First pictures, when and where? Options

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Viking 2: http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2006/09/03/
Viking 1: http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2006/07/20/
MPL NOT found: http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/10/17/ (I wonder if this target will be imaged again?

Pathfinder/Viking 1 http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/09/

possible Beagle 2 crash site: http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/08/31/

[tuvas]

What with MOC can be infered, with HiRISE can be verified. Most of the MOC team is convinced that these are pictures of the landers, but not everyone else. The space.com article states

Other views

Zurek said that scientists also hope to snag some early views of the Viking Lander 2 site. That NASA spacecraft successfully set down in Mars’ Utopia Planitia in early September of 1976. Doing so will help calibrate interpretations of higher latitude data being collected for the Phoenix lander mission, he said.

“We also hope to get back for a second view of Victoria Crater to pair with the one just taken in order to produce a stereo image before lighting conditions change too much,” Zurek said. NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover has wheeled itself into position to begin studies of that large feature. The space agency’s other doing-just-fine Mars rover, Spirit, is also a likely target - but one that is not as urgent as some of the other MRO targets on the “to do” list, he observed.

With this it could be infered that a picture will be taken of the Viking Lander 2 site fairly soon. Also, another view of Victoria Crater will likely be a quick target for stereo vision. Spirit isn't as high of a priority, but will likely have it's picture taken soon.

So, these are the plans for taking pictures of rovers on Mars.

Let me add that if there's a 1 degree uncertainty window, well, it'd take a long time. There was a comment made that we "only" had 6 signifigant digites on our longitude, that was about 120 pixels of HiRISE resolution, so the change in the software was made to something higher.

[helvick]

By my calculations an item whose location was known only to within 1deg or so of certainty would need at least 40 20kx40k HiRISE shots to cover and in all probability you'd want to cover a bit more than that. Personally I think we'd be better off taking pictures of potentially interesting parts of the planet itself.

[nprev]

Come back in 3 months and repeat that. I double dog dare you!

A double-dog dare, you say? How can I resist that?

Believe me, I won't be disappointed by MRO in any particular. All I meant is that I'd really like to look at the landing sites of the lost probes. Doug's explanation of the downlink bandwidth limitations helped me understand why this isn't feasible during the primary mission. Hopefully, it'll be a strong candidate objective for any extended mission...

[MarkL]

A double-dog dare, you say? How can I resist that?

All I meant is that I'd really like to look at the landing sites of the lost probes.

All I meant was that however disappointed you may be, I'm sure it'll be more than made up for!

[nprev]

I have no doubt that you're right, Mark.

This imagery is beyond astonishing. Freewheeling here, I predict that we'll see fossil hot springs, ancient mudflats/clay deposits, and just maybe catch one of those enigmatic gullies in the act of formation... ...guess that all has to beat a wrecked lander or two anytime!