Opportunity Route Map Options

[marswiggle]

It does interest me indeed. (Some thinkers think it quite wisely, 'don't look back'. But that's not so wise a seafaring principle.)
-The link below gives the looks of the backshell & parachute from Eagle, 440 m away. (Of course a combination of filters.) I would be absolutely astonished if we could not see a trace of them on that flatness anymore now, from only six times that distance, ~2600 m. (If advice is needed: think it one sixth of that size, even in medium res.)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mer/images.cfm?id=1235

For my part, I see this case settled as for the facts, and we can turn forwards again, for a while.

[djellison]

We cant see the heatshield anymore - why should we be able to see the backshell?

Doug

[lyford]

Is it possible that Oppy has detected its backshell and parachute in the distance? These are from the latest posting of pancam images. The direction is about right, NNW. A dark dot beside a whitish one near the horizon, and they are similar both in L and R images. They sit neatly into the scenery when looked in 3d.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P2291L1M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P2291R2M1.JPG

Well, the parallax looks way off to me for something that's supposed to be 2.5 kilometers away....

[djellison]

It isnt the backshell. It's the wrong colour, the wrong size, and the wrong distance.

Doug

[alan]

We cant see the heatshield anymore - why should we be able to see the backshell?

Doug

The image is from sol 409.
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P2291R2M1.JPG
The heatshield was still visible then
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P2291R2M1.JPG

[marswiggle]

Well, kind od edit - I meant the case is 'settled' for the facts part, i.e. all the facts presented in the forum. Anyone can form an opinion. The truth about the dot's nature inevitably stays unsettled based on that knowledge. I don't know. Only made the observation and presented some facts in my reach. Can't still see it otherwise - perhaps someday with more wisdom?

EDIT after Alan's post - Thanks for that pancam image with *shiny* heatshield and Endurance. I couldn't find it, and therefore I was myself getting unsure. I originally estimated the angle from End to backshell based on a guess of End's location. My guess was just right. The angle should be a little less than 2 pancam frames wide, or somewhere between 20 and 25 degrees west from End. As measured from a map showing Oppy's location around sol 410 (as I thought), the angle between End and backshell is about 22 degrees. (This only as a reference to facts, not to the truth. )

[marswiggle]

Some corrections to what I mentioned above:
My original angle estimate was from N (not End) to backshell. The images being sol 409, a new measuring reduces the then distance to bs to somewhere btw 2100-2200m, (ie only 5x that from Eagle), and the map-measured angle fits yet better to that from pancam frames. The parallax should also be more convincing now.
These inaccuracies may have added to some confusion.

[avkillick]

Does anyone know when Oppy will reach Erebus? How long will it take to reach Erebus from Voyager?
Does the etched terrain start before Erebus?

[Pando]

Updated Opportunity Route Map:

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[dvandorn]

Does anyone know when Oppy will reach Erebus? How long will it take to reach Erebus from Voyager?
Does the etched terrain start before Erebus?

There are a couple of different landforms, here. There is what I think of as the true etched terrain, which has ridges of what look like evaporite outcrop surrounded by duneform-controlled patterns of dark and light sand. What lies directly between Oppy right now and its target at Erebus doesn't seem to have any actual outcrop (at least not any more than you would see out on the flat plains) -- it's just got what looks like duneforms of lighter sand overlying the dark, concretion-derived sand layer. As we get closer to Erebus and the ancient crater cluster to its south, some of the duning looks a *lot* lighter.

It's going to be very interesting to take a close look at the lighter sand in those dunes as we head south to Erebus. I would have to think there will be some significant differences in minerology between this lighter sand and the soils we've seen thus far.

-the other Doug

[gregp1962]

What's happening now? Are we on the move towards Erebus?

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Judging from the latest hazcam image, it looks like they might be positioning the rover for some IDD work.

......also, looking at Pando's updated route map, Opportunity must be very close to the 5km mark now.

[Phil Stooke]

There has been a lot of dispute about where Opportunity is, though to me it's clear it is beside Voyager crater. However, I thought this approach might help to clear things up. You can take a 360 pan in Photoshop and use Filter-Distort-Polar Coordinates to make a 'donut' presentation of it. I have one here from sol 418 near "mini Fram". The pan was from an earlier post, I forgot to record which, I'm sorry.

Polar coordinates takes a bit of getting used to. The image must be square, so the long pan is made square with 'image size' . Top goes to the center so it has to be rotated 180 degrees. To get a more map-like perspective I also stretch it by at least a factor of ten vertically, then progressively shrink the foreground in a series of transform-scale operations. Complicated, but excellent results. If you look at this you can see Viking and Voyager as low rock piles at the expected azimuths near the bottom. Everything lies at the expected azimuth, which is why this is really useful for localization. Search for my name on the Lunar Photo of the Day to see an Apollo 14 pan done this way!

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

Just adding to my reprojected pan post... that image matches in every detail the map posted by Pando at:

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...ype=post&id=431

but it does NOT match the other interpretation which suggests that 'Mini Fram ' was the location on sol 421, and that today Opportunity is at Viking.

Phil

[Pando]

Awesome projection, Phil. Thank you. Can you do the same projection for the navcam images next to Viking as well?

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...cam/2005-03-31/

Looks like we're ready to spring south toward a small crater named.... uh... (think Gilligans )

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...GYP1214L0M1.JPG