Sol 22 and after, Digging in Wonderland Options

[n1ckdrake]

Updated Peter Pan

[Bill Harris]

Also see this image:
http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/data/pho...5_131D0MBM1.jpg

What is thi site? I tried to get down to the root directory at "http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/" and got a "forbidden" error window. I've not heard of this site.

--Bill

[ugordan]

That's Planetary Society's server. The image was nicked from Emily's blog.

[jamescanvin]

Well not exactly nicked.

It is where the full images are hosted for Emily's raw image site.

[ugordan]

Oh, I didn't mean nicked in a negative way. Yes, it's not off her blog directly, but her raw page. Mea culpa!

[fredk]

High-reolution view of the heatshield impact (near the upper left):
http://www.met.tamu.edu/mars/i/SS028EFF898...8_11E1EL1M1.jpg
Has it collapsed completely?

[djellison]

It's probably just behind local topography, like the 'chute.

Doug

[fredk]

I estimate the heatshield is about 150 metres away, from the hirise images. The top of Oppy's heatshield was at roughly 1 metre above the ground. At 150 metres, a 1 metre tall object would span nearly 30 pixels in a full frame SSI image:

So either the heatshield has flattened dramatically, or there is some pretty dramatic topography out there (metre-scale, rather than the roughly 10cm scale we have nearby, I believe), or some combination of both of course. On the other hand, it wouldn't be surprizing if the heatshield slid/rolled into a local low point/trough after impact.

Just as a reminder, here's an image of Oppy's heatshield from a comparable distance:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P2356L7M1.JPG
Of course, that was on the almost-atomically-flat tarmac!

[BrianL]

Obviously, some homeless Martian has made off with it for a shelter. I mean, what other explanation is there?

Brian

[jbytów]

.

[SickNick]

Obviously, some homeless Martian has made off with it for a shelter. I mean, what other explanation is there?

Brian

Well, you could get imaginative and suggest that the hot heatshield melted down into the ice like the "China Syndrome" and that it's currently conducting an independent exploration of the secret subterranean seas of Barsoom

[marswiggle]

There's a noticeable ridge/height (in relative terms) in the landscape about at the distance of the heatshield, and well before the backshell, judging from these 3-d (x-eyed) crops. Look particularly the backshell, a metre-scale drop of the ground seems quite plausible.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Astro0]

Shhh. I know where it's gone!
It's fallen into.......wait for it............an "abyss" !

Sorry, couldn't help it!
Astro0

[Stu]

If you look at the foreground in this 3D image I posted a while ago, I think it's pretty clear there are some serious dips and drops around Phoenix...



... and I'm still intrigued by that bright "patch" in the foreground, which no-one commented on when I pointed it out the first time...

Edit: if you find that pic a bit dark, try this one...

[djellison]

Oppy's heatshield..

...did something really unusual and belly-flopped it's way to making a little inside-out structure. That didn't happen for Spirit, which just broke into a few pieces and sat flat on the ground. The heatshields are not 1m tall.

Doug