Wopmay Options

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Looks like they are having qute a bit of trouble getting up close to Wopmay

[akuo]

I understood from the last flight director's update that they had trouble driving up the crater... Looking from the last two sols' front hazcam images, they seem to have got "above" Wopmay and are in position to investigate it. I'm not sure if its quite in the reach of the arm yet, but can't be more than few tens of centimetres.

Stop Press: I had just a look at the most recent images, and there is the IDD extending towards Woppy:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...CLP1111L0M1.JPG

[Pando]

They had rover stability concerns when approaching Wopmay from above. So they revised their plan and approached it very slowly from an angle. The slippage was excessive (more than 50%).

Due to the difficult terrain it took them 6 Sols to position the rover properly so they can reach Wopmay safely with the IDD. They reached the final position on Sol 257.

Total odometry after sol 257 is 1630.00 meters.

Looking ahead next few sols:

259: MI Wopmay; place APXS (deep sleep)
260: APXS Wopmay; Navcam/Pancam imaging
261: Continue APXS on Wopmay (deep sleep)
262: Begin drive to Burn's Cliff

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...DLP1214R0M1.JPG

Opportunity is now aimed directly at Burns Cliff


A nice view of Wopmay:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...DLP1992L0M1.JPG

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

The rover seems to be making quite a mess of the soil around Wopmay

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...F5P1311R0M1.JPG

I wonder if it will make it up to Burns Cliff..............

[djellison]

I dont know what the hell makes them think they'll get out the crater to the left of Burnsie. They couldnt even get out of Eagle on the first try for goodness sake.

I've got £5 that says they end up leaving by the same door they came in

Doug

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

This doesn't look like a very safe place to be in. Im wondering if the rover has actually slipped back down slightly and hit Wopmay:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...5P1992L0M1.HTML

[djellison]

I wouldnt want my rover in that particular spot ether - I'd have gone much further clear of it than that

They got v. close to the empty next back in Eagle Crater when traversing from the point-and-shoot routine to the first trenching, but that was only a few degrees, not the 20 or 30 they're using here.

Interpolate from these...





And you can see where the rover is now - very close to the brain



Doug

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Are they trying to get into a better position to observe Wopmay or getting ready to move on?

A few new pictures arrived at the exploratorium site, the forward hazcam ones appear to be old though.

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

WOW looks like the ground is opening up lol...what a mess

[OWW]

Here you can see where the 'mess' is in relation to Wopmay:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P1993L0M1.JPG

Opportunity has indeed slid back down into the crater. I'd say it's time to ditch the brain and move on. Maybe a nice PanCam mosaic of Burns cliff from this position and then back to Karatepe as quickly as possible.

[akuo]

Whoa, this looks scary. Yesterday it looked like they had made up at least couple of metres upwards towards the Burn's cliff. Now they seem to be double that distance further down. Major slippage, I wonder how they managed that. The broken ground underneath the wheels looks bad too.

Sol 262 front hazcam: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...DLP1214L0M1.JPG

Sol 263 front hazcam and navcam towards Woppy:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...F5P1214R0M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...F5P1992L0M1.JPG

Sol 264 (today) navcam showing Woppy:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P1993R0M1.JPG

Sol 255 (9 days ago!) showing the rover further up than now and the cracks visible also in the picture above:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...C3P1990L0M1.JPG

I'm starting to wonder if they actually drove back down on purpose, otherwise it starts to look a bit too hopeful off-road driving.

I agree, time to give up on climbing to Burn's cliff.

antti

[djellison]

Carefull you're not mistaking the day's that images appear at the exploratorium for days of the mission.

They're not the same. The Exploratorium just whacks them online in the order they come down from mars - which ISNT the order in which they're taken - you can decode the file name, or just trust the JPL site and look at images on a sol-by-sol basis there.

Doug

[akuo]

I'm not mistaking the days, I used rawid to decode the dates.

[Pando]

You're quite correct to observe the troubles with Oppy. Here's the latest that will usually take some time to reach us through normal channels:

On the morning of sol 262, Opportunity took a third photometry measurement and a Pancam texture spot of Wopmay, concluding the weekend plan. In the early afternoon, the rover made a final MI of the target Hercules on Wopmay, then backed away as part of a plan to re-approach the backside of Wopmay for possible additional in situ measurements. Navcam imagery of the back of Wopmay was collected in the afternoon, followed by extensive Pancam images the next morning. Unfortunately, due to slippage during the traverse, Opportunity didn't reach its desired vantage point, and the target was not in view.

For sol 263, the decision was made to delete the Pancam imagery without downlinking it, since on board memory was tight and we already have complete coverage of the part of Wopmay captured. The new plan was to continue its drive toward the back of Wopmay, and repeat the imaging observations attempted in the sol 262 plan. But as Opportunity drove toward Wopmay, it encountered a hidden obstacle: a rock buried under the sand that resulted in 100 percent slip for a good part of the traverse. Once the rover was clear of the rock, it continued from a point much closer to Wopmay than anticipated. At the end of the traverse, the rover was uncomfortably close to Wopmay. Rover planners estimate that Opportunity was within 30 cm of Wopmay!

On sol 264 Opportunity backed away from Wopmay. The planned drive was 2.5 meters, the actual drive was 2.57 meters. Opportunity is now in position to begin her drive towards Burns Cliff.

Total odometry after sol 264 is 1638.57 meters.

Looking ahead next few sols:

265: Begin drive towards Burns Cliff
266: Day 1 of 3 sol plan - MI/APXS capture magnets
267: Day 2 of 3 sol plan - MI/APXS capture magnets
268: Day 3 of 3 sol plan - Continue drive to Burns Cliff


So, looks like we're still headed for Burns Cliff, and we narrowly missed the "iceberg"...

Cheers!