Opportunity Route Map Options

[Bill Harris]

>I miss a sort of "double-checking".

I suspect that your routes are checked quite often...

--Bill

[CosmicRocker]

The sol 850 drive was the longest yet since getting stuck. This long straight chute Opportunity has been following just keeps going and going. In the last 4-5 drives Opportunity has made it about halfway across this old crater basin and now begins the drive up, toward the opposite side. I think the view from the opposite side should be awesome. With a little luck she could be there by next weekend.

[ylbs101]

Tesheiner,

I registered today just to post a big THANK YOU for all your efforts over the past 2.5 years -- keeping a sol-ly route map of Opportunity current.

Great Job!

Tom

[CosmicRocker]

Sol 851 hazcams are on Exploratorium. It looks like about a 30 meter drive.

[Tesheiner]

Route map, updated to sol 851.

Tesheiner,

I registered today just to post a big THANK YOU for all your efforts over the past 2.5 years -- keeping a sol-ly route map of Opportunity current.

Great Job!

Tom

Thanks for your kind words, Tom.

... but 2.5 years is too much! I was even unaware of the existence of this great forum.

[Toma B]

... but 2.5 years is too much! I was even unaware of the existence of this great forum.

Those were "the dark ages" when we could wait months to see MER locations update on JPL/NASA/MER site...
Thank you Tesheiner from me too....

[RNeuhaus]

Next week, Oppy will slow down the transverse due to restricted sols. The source of the information is from Mars' JPL.

Next week the rover will be on restricted sols, meaning the end-of-sol data from the rover does not get to Earth until late in the day, so the team plans every other day without it. The plan will be for Opportunity to drive every other day. On the days off, the team will plan light remote sensing and downlink some of the unsent data that is building up in memory.

Rodolfo

[BrianL]

Next week, Oppy will slow down the transverse due to restricted sols. The source of the information is from Mars' JPL.

The part of the report I find interesting is this:

Sol 846: After little progress in two adjacent troughs, Opportunity moved one more trough to the west. Slip checks were used to prevent driving with over 40 percent slip. The soil was relatively firm, and the rover made 9 meters (30 feet) of progress.

Sol 847: Opportunity conducted atmospheric science and took rear-looking images with its navigation camera.

This was the point at which I thought perhaps they were on the verge of another embedding and they did indeed make a course correction. The hazcam shots hinted at a bit of a mess when they did this, and I have been waiting to see the rear navcam shots of this area. The report seems to indicate those pictures were taken on sol 847, but they have not yet appeared on either JPL or exploratorium sites. I would like to know more about how they managed a turn and drive so quickly in an area that was causing them slippage problems.

Brian

[antoniseb]

Is it realistic that with the restricted Sols and the upcoming soft terrain that Opportunity will get to the edge of this old crater next week? Are we expecting that the terrain after that will be more rigid?

[RNeuhaus]

Is it realistic that with the restricted Sols and the upcoming soft terrain that Opportunity will get to the edge of this old crater next week? Are we expecting that the terrain after that will be more rigid?

I am neither sure about the advance type of surface since the MOC does not show good resolution pictures. Surely, MERB is approaching a large pool of outcrop which will help it to transverse climbing small crests of sand toward East until the point in which MERB will go straight southward to CC.

Rodolfo

[Tesheiner]

An updated route map (sol 853)

[RNeuhaus]

From the Sol 853, Oppy is about 306 368 meters from the north rim Corner Crater.

Rodolfo

Re-edited on distance correction.

[climber]

[quote name='RNeuhaus' date='Jun 19 2006, 04:21 AM' post='58881']
From the Sol 853, Oppy is about 306 meters from the north rim Corner Crater.
Rodolfo

Using last week speed as a reference and assuming there is 2.5 the distance AND 10 days of restricted sols we'll need another 20 sols to get to Beagle! Bigre...

[Phil Stooke]

This is the latest version of my Opportunity map, just from Erebus to Beagle. The 100 m grid distances are counted from the landing site. They are only approximate. Each big square is 500 m across and will eventually be a separate illustration.

I'll be in the UK for the next three weeks with only very limited access to UMSF, but I hope we'll reach a conclusion about the location of the beacon during that time.

Phil

[elakdawalla]

Thanks for sharing your excellent maps, Phil -- duly blogged!
http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00000611/

--Emily