MSL "Drive, drive, drive" toward Glenelg, The scientists (mostly) get the keys - sols 38-56 Options

[fredk]

6 unaligned frame animation of Deimos transit (1px Gaussian blur):

[Stu]

Fanciful view of low Sun at Gale...



(and yes, I know the pointing isn't 100% accurate, it's art, not scientific! )

[ngunn]

Fanciful view of low Sun at Gale...

I like that one a lot. Bluish low sunlight, dark brown shadows, just right I think. VERY good Stu. I really appreciate these 'artist's impressions' - wish you'd do more.

EDIT: Thanks also to fredk for confirming the ID of Rocky and to Ant103 for the great poster.

[Joffan]

Maybe it will usefull to put some of the "Jake Matijevic" stuff in one picture, like a tour ?

Board size is about 6.8 Mo. I can't be more accurate to place the MAHLI overlay on the Mastcam100 mosaic. It's quite hard to find the corresponding place.

That's a great idea. However I think the larger MAHLI image (with the shadow on) is out of position in your montage. The pit near the top of Jake, top-left of the MAHLI image, looks correct, but the MAHLI image is rotated far more, another 60+degrees clockwise.



I can't overlay very well because the rock surface is nowhere near flat, so no simple transform will distort one image onto the other.

(Edit: Ant103 has updated the montage)

[Stu]

Great composition.... Art on Mars... Love it...



(From a new blog post, if anyone wants a read... http://galegazette.wordpress.com/2012/09/24/the-art-of-mars )

[jmknapp]

Well... I know that Oppy has seen an awful lot of trace elements in the Meridiani soils and rocks, including sulfur, chlorine, arsenic and even carbon (though Phoenix was much more well-suited to identify carbon). As I recall, Phoenix found more carbonates in the soil than it found perchlorates.

On Mars, the glass is always half full of carbonates, but could MER detect perchlorate as such? MSL is able to, per this space.com item:

The upcoming Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, set to launch in 2011, could help answer the question of whether the perchlorate is a peculiarity of the Phoenix site or a much more widespread constituent of the Martian regolith.

Intriguingly, the Viking landers detected chlorine at their landing sites, which were closer to the Martian equator than Phoenix's site. The landers couldn't determine what compound that chlorine came from, but it could have been perchlorate, [Phoenix co-investigator Dr. Raymond] Arvidson said.

"Now we have a specific compound to search out and find" when MSL, which will also explore more mid-latitude sites, lands on the planet, he said.

Chemcam, using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), particularly can identify perchlorate salts according to this paper.

[belleraphon1]

Fanciful view of low Sun at Gale...

(and yes, I know the pointing isn't 100% accurate, it's art, not scientific! )

Love the fanciful views as well ................

One of the strengths of this forum is the ability of folks to create 'fanciful' views which the science teams (rightly) cannot do.

Keep it up Stu.

Craig

[Ant103]

Thank you for your help Joffan I have a better overlay now. See my previous post. It's not yet perfect, because as you said, the surface of Jake is not flat, and so, it needs some complex distorsions. But it's more accurate now I think .

[fredk]

Sol long Jake...
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/pr...NCAM00307M_.JPG

[fredk]

Very nice early morning navcam sequence from sol 44 coming down:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/pr...NCAM00517M_.JPG

[jmknapp]

Very nice early morning navcam sequence from sol 44 coming down:

I wonder how much skyglow there is just before the sun comes up. By my calculations this shot was taken a few minutes before the sun came up (assuming a 0 degree horizon):

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/pr...NCAM00517M_.JPG

There aren't strong shadows in that image, so the illumination must be coming from sky glow--still very well lit.

This shot was taken a couple minutes later:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/pr...NCAM00517M_.JPG

It still seems as if the sun hasn't quite cleared the horizon, yet everything is pretty well illuminated, even the distant hills facing away from the sun.

[fredk]

I think skyglow is pretty much all we're seeing this close to sunrise. Remember the MER sunset images - dust absorption is so strong that light scattered from the sky totally dominates over direct sunlight. That makes it hard to see long shadows.

[ngunn]

Very nice early morning navcam sequence from sol 44 coming down:

Right, so no frost this morning.

[Doc]

Leaving Jake forever behind



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[Doc]

Very nice early morning navcam sequence from sol 44 coming down:

Lovely view, someone ought to colourize it.