Getting Unstuck in West Valley Options

[SFJCody]

If it's possible that the mechanical properties of the soil vary significantly with temperature then maybe Spirit could try a few wheel revs in the cold martian night.

[Burmese]

Spirit's power actuals from sol 1911: 707 Watt-hours

In some ways, being stuck while her power increases is even more frustrating...

[marsophile]

Also love the idea of effectively getting a higher f-stop from shooting behind a strut, or something.

It appears that the dust cover on the MI has a stepper motor:

http://www.esmats.eu/esmatspapers/pastpape...3/dougherty.pdf

If it is possible to partially close the dust cover, this may be another way to achieve a higher f-stop. Admittedly the dust cover is partially transparent, but the difference in light intensity may be enough to sharpen the image.

[BrianL]

In some ways, being stuck while her power increases is even more frustrating...

Will this wind... be so mighty... as to lift Spirit out of the... diiiirt?

[RoverDriver]

...
If it is possible to partially close the dust cover, this may be another way to achieve a higher f-stop.

I will inquire about it. Yes we can command the dust cover to move only partially.

Admittedly the dust cover is partially transparent
...

After 1900+ sols, we can all assume that the dust cover is completely opaque ;-)

Paolo

[dot.dk]

Movement tosol?

CODE

01913 p1214.05 0   0   0   0   0   0    front_hazcam_ultimate_4_bpp
01913 p1254.00 0   0   0   0   0   0    front_hazcam_fault_pri15_4bpp
01913 p1314.00 0   0   0   0   0   0    rear_haz_ultimate_4bpp_pri15
01913 p1354.01 0   0   0   0   0   0    rear_haz_fault_pri15_4bpp
01913 p1809.04 0   0   0   0   0   0    navcam_1x1_visodom_LOCO_pri_15
01913 p1840.01 0   0   0   0   0   0    navcam_10x1_az_252_bin27_29_1_bpp
01913 p2601.03 0   0   0   0   0   0    pancam_tau_L78R48
      Total    4   0   0   0   0   4

[Pertinax]

If it is possible to partially close the dust cover, this may be another way to achieve a higher f-stop.

To keep my Galaxy Quest theme going -- "Digitize me Fred! Digitize me!"

I have to give it you you, I thought over the rover body and could think of nothing that would work where it would be useful, but the dust cover never crossed my mind -- to be honest I had forgotten about it.

Great thinking -- even if it can't be done, it was a good thought.


-- Pertinax

[RoverDriver]

Over in one of the Opportunity threads there was a question on the status of the Sandbox testing. Unfortunately there is no testing going on yet. One of the disk arrays on a server that is used by the testbed has died. Restoration of the server is in progress, but I do not have an ETA yet.

One things MER has taught me is patience. I think I have to go back to my notebook and read that page again. Somehow in my head the words "grass" and "grow" get intermingled with "paint" and "dry". =:-O

Paolo

[nprev]

Paolo, I advise you to begin drinking heavily. (Of course, that's my advice for everybody...)

A server crash at this time, huh? The perversity of the Universe never ceases to amaze. You're right, though: patience is the only answer.

[Astro0]

Patience - thy name is technological meltdown

[ElkGroveDan]

If you can't use the sandbox at work Paolo, there are plenty of parks nearby. Just remember to be careful to check for sand piles where cats may have visited the night before.

[RoverDriver]

If you can't use the sandbox at work Paolo, there are plenty of parks nearby. Just remember to be careful to check for sand piles where cats may have visited the night before.

Oh, the sandbox is ready. It has been ready for a couple of days now. It is the testbed that is not operational.

Paolo

[BrianL]

And here I thought those were two interchangeable terms for the same thing.

[Deimos]

If it is possible to partially close the dust cover, this may be another way to achieve a higher f-stop.

Hmm, you have a ~1 mm aperture stop, and are trying to stop it down from about 20 mm in front of it (14 mm inside the camera, and maybe 6 to 12 between the window and the partially closed cover edge--which pivots out from the window). That sounds like a recipe for vignetting, rather than sharpening.

[marsophile]

I am not an expert on optics, but it seems to me that blocking part of the visual field will mean that there are fewer light rays that are convolved with the remaining part of the field in an out-of-focus image, which might sharpen the resulting image. [Just realized: the rays that are convolved are mostly from nearby features so blocking won't really help.]