?

If so, that is simply incredible.

Neil

[climber]

I'd said that Oppy is tosol 2326 at ~22200m. As Spirit is at 7730 m, another 70m Oppy drive will give a Total of 30 kms i.e. 50 times what has been scheduled. I'll have to move this post to "Some Statistics...".
Go Little Young Lady, Go...

Edit: congratulations Neil, you beat me by 2 minutes...

[NW71]

a Total of 30 kms i.e. 50 times what has been scheduled. I'll have to move this post to "Some Statistics...".
Go Little Young Lady, Go...

Edit: congratulations Neil, you beat me by 2 minutes...

Thanks climber, but the congratulations should go to the MER team for the miracles they appear to perform on a daily basis and to you and Eduardo and others who convey this information so promptly and in such an easy to understand manner.

Thanks for such a prompt reply. Feel free to move my previous post if it's in the wrong topic as well!

Neil

[BrianL]

Some Twitter comments from Scott on the latest drive:

Well, that's a lot more like it. Our last drive got almost 10m of extra distance thanks to the new drive-extension trick! Still waiting for downlink that'll help explain what's scaring Oppy away from driving farther. Maybe we can tweak params to do even better.

[Tesheiner]

The latest drive (sol 2327) was a little bit short; "only" 45m. Nothing strange given the lack of post-drive pancams yesterday.
Here's today's navcam mosaic where I highlighted a sequence of rock patches to the left (actually NE). They are clearly visible on HiRISE (see GE version attached). A fracture maybe?

[Stu]

Very, very ripply...

http://twitpic.com/2dpgyh

[fredk]

Fortunately we're past those particular ripples after tosol's drive. There's another patch right in front of us, and then a very smooth stretch that you can see in the orbital views or in this new pancam:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...2M1.JPG?sol2327
That'll be a taste of the flat terrain to come. It's still a ways before we're completely out of the bigger ripples, though.

[Burmese]

Maybe they intend to angle NE up that fracture, then cut back east across the smooth rocky patch? The Ripples E and ESE are a bit heavy by comparison.

[Tesheiner]

Dunno. And here's another piece to the puzzle from Scott's twitter.

Today's drive will likely be cut short by science, anyway: we're stopping early so we can image some big ol' ripples along the path.

(I love this back-seat driving)

[djellison]

I love it so much, I broke the tradition of a life time and found an avatar

[fredk]

Based on Maxwell's comment and the drive direction images, I'd hazard a guess that we'll head more or less straight east and stop here:

That should give us a decent view of the little crater just to the SE.

Not so much back seat driving as back seat prognostication?

[Tesheiner]

That was my take too but I didn't included it above because I thought it might be too far (another 40m?) to be precisely reached on a single drive. Let's see.

[Stu]

I think we're about to enter a very interesting area... I'm particularly interested in one feature not too far up ahead...

http://twitpic.com/2dsndu/full