Phoenix - End of Mission |
Phoenix - End of Mission |
May 24 2010, 08:23 PM
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#136
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
MRO images show that the solar panels on Phoenix were damaged by a heavy coating of dust and ice during the Martian winter, as predicted. Well, after looking at those images side by side, this does not bode well for chances of spotting Mars Polar Lander. After only one winter basically all objects "merged" into their surroundings. To say nothing of the parachute. -------------------- |
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May 24 2010, 08:30 PM
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#137
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Yeah, really. That's a very dramatic difference over one Martian year.
Even if it is eventually found, it seems unlikely now that we would be able to determine anything useful about the landing circumstances (unless it was a high-velocity impact). Phoenix is nearly unrecognizable already; can't even tell that the panels had once been fully deployed. Wonder how long until the landing struts might possibly give out? -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Guest_Sunspot_* |
May 24 2010, 08:33 PM
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#138
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Guests |
The parachute is totally invisible now, extraordinary.
http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/images/2010/...16_2485_cut.jpg As others have said, quite obvious why we haven't found MPL yet. |
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May 24 2010, 08:37 PM
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#139
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
I guess there's still some hope of finding the early Soviet landers & Beagle II since presumably they're subject to dust deposition alone, but this makes me much less optimistic.
-------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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May 24 2010, 08:40 PM
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#140
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1729 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004 |
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May 24 2010, 09:20 PM
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#141
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Forum Contributor Group: Members Posts: 1372 Joined: 8-February 04 From: North East Florida, USA. Member No.: 11 |
Squished by CO2
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May 24 2010, 09:32 PM
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#142
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2079 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Ontario Member No.: 5221 |
It almost looks as if the parachute was torn away from the backshell by winds! But the atmosphere is too thin for that to occur no matter how fast they blow, correct?
Will anything at all be visible after another winter, I wonder. |
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May 24 2010, 09:50 PM
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#143
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8783 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Squished by CO2 And a bit of H2O also, I'd say. IIRC, the frosts around V2 were thought to be a 6:1 CO2/H2O clathrate. Interestingly, something like that would have been lighter than pure CO2 snow per 'absolute' unit of volume, if you know what I mean. (Have no idea how crystallization, etc. would affect the density of the actual deposits.) -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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May 25 2010, 12:34 AM
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#144
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1417 Joined: 26-July 08 Member No.: 4270 |
My hypothesis of significant movement of the lander is not supported by the new images.
-------------------- -- Hungry4info (Sirius_Alpha)
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May 25 2010, 12:50 AM
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#145
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2998 Joined: 30-October 04 Member No.: 105 |
This makes strong statment about the weathering, erosional and depositional processes at work in the Martian polar regions. Truly an alien environment.
It will be very instructive to visit this "test plot" in a few decades... --Bill -------------------- |
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May 25 2010, 02:37 AM
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#146
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Senior Member Group: Admin Posts: 4763 Joined: 15-March 05 From: Glendale, AZ Member No.: 197 |
It would be informative from an engineering perspective to get a better understanding of exactly how they separated and where they landed. I wonder if it would be difficult to plan for a super-res sequence of 5 or 10 images taken at the exact same local time on roughly consecutive days. I think it would also be useful to track the shadows/shape on several occasions as the sun climbs higher toward summer. I guess that would exceed the boundaries of a HI-WISH request.
-------------------- If Occam had heard my theory, things would be very different now.
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May 25 2010, 03:19 AM
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#147
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1417 Joined: 26-July 08 Member No.: 4270 |
Working one final animation. It does seem the features I interpreted as Phoenix were indeed ice patches. The shading that caused me to think the lander was on its side is explained by the shadow of the lander partially covering an ice patch.
This is almost the same .gif as earlier, but with another frame. The post-arrival, and post-spring, and the most recent images are all aligned here. -------------------- -- Hungry4info (Sirius_Alpha)
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May 25 2010, 03:29 AM
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#148
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Member Group: Members Posts: 166 Joined: 20-September 05 From: North Texas Member No.: 503 |
The parachute is totally invisible now, extraordinary. Is it possible that the extreme cold of the Martian polar winter caused a degradation of the strength of the cords attaching the parachute to the backshell? If those cords were severed, then it wouldn't take so much wind to blow the parachute to another distant location. |
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May 25 2010, 04:10 AM
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#149
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Member Group: Members Posts: 808 Joined: 10-October 06 From: Maynard Mass USA Member No.: 1241 |
Hi Hungry4info,
That is a nice animation - thanks! -------------------- CLA CLL
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May 25 2010, 04:31 AM
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#150
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Member Group: Members Posts: 315 Joined: 1-October 06 Member No.: 1206 |
That's very helpful Hungry, seems to me that I can see both solar panels still attached to the body of the craft on the latter two frames - they don't seem to have been snapped off.
P |
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