Cape York - Northern Havens, Sol 2780 - 2947 Options

[djellison]

If current to an arm were to find its way to a steering actuator - that would be a symptom of something pretty catastrophic. I doubt it.

Seriously guys - that's not what's happened here.

[DDAVIS]

Here is my version of the SOL 2487 late afternoon view. I think the other view was more dramatic but this one has a wider view.

Low sun images provide dramatic shadows, and are too rare in this mission. I'm glad this was taken. A series of NAVCAM images in that direction could make an intriguing time lapse movie!

[dilo]

Here is my version of the SOL 2487 late afternoon view.

Mamma mia!

[fredk]

An intriguing movie indeed. Some oldtimers might remember dreaming of a sequence like that at Victoria. We actually got lots of very cool rim-shadows-across-the-crater views there. Some can be combined into few-frame movies. Check out:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...DXP1314R0M1.JPG
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...DXP1391R0M1.JPG
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...DXP1391R0M1.JPG
Or these navcams:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...25P1816R0M1.JPG
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...25P1816R0M1.JPG
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...25P1816R0M2.JPG

[ElkGroveDan]

Looks can be deceiving. The second image shows the arm and wheel in new positions but that does not mean they moved to those positions at the same time..

OBVIOUSLY. However neither does it rule out simultaneous movement. At this point we don't know. Which is why I chose the words "makes it look like" instead of "is proof positive," so that I could then speculate on the circumstances that might have occurred in the event of the latter. That's all I was doing, speculating. But the discussion has moved on now so let's drop it.

[Bill]

View of the left wheel in december before the move for the final position : We can see in front and on the right of the LF wheel the place where the wheel is now. There is a miniature "cliff".
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P1110R0M1.JPG

I don't see any crumbly rock under the wheel ; I agree with Fredk : "Maybe the LF wheel was perched on the edge of a miniature cliff, in an unstable position, and finally worked its way down".
My best guess on the position of the left wheel (in black) and the miniature "cliff" (in orange) /

Navcam


Pancam


Original pictures :
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...SMP1957L0M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...SMP2438L2M1.JPG

[kungpostyle]

Planetary Society report:

http://planetary.org/news/2012/0331_Mars_E...ver_Update.html

[stevesliva]

http://planetary.org/news/2012/0331_Mars_E...ver_Update.html

Amazing amount of info in there on the wheel, radio science, and the Mossbauer.

[fredk]

Yeah. Bad news for the MB:

"The [MB] still works, but when we looked at the data... we concluded that the source strength is so low that we probably wouldn't have accumulated a useful spectrum by the time we were ready to move the rover," Steve Squyres... said

A plan for the LF wheel:

the engineers are planning on having the rover wiggle her left front wheel, which should relax any further stress on that wheel. "Separately, we are now imaging at least twice a day to detect further motion and to try to bound when it happens to it can be correlated to other activities (if such a correlation exists)," said Nelson

.
And some ideas for when driving resumes:

Arvidson: "We need to go back to the Bench, where we saw the gypsum vein Homestake and find a bigger one that we can grind into, remove any coating, and redo the measurements." "Once we start moving, we'll pop out to the Bench either on the east side or the west side"

There is also talk of Opportunity roving up to Morris Hill... "It's pretty steep, so we still have to evaluate whether we can actually drive onto it, or just look at it from a safe distance," [Squyres] said.

"We'll move when we're ready to move," said Squyres. "June is a reasonable guess, but that could change depending on tau, dust factor, etc. General plan is to head south, performing more investigations on Cape York and then heading toward Cape Tribulation."

[fredk]

Looks like the LF tests are happening soon - from Maxwell's blog:

Today, we help recover from Opportunity's LF wheel anomaly: spin and wiggle wheel, twice, plus lotsa pictures. Should be a fun one.

[fredk]

Oppy doing the LF "spin and wiggle dance":

[jamescanvin]

A week or so ago Stu asked me for some advice on matching features of Cape Tribulation from HiRISE and Pancam. It has taken me a while to find the time, and I'm not totally sure on some of this, but here is an 'inverse polar' HiRISE image from Greeley Haven along with a pancam image with a few lines to show what I think are matching features.



James

[fredk]

I agree with those identifications, except that I think the dark feature marked in cyan is pretty heavily foreshortened, and actually extends much closer to the light features marked in green. So I think it also includes the dark stuff I've circled in cyan in this pic:

[jamescanvin]

Yeah I was thinking the same after I posted it last night. Glad you agree wih the rest of the ID's

J

[Stu]

Thanks VERY much James for working on that - and you, too, Fred, for your input. I'm really wanting to get a handle on that part of the rim befpre Oppy strikes out for it.