Cape York - Northern Havens, Sol 2780 - 2947 Options

[Stu]

Artistic take on "Morris Hill"

[Matt Lenda]

On SOL 2810 Oppy's right front wheel was imaged 9 times during what seems to be an engineering test.
This is an animation that goes forwards then backwards before repeating (is there a word for that?)
The left wheel, also imaged at the same time for 9 images, does not move (other than the shadows advancing).

Yes, we had a drive "hiccup" where we stressed the right-front wheel too much and she faulted out. (Faulting out is a good thing, because it protects the hardware.)

On 2810, we sequenced an itsy-bitsy drive to test that we weren't in real trouble. Something like a 3cm drive, close to the smallest Oppy will allow. All is well even with that right-front wheel.

Cool gif! Love animations.

-m

[marsophile]

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/marsmicro2009/pdf/9006.pdf

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/marsmicro2009/pdf/9008.pdf

These abstracts suggest that the dust in dust devils on Mars is mostly raised by temperature gradients caused by rapid changes in illumination---not by wind per se.

If this is so, then Oppy might get some cleaning of the solar panels if it could somehow arrange for a shadow to pass over the deck! It's not clear how that could be achieved, though.

[EDIT: Another possibility is that rapid opening and closing of the miniTES cover while the sun is shining down the barrel might help to clear dust from the MTES by thermal effects such as the Knudsen Compression effect.]

[algorimancer]

....opening and closing of the miniTES cover while the sun is shining down the barrel might help to clear dust from the MTES by thermal effects such as the Knudsen Compression effect.

That strikes me as a really promising notion -- replace external winds with internal convection. I don't know if the mechanical configuration of MiniTES is conducive to this, but it might be worth a try. This is one thing which may be much more economical to test empirically, rather than by simulation.

[jamescanvin]

Morris Hill



James

[DFinfrock]

Artistic take on "Morris Hill"

Thanks for the new wallpaper Stu! Beautiful!

[walfy]

A closeup from sol 2829:

[Nirgal]

Morris Hill
James

Yet another one for the 'most scenic MER photos' gallery !

Congratulation, james

[Stu]

(only) section (I've been able to stitch together properly) of the Greeley Panorama, looking north...

[marsophile]

... arrange for a shadow to pass over the deck...

A rotation in place of the rover could cause a shadow of the mast to pass over the deck. The movement would be the most rapid in areas of the deck that are furthest from the mast.

If this were to be tested empirically, the well-delineated dark area near the sundial platform (at the rear of the rover) could be used as a test area to detect any motion of the dust on the deck resulting from the passage of the shadow.

[Matt Lenda]

(only) section (I've been able to stitch together properly) of the Greeley Panorama, looking north...

fyi, that's only nine parts of a twenty-something-part panorama... gonna be gorgeous.

-m

[James Sorenson]

That was a rather large CR hit in the far right frame in Stu's pan.

[Stu]

Looking north, down, and off, Cape York...

[fredk]

This new frame from the big pan gives us our first (full frame) pancam view of the "notch" coming off the NE end of CY:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...2M1.JPG?sol2833
Only L2/R2 so far (and very little 3D effect at that distance) - it'll be cool to see this in colour once the L5/7 are down...

[Floyd]

I would hope the mission explores the "notch" before we leave Cape York. Following the edge around CY would allow us to determine the frequency of gypsum veins and no doubt a few other interesting things...