Bye bye, Cambridge Bay. It's roving time once again.
No navcams (yet), but this hazcams from sol 2347 tells us that we are back on the road.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2010-08-31/1F336547569EFFAO1RP1205L0M1.JPG http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2010-08-31/1R336547620EFFAO1RP1301L0M1.JPG
Still have to confirm it visually but according to the "telemetry" this drive was 85+ meters east.
I felt sure they were going to stay there a little while longer. I guess it's time to get moving again. I'm not complaining!
I think they're now at about the same longitude as Duck Bay.
Since it's now in the thread title could somebody remind us exactly which area is being referred to here as the parking lot. Googling around I find that several different parts of Meridiani have been so described.
I know - I've not been paying attention - but newcomers might welcome clarification too. Is it the large patch of exposed bedrock ahead, the smooth plain beyond, or both?
My understanding (and what I've meant when using it myself) is that the 'parking lot' is the smooth plain after the bedrock ahead. Essentially the large green region on the right of http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=6623&view=findpost&p=163133.
So this thread will cover the next ~2km east across the bedrock. Then, hopefully in the not too distant future, we'll start another for the 2km dash across the parking lot to Santa Maria.
James
I would prefer it if we continued using tarmac. The last thing we want is for Oppy to park itself.
My first idea was to name the thread "From Cambridge Bay to Santa Maria" but then I thought the crater would be too far away to cover the distance without another "science stop" in the middle.
---
Now checking tosol's imaging plan ... it's driving day. Hope for another 80+ meters.
@ngunn - there must be some jokes about stale bread and overcooked meat in there too?
Today is sol 2348 and we're 40m closer...
Am I right in thinking we're now just slightly less than 10km from Cape York? Will be great to be in single figures!
If we take a straight line to Santa Maria and another one to Cape York, yes.
Obviously, the odometry will be much more but that's another story.
Yeah, very true. I was thinking more of an "emotional" 10km rather than a physical one
For a smaller number, we could say that we're just over 2 leagues away. (BTW, a league being the distance a person can walk in an hour, does it mean we should be there in a couple of hours?)
<ducks>
Seriously, the official Opportunity traverse map for sol 2286 (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/tm-opportunity/opportunity-sol2286.html) has a progress bar showing that 8km has been covered out of 19km, meaning there was 11km to go. On sol 2341, 1,24 km more had been added to the total, so, yes, I guess we're under 10 km away (depending on the twists and turns to come).
From the last Planetary Society Update:
"...We’re six miles away [9.65 kilometers] and we can see the thing, and it’s made everybody that much more excited and eager to make it there,” said Maxwell.
http://www.planetary.org/news/2010/0831_Mars_Exploration_Rover_Update_Spirit.html
Half way there, that means we should arrive in (ducks)
July 2012, a month before MSL reaches Mars.
Go Oppy Go
In keeping with the "teach a man to fish" theme we saw last month, we should point out that Google Earth/Mars has a very useful http://earth.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=148134 that, in conjunction with Eduardo's excellent KML route map, can be used to easily and accurately measure all sorts of distances along Opportunity's route, and elsewhere. Using it, I measured 9.65 km from the sol 2348 location to near Cape York following the proposed route line; the same distance quoted in the Planetary Society Update.
Yep, and that's exactly the tool I used to reach my "slightly less than 10km" figure, CR, as my blog says...
Hadn't actually read the latest MER Update all the way through until earlier today. That would have saved me some time, I guess!
Working on a new record here for number of posts between Opportunity Route Maps.
...and thanks for contributing to the record attempt
Here's the latest navcam mosaic, taken during sol 2349 after a 80+ meters drive.
I thought it might be interesting to see what the ground ahead is actually like for our gal, so here's a pic showing HiRISE views - all to the same scale - of (on the left) the terrain we've been driving across recently and, on the right, 1) the terrain we'll be driving across once we get off "the Pavement", and 2) the terrain we'll be crossing once in "The Parking Lot". Note: Of course, these are just quick look samples, there'll be smoother and rougher areas, and this is just for fun, but I still thought it was quite interesting to see them side by side...
Possible multiple (6-7?) crater approx. 1 km ESE from Opportunity current position.
Or eight! Here's a better image taken from GE.
(leans over from the back seat)
Oh wow! Can we go there? Can we? can we? Can we?
... and just to give a sense of scale, here's "Oppy" (scale correct, it's cloned from the same HiRISE image) next to the craters...
Great Stu. Comparing the sizes gives you the sense of how thin is Mars' atmosphere to allow creation of group of such small craters.
I wonder if the fact that parent body of that crater group broke up/exploded before impact would mean there is gonna be (or was in the past) a large number of meteorites on the ground.
*glances at Scott's blog*
When was the last time Oppy drover over 100m?
If they were mounds, would they not be lit on the same side as the dunes?
That's a very common optical illusion with planetary images. But no, they actually are craters!
Phil
I actually tried to force my brain to see mounds and I couldn't, so the illusion works both ways.
My eyes hurt now...
As we keep dropping in elevation. At our current position. Are we lower then the bottom of Victoria Crater yet and would any exposed bedrock we drive upon now be the layers that might be at the bottom of Victoria???
I would say our next stop for investigation will be the group of small craters we are heading for.
Bobby: As best as I can tell, the lowest point inside Victoria Crater is -1451 meters below the Mars datum. That's from the Google Mars model, which, as we have seen, has some problems with the real Mars. Opportunity's current location would appear to be somewhere around -1385 meters in the same model...quite a few meters above the lowest apparent point inside Victoria. Shortly after Oppy passes Santa Maria she'll be at an elevation near to the bottom of Victoria.
As for your bedrock layers question, that is more difficult to answer. It depends on whether those layers are perfectly flat, or if they are tilting in one direction or another.
Sorry, ngunn. I don't understand your point. According to the Victoria Crater DEM, the lowest point inside the crater is about -1450 meters. On the map you cite, the -1450 contour crosses the future route path about 1 kilometer SE of Santa Maria. At that point Opportunity will be at the same elevation as the bottom of Victoria Crater. If the bedrock layers are actually horizontal across this region, then Oppy may be driving on the same layers of rock as would be found at the bottom of Victoria.
Well I'm just looking at that map, nothing else, and I see a labelled contour at -1700 inside the crater and contours descending for another 40 metres beyond that to the edge of the map. I can't explain the mismatch with your other information but I guess understanding where it comes from would be useful, and knowing this place it will be provided.
The question is when will Opportunity be at the same elevation as the bottom of Victoria Crater. not Endeavour.
Victoria Crater elevations from http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2008/pdf/1878.pdf
Right. sorry!
@centsworth - Thanks for the link to the paper on Victoria. It brings back a Q I had then about Oppy's dip into Victoria: did we get deep enough to answer prevalent questions or not? IIRC we turned back when she had a problem with either voltage on a wheel or her shoulder got stiff?
Anyway, it'd be amazing and wonderful to get the rest of the evidence desired in the bottom of Victoria many kilometers down the road!
2353 looks like a driving sol. I wonder if this is the +100m drive mentioned on Scott Maxwell's twitter. If it is 100m, it will cut 1% off the distance to Endeavour in a single sol!
To close the loop, this is a screen grab of one of the maps I used to determine the elevation at the bottom of Victoria. It is a contour map derived from a Hirise DEM. It is one of several files I plucked from a NASA server, somewhere. The lowest contour is -1450 m.
Thanks for the debate regarding the elevation where we are at now. I've also noticed one thing about this area compared to the area before Victoria Crater. Where have all the mini craters gone? The ones we saw on the dunes that were a foot wide?
I recall seeing a very small one in a ripple just a few sols ago, although I would never be able to find it again.
Go Oppy go!!!
Hey slow down team or we'll miss our exit.
That's incredible. I'm pretty sure Oppy drove further than I walked today.
Of course, I probably ate more BBQ than Oppy. Probably.
Wow! Fantastic progress. These sorts of drives may become more the norm than the exception as the terrain improves, without those pesky ripples to "freak out" the rover.
We are now east of Cape Agulhas. The last time Oppy was this far east was on sol 1186.
(Syrinx: that was one of the funnier things I've read in a while.)
110 meter??? WoW Keep Going Oppy.
From http://twitter.com/marsroverdriver/status/23248306228
If no one said it yet, I say it now and loud: "Are were there yet ! Are were there yet ! "
Playing around with Goggle Earth I found what looks like another contact layer similar to Cambridge Bay right in the planned path. My 2cents that we will stop for a few sols right there next week.
Sol 2353 Drive Direction Mosaic
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php/b2353
James
Interesting tweet from Scott Maxwell about 4 hours ago;
"We're past the halfway mark to Endeavour!"
Go Oppy!
Neil
Why has the clock on the MER website become so out of sync?
Interesting trivia from http://twitter.com/marsroverdriver/status/23943246607
Show offs. Next they'll say they did it with one arm stowed behind her back.
A http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars-rover-halfway-endeavour-crater-100908.html marking the halfway point to Endeavour had a couple of interesting points:
The wheel rotates on its axle just fine, however, it cannot be steered.
It doesn't "turn" in the steering sense, right? It rolls.
It can drive, but it can not be turned for steering. They have seen slightly elevated currents on it for years - they just need to keep an eye on it and not do anything that makes that situation worse.
With the commitment to backward driving, it will be interesting to see if the LR wheel (the new RF wheel) develops elevated currents at some point. And then what do they do?
Start break dancing!
Seriouserly, thanks for the refresher on the wheel issue. So, if they stop and roll around a site for science reasons, that could be a point when a stiff wheel might cause a bit of a drag on the process.
There were no nav/pancams after yestersol's drive but they were shot today. This is not usual but in this case I think it was due to lack of time since the drive ended close to the UHF uplink time and if the mosaics were taken the uplink window would be lost.
Here's the navcam mosaic shot on sol 2356 in polar view. I used it to update http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=681&view=findpost&p=163926.
Says here that the "second longest backward drive ever" was http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/mission/status_opportunityAll.html#sol23349. Backward autonav has been applied eight times now for a total of about 158 meters. Not bad! Distances driven in excess of 70 meters (approximate): 7, 10, 11, 15, 16, 23, 35, 41.
ok..newbie question involving google mars..any way of adding some higher resolution pictures so when you zoom in you can see the terrain better?
jb
Read backwards and you'll find out how to do it - but maybe this needs to be in a little FAQ at the top of the forum!
Phil
That was actually on Scotts Tweet Sept 8th
"This past weekend's drive was longest backward drive ever. (Not longest *drive*, but longest *backward*.) Yesterday's was second-longest"
Scott Maxwell was kind enough to answer some questions for me for a post on my "Road to Endeavour" blog, if anyone wants a look...
http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/halfway
I don't see any signs of Oppy doing the multiple turns in place we have seen before during backward autonav. Could this be a 110 meter blind drive made possible by the shorter ripples?
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2010-09-09/1N337347078EFFAQ00P1907R0M1.JPG
I've been lurking here for quite a while, & thought it about time I said Thanks to all of you regulars for the really good job of making the trip into a veritable odyssey. I'm astounded by the photo montages.
Thank you all
Mike
Looking south from the current (2358) location, we get our first good view of the vast stretches of bedrock we're now entering:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2010-09-13/1N337524810EFFAQJLP1777R0M1.JPG?sol2358
I don't recall another view like this with bedrock stretching almost to the horizon. Quite a change from the sea of dunes.
Yes, quite a change, Fred! You're right, I don't think we've ever seen so much exposed rock at once.
Phil
Thanks for such an educational and interesting forum. The daily updates are interesting to follow. When I go to the MER website and look at the downloaded images are these at the beginning of the drive on that sol or at the end of the drive.
Keep up the great work!
Usually each drive is followed by a navcam panorama and "drive direction" pancams. Sometimes images are also taken before the drive. You can tell by comparing the http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/edr_filename_key.html with the time of the hazcams, which are normally taken immediately after the drive.
They can be either, and can be even during the sols drive. Normally images like the navcam and drive direction mosaics are taken after a drive however sometimes they are be taken on the next sol if there is not enough time on the drive sol.
Use: http://www.greuti.ch/oppy/html/filenames_ltst.htm to decode the image filenames with will give you the local time that they were taken (LTST). Drives are usually in the early afternoon so post drive imaging will normally be around 15h - 16h.
Next time I have a swim I'll try 100m butterfly without autonav...
Looking at Google Earth I see that driving my UK based robot a meaningful 100m would mean driving out the house, down to the entrance of the close, turning right and driving down to the end of the adjacent close. I'm not entirely certain my wi-fi coverage extends that far...
A 3D view that really shows the difference in Oppy's driving terrain now...
http://twitpic.com/2o9q4e/full
140m/sol? I certainly hope that one works out...
Recalling pics of a setting sun from one or the other MER, has either rover driven at night, or performed any significant tasks in darkness? thanks
Imaging, yes. Driving, no. I know the arm was loaded with heaters to allow an overnight tool change, but I don't recall it ever actually being done.
Yes, there have been astronomical observations including searches for meteors (no positive results). And did some APXS or MS work happen overnight? Sojourner used to do overnight APXS to reduce noise, until its battery failed.
Phil
Very subtle tonalities on the weathering rind on recent Pancams...
Series of 10 rhaz frames from the 2358 hazard avoidance test:
You're right about the seamless - you could loop for ever and not notice! Awesome
Sol 2358 drive direction mosaic - Oppy should be setting off across all the lovely bedrock in this scene tosol (2361)
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php/b2358
James
Fredk - An endless sea of stone?
Big rock ahead, the next target?
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2010-09-15/1P337789602EFFAQPWP2406L2M1.JPG
Big rock indeed!!!
Oppy! Fetch!
Ooh, look...
Looks like two very different rocks kissing
Stu, you are, of course, correct. You can't ignore possible science when it is blatantly tossed in a manner that you would be hard pressed not to stumble over it. Still, in my mind, I have already changed Oppy's middle name to Excelsior. At Cape York, I will long for the far rim. Or Iazu. Or ponder, just how far is Olympus Mons anyway? It is the curse of believing simultaneously that Oppy could die at any moment but may live forever.
That is what I thought about Victoria Crater...
Yeah, I remember that talk about Victoria too - I had this image of Oppy's final resting place being on top of the Beacon. In the end, we did roughly half a circumnavigation of Victoria, some parts only very quickly, in about two years, so you might think we could've spent at least another couple of years there (so we might still be there). But in the end the science wasn't there to keep us at Victoria, and Oppy was still in good driving shape, so off we went...
It's interesting though that, if I recall correctly, clays weren't identified at Endeavour until some time after we started the drive to Endeavour.
Wonder if we'll see the whatever-it-is more closely in the next few sols...
Here's a bit of a stretch of the scene ahead. Getting some detail out on the distant plains - is the diagonal streak a DD track?
Phil
It's charred terrain from the eyes burning a gaze into the distance.
Or a DD. Infact, we saw one not that long ago - in this very direction!
There are a few DD trails around looking at CTX and HiRISE.
From marsroverdriver's twitter:
"no driving today"
I think it means no drive planning today i.e. no driving during the weekend. But the one planned for sol 2363 might have been executed and the pics are just waiting in the queue.
Clearer view now of Whateveritis...
It's Alf!
And here's a navcam mosaic to put those anaglyphs into context.
There's a small crater right ahead, followed by Whateveritis and Whateveritis-II to the left in the distance. Those rocks are quite big so it may be possible to locate them on the HiRISE views. I'll give a try.
I think I got it. Check also the KML version http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=681&view=findpost&p=164196.
And behind the new rock is the next little crater down the inner slope of Endeavour.
Phil
New pic of Whateveritis... hmmm... bears more than a passing resemblance to our old friend "Block Island" dontcha think..?
OMG!!! It's following us
You mean we are dragging it...that's why we move so slowly. Cut the briddle Oppy and you'll rove 140m's per sol.
BTW, how can we drag anything roving backward?
The crater near where we are sitting is visible here: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/rear_hazcam/2010-09-18/1R337968701EFFAQZHP1312R0M1.JPG
I estimate it's a "rover weel" deep (?). Is there any interest studing the "crater wall" we can see on this picture?
With a similar purpose as on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IcfCfWKF1A I think the rocks are being put on the way by the little green men during the night just to delay our trek to Endeavour.
Whateveritis looks great but Whatabout that mountain range in the background: spectacular!
Ah, a great, big, lovely, aeons-old, dust-etched, uv-baked chunk of charred star-metal... Oppy, fetch!!! :-)
Pronounced differently, the term "Whateveritis" seems more like a syndrome of a lazy person.
I was going to point that out too... But I couldn't be bothered ;-)
Whatever.
This is it.
We are now on the early hours of sol 2367 and if I'm reading "the codes" correctly we should be moving closer to the rock later in the day. Expect fresh pictures tomorrow morning (GMT).
Deja vu
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2010-09-21/1N338319541EFFAQ5CP1923L0M1.JPG
The same rock is visible on the http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2010-09-21/1F338324468EFFAQ5CP1211L0M1.JPG, meaning that we are already past it.
Wow... talk about a drive-by shooting!
Guess it wasn't interesting or different enough to warrant a proper look. Fair enough; bigger prizes lay ahead.
Not so fast. Maybe Oppy is trying to get into position for a nice IDD workout. Can't do that approaching it with the rear of the rover. My prediction for the next move: forward with a slight turn to the left.
Hmmm, I don't know... Whateveritis looks a looong way behind Oppy now... would have to be a Dukes of Hazard spin to go back...
I'll have to agree with OWW. The "post-drive" nav/pancams are used to plan the next move and in this case they are pointing right to the rock, whatever it is.
Hey, I won't complain if they do turn back. Although I hide it quite well, I have something of an interest in meteorites...
Getting closer (http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2010-09-21/1N338319124EFFAQ4FP1921R0M1.JPG)
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/20100921a.html
Whateveritis has been given a name: "Oileán Ruaidh" (pronounced ay-lan ruah).
That's great! Following my criteria to include the features on the route map it will be: Oileán Ruaidh ("Whateveritis").
...or 'Craggy Island' for short...
Careful, now...
Has anyone been able to figure out which image the http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20100921a.html corresponds to? The images from sol 2363 have a pretty-much level horizon.
"Red Island"
Phil
Okay, now we need a Gaelic speaker to guide us on pronunciation and Ustrax to tell us where the original island is located. (My guess at the pronunciation would be 'Eylan Rua'.) How do they pick the names? This 'island' looks distincly less red than its surroundings. Are they following an itinerary?
EDIT: Stu, can you pan right a bit? I can't quite see it all.
Yes Stu, your pointing is really off, you can do better.
Sorry guys, I'll try to do better!
I'm having trouble pinning down the precise location of "Red Island", but it's one of several islands off the coast of Donegal, NW Ireland. I'll track it down properly tomorrow. In the meantime, some details about the real island here...
http://www.donegalislands.com/island_roy
http://www.donegaldirect.com/ws_business_details.aspx?BusinessID=1680&Region=Milford&BusinessNm=Island+Roy
I fear Ol' Red isn't going to win the "Miss Meridiani Meteorite 2010" contest...
Here's http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&sll=55.137481,-8.00251&sspn=0.159941,0.528374&ie=UTF8&hnear=&ll=55.189502,-7.795057&spn=0.038708,0.164795&t=h&z=14 (Google, as with many other sources, calls it Island Roy)
Ahhh, thanks Jek; I was paddling around the offshore coast looking for it. Sneaky thing was hiding inland.
If I remember my Gaelic correctly, Oileán Ruaidh should be pronounced like ILL-LAWN ROO-AH. The stroke over the 'a' makes it a long aww sound as in "raw" (same as the name Seán). The 'O' in "Oi' is silent.
Very happy about our newly named feature... I'm going to have a dram...
I wonder if a pedestal will be discovered beneath Oilean Ruaidh, like the one that was observed beneath Block Island.
By the way, while searching for information tonight on meteorites observed by Opportunity, I came across http://www.dtm.ciw.edu/users/nittler/preprints/schroeder2010.pdf about the stony meteorites discovered by Opportunity. It also discusses, to a lesser extent, the irons. A number of questions that were brought up in this forum are discussed in this paper.
Blog post updated with "finder charts" for "Red Island"
http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/09/21/red-island-here-we-come
I don't know the story of the released image. But I infer it was cropped not from the original, but from the drive direction mosaic, based on the seem in the upper right. I infer from the fact that the tilt of the horizon does not match that of the original, that rover tilt was corrected for. I infer from the fact that the horizon is certainly NOT tilted that much that the rover is losing track of its tilt, and would not be surprised to see some lovely Sun images from a fine-attitude check soon. I know that sort of thing has happened in the past, where a panorama on the plains that looks just fine in "rover frame" has an ugly sine-wave when after tilt is "corrected" by an erroneous few degrees. Just some random stab-in-the-dark guesses from my living room couch.
I'm sure the press image comes mainly from this image:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/p/2363/1P337966233EFFAQZHP2407R2M1.JPG
If you look very closely, you can match a few hot pixels between the two.
The press image shows more of the scene towards the right than the original R2 jpeg frame I linked to. You can see that the press image has a splice near the right of the frame. But the odd thing is that there is no image down (yet) to the immediate right of the jpeg I linked to above. However, the corresponding L2 frame:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/p/2363/1P337966233EFFAQZHP2407L2M1.JPG
does extend a bit farther to the right, far enough to include all of the view on the right of the press image.
So what this means is that they must have spliced the corresponding L2 and R2 frames! Normally the different perspective between L and R frames would mean the result would look terrible. But it looks like they've corrected for the perspective shift by distorting (shearing) the original images so they match well. You can easily see this shear by rotating the press image to be level - it still doesn't match up with the R2 frame. Here's a comparison of the rotated press image and the R2 image:
It looks like the press release image fits well within the frame of the raw image. I don't know why the apparent splice on the right side of the press release image is there. The bottom image here shows the press release image placed over the raw image.
You're right that the press image fits within the L2 jpeg frame. But most of the press image (to the left of the splice line) is from the R2 frame. You can see this by matching a few hot pixels, as I wrote. (There's one hot pixel a little over two meteorite-widths directly right of the meteorite in the R2 image. It's in the same position in the press image, but smoothed a bit.)
You can also see it by looking closely at the position of the meteorite against the background. In the animation I posted above, there's no perspective shift between meteorite and background immediately around it as you flip from R2 to press image. If you do the same with L2 and press image, there is a perspective shift.
Well now that just compounds the mystery. Why go to the trouble of splicing two images together, and leaving a distractingly obvious splice, when the whole scene can be gotten directly from one image?
It's probably just a cropped screengrab from autonomous stitching software.
Nothing weird, unusual, strange or troubling about it in any way shape or form whatsoever.
I agree with Doug here. My guess is they always automatically splice L and R frames, adjusting for perspective as I described, just for the reason that you get a bit of a wider field of view in your mosaics (or in single-L/R-pairs like this one). Presumably their code defaults to using R for most of the frame. In this case they cropped from the splice, and maybe the cropper didn't even notice the splice (I didn't notice it at first glance).
Another point is that this press image came out extremely fast. That probably helps explain why they missed the splice line and didn't bother to correct the rotation.
Oileán Ruaidh looks like a high-traffic area!
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2010-09-22/1N338409920EFFAR00P1985R0M1.JPG?sol2368
It looks like we are back for a visit:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2010-09-22/1P338406456ESFAQ7TP2535L2M1.JPG?sol2368
Opportunity seemed to be greatly excited while approaching this new treasure!
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2010-09-22/1N338409993EFFAR00P1985L0M1.JPG
Oh yeah; close relative of "Block Island" for sure.
I look forward for the first "ejecta" rock we'll find on our treck. We basicaly can point out the kind of meteorites we're close, without analysing it anymore so a ejecta rock would look different, I'd said?
We've seen several already - Bounce Rock near Eagle, Russet south of the heatshield, and Marquette Island not long ago. Yes, they are different from meteorites.
Phil
I confess yearnings until we saw the closeups. But ... WOW.
What's the ugly seam-looking thing at lower left?
A quick - and not very carefully controlled - reprojection of Emily's blog panorama:
Looks like it was in the midst of splitting in two.
Anybody have a guess at how big that black couch-shaped rock in the middle distance is? (Actually it's not shaped like a couch at all but it reminds me of "Couch rock" from Pathfinder)
Because Meridiani is so flat and level there's a simple trick you can use to estimate the size of things. The idea is that on level ground, the line-of-sight to the horizon will be camera-height above the ground, no matter what the distance. The navcams are about 154 cm high, so it must be close to 154 cm from the ground under the rock to the horizon, like this:
I finaly understand how you used to set your Men in Black or whaterver you called them.
Very instructive, thanks
Cool, thanks for that helpful explanation. Future blog post for sure!
Alternatively, you could use a figure that is not only popular but revered:
Thanks guys. I save the Climber mystery man to be used when we'll arrive at some "mountains", not for the $£%??!ùù%$$€€ meteroites.
Lot's of closeups now down:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2010-09-23/1P338489726ESFAR00P2537R1M1.JPG?sol2369
And eyeing our next target?
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2010-09-23/1P338491905EFFAR00P2410R1M1.JPG?sol2369
From this angle, it looks like an eroded bronze sculpture of a pigs stomach. Maybe that says more about me than the meteorite.
Doug: EWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
I feel like I should apologise to this meteorite. I called it "ugly" a couple of days ago, but it's actually a beautiful, bizarrely contorted, tortured and torn slab of scientific goodness.
Check this out for very interesting info. on the naming of Oileán Ruaidh.
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php/107932-Oile%C3%A1n-Ruaidh?p=1794454#post1794454
Note also that the opening post in that thread links to an item in the Donegal Islands news -- from March!
http://www.donegalislands.com/newsletterdetail.php?id=27
Can any of the Imaging Experts in here find all the Iron Meteorites Opportunity has found and post them all next to each other?
I would like to see how each one looked compared to the others?
We could rate each one on a scale of 1 to 10???
Bobby, I made this a while ago - it's not to scale, and the images are colourisations of cruddy raws, but you might find it interesting... I'll have to make an updated version now.
Here's an item with a January 2010 dateline and a less than flattering headline on plans to use the Oileán Ruaidh name.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8473116.stm
I am impressed that there is no impression under these meteorites. I would assume that the speeds needed to melt the iron would be such that there would be some type of disruption of the area underneath. I assume that I am missing something. Even if a larger meteor hit elsewhere and produced the smaller meteorites from a secondary explosion, I would think that you would see some evidence of this.
Now it's time for IDD work.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2010-09-24/1F338594494EFFAR28P1254L0M1.JPG
Bobby set me wondering just how all these magnificent meteorites would look alongside each other, so I decided to make a comparison pic. But listen, this is just a bit of fun, ok? I'm not claiming these pics are 1000% accurate, alright?
Yep, absolutely.
What an amazing journey!
What? IDD? Drive, drive, drive, drive!
Oh well, maybe the actuators need a rest once more
I have an interesting Question: If these are Iron Meteorites and they have been on Mars for a very long time.
Why is there no rust on them? I don't know if the air there has enough water to create rust on them?
One possibility I would think is wind erosion that is eroding these meteorites already, would clear any signs of rust (If any). There is a few interesting area's which I have noticed on Heat Shield Rock which I thought looked like rust. But how can one really tell for sure on these meteorites in an environment that has Iron Oxides all around?
Closeup anaglyph (very hard to adjust these closeups properly, so may cause headaches in some):
That is a very beautiful anaglyph - you won't hear any headache complaints from me, Fred.
But in response to Bobby's question, the bottoms of the pits do clearly have a darker color than the rest of the rock surface.
They could be just physical accumulation of larger windblown dust grains, but how to rule out actual rusting?
On Earth a pitted hunk of iron left outdoors would likely begin to rust at the bottoms of the pits.
Is there any chemical difference between "Mars dust" and "Meteoric rust" that would let the IDD differentiate between them?
Even if there were, it would probably require a super-RAT to deliver the instruments to the right spot.
Rather than post them all here, there are some new images up on my blog...
http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/09/26/more-meteorite-goodness
Most interesting meteorite yet, I think...
Do we have an order-of-magnitude figure for how long these meteorites have been sitting around at Meridiani? 10^6 years? 10^8?
Liked your "Fishing Stories" series of rock shots a lot
FredK
That 3D is stunning, it will cost me quite a few aspirins 'cos I like it a lot
Mike
A fantastic drive direction mosaic came down from sols 2369 & 2370. Tracks, ripples, nearby and distant pavement, (possibly) another meteorite and the 'twin peaks' on the north rim of Endeavour. What more could you want?
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php/b2369
Well, James, I'm certainly sated by that view. Thank you!
This and a glass of water, and I'm set! thanks jc
Scott Maxwell's most recent http://twitter.com/marsroverdriver/status/25717984855:
Amazing Picture James
I would go to the next meteorite nearby then off to the rocky area ahead where Opportunities wheels might have to
wiggle around them. I'm also wondering where all those rocks up ahead came from? I don't see a visible crater in
that area where they could have been blown out from? Could they be small meteorites? I also hope we get moving
soon.
Well, not even I can complain about scooting past the next meteorite, not after we've seen something as amazing as this...
I saw the drive-related imaging plan on the pancam website before coming here but thought it was just another move on the circumnavigation. Now, with this fresh info about leaving and "drive-by shooting" I think I know the name of that other meteorite:
02374::p1949::04::2::0::0::2::0::4::Navcam_Ireland_3_bpp_pri_57
Hmmm. Guess they've exhausted the list in the "Big Book Of Where-The-Hell-Is -THAT? Little Island Names" and have moved on to "Everyone Knows Where That Is" islands...
Still holding out for a "Craggy Island"...
Yet the 8 Hawaiian Islands names will not be enough to get to Endeavour
and I agree with Stu, this was the most beautifull one we've seen so far.
Hate to say it, but it looks like discovering meteorites on Mars is about to take its place right alongside discovering water on Mars as a recurrring revelation...check http://news.discovery.com/space/mars-rover-spies-a-possible-meteorite.html from someplace that really should know better.
Nothing really wrong with the headline used. Discovery just picked up the story and title from the http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-309.
A few pics are down from the new drive:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2010-09-28/1F338941787EFFARK6P1205R0M1.JPG?sol2374
No sign of the drive-by pics of the second meteorite yet.
Around 90100m in total.
The drive-by pictures might be on the queue to be downlinked probably even after the "drive-direction" pancams.
I wrote a wrong value. The correct figure is 98m, without accounting for turns in place or slippage.
Fredk was faster than me.
When I saw the picture I said: "contact layers ahead". But still have to double-check the odometry. Stay tuned...
Edit: http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=681&view=findpost&p=164677.
May be right in front of us, but I don't see it in the navcam and pancam pictures just down
The new pancam series runs along the feature. It's easiest to see it in these images - in both frames it's the most prominent area of exposed bedrock running diagonally roughly across the centre of the frame:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2010-09-29/1P339034766EFFARUGP2415R2M1.JPG?sol2375
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2010-09-29/1P339034477EFFARUGP2415R2M1.JPG?sol2375
Here's Ireland.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2010-09-30/1N338936872EFFARBKP1949L0M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2010-09-30/1N338937337EFFARCCP1949L0M1.JPG
Ireland... the one that got away...
Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.
Sure, a little bit of heaven fell from out the skies one day,
And it nestled in the ocean in a spot not far away...
ok... one, two, three...erase
Yep, happy to get any pictures, any time, but obviously not at the expense of reaching Endeavour.
Lots of good info on the last http://www.planetary.org/news/2010/0930_Mars_Exploration_Rover_Update_Spirit_1.html, including details on the problems with the Mossbauer Spectrometer and its expected use on hydrated rocks / clay:
If they really can drive as they say (100+ m/driving sol) we could be @Santa Maria in another 2+ months or, if less agressive, before the Superior Conjunction due to start nearly for Oppy 7th landing anniversary.
I think we are going to see some serious efforts to keep moving. It may have seemed like a bit of fun, but I believe Squyres was serious when he said he wanted MER to identify the phyllosilicates before the arrival of MSL. Anything short of an encounter by Opportunity with a saguaro will likely get a brief glance akin to the stop at Oileán Ruaidh, and then she'll be on her way again.
Interesting comments about driving in the new PS update as well:
As we're all getting excited about Santa Maria, might be time for a quick reminder of how big it is...
http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/06/06/where-are-we-and-where-are-we-going
Yep! Definitively a good place to spend Superior Conjunction
This is a vertical stretch of the horizon from today's pancams. So much detail showing up these days in the distance!
Phil
The "Slot" -- what is it?
Opportunity is now rounding the corner of a large area of low-albedo surface that roughly resembles an elongated rectangle stretching 3-5 km to the NNW, towards Victoria. I've been curious as to how this feature arose and persisted, and to see if there is anything on the ground that the rover passes over that would give a hint.
Has anyone heard any discussion of this?
I've noticed that feature too. My interpretation/guess has been that the lighter, exposed bedrock areas are a bit higher than the dark, dust/ripple covered areas. That's why I'm looking forward to driving another half kilometre or so, till we're towards the east end of the exposed bedrock and then hopefully the view to the east will open up.
Are we actually seeing Santa Maria already?
Here's a 4x vertically stretched anaglyph of the latest view towards east (cropped but the width is about that of the original pancam image). See the dark smudgy feature comprising the leftmost quarter of the frame, just above where the nearest horizon appears to cut across the farther view. Its angular width, about 3 deg, would correspond nicely to a feature of slightly larger than 100 m in diameter, 2.5 km away.
(EDIT later: Ah, seems that my directions are several degrees off to the north, should have known better. It was a tempting candidate.)
That dark streak does look like it could be part of a rim. But by my reckoning that feature is too far to the left.
Yes! But sadly, get it too more to the right of this feature.
From this http://www.planetary.org/image/Route_Map-Sol2377.jpg I get for St.Maria: 2.78km/2° (97m diameter) and a heading of 95 to 97 degrees.
What means for (Sol2377) http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2010-10-01/1P339212038EFFAR%23%23P2417R2M1.JPG :
Parting shot of Ireland is down:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2010-10-02/1N338937787EFFARD4P1949R0M1.JPG?sol2374
The R1 pancams show the near horizon much more clearly than R2, and in the new R1 image there's a bump on the near horizon right where Tman put Santa Maria:
Unusual drive direction for the drive after today's drive : az 36.
I presume that they are going mostly south or south east this sol and then north east the next drive to avoid some old craters.
That is a bit of a surprize. (But 36 degrees is NNE, not SSE.) Directly east looks doable - it was just a few months ago that we were regularly crossing dunes bigger than these.
I blame Tesheiner for posting a random walk on the route map.
Interesting feature about 400 meters to the ENE
Just a meandering river Sure would be nice if there were a color image of this area--the hill or pond area (oval area left of center 1/4 way up from bottom) looks darker and a different texture from the surrounding outcrop.
Hi fredk. In your picture you have. Could that be the far or near rim of Santa Maria? Just kidding. I hope we start seeing The crater soon. What an amazing drive this rover is doing and is there any current pictures up from the last drive?
A bit of news from http://twitter.com/marsroverdriver/status/26381259895 on the RHAZ test:
Right... just after that he tweets that it stopped, but restarted and eventually drove over 90 m that sol.
Phil
Sol 2379 drive direction mosaic:
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php/b2379
James
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