Sol 22 and after, Digging in Wonderland Options

[MahFL]

The surface is definitely not as flat as everyone seems to think it would have been, which is nice really.....

Also I forgot how flat Miridiani is !! flat flat flat.........

[fredk]

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

They are interesting, but I'd be more intrigued if the light patches had a different hue from the rest of the soil, and the hues look similar to me...

[ugordan]

Sol 29 color:


From what I can tell, there is zero change in the righmost trench with that grayish stuff.

[imipak]

The surface is definitely not as flat as everyone seems to think..

*cough* Not quite everyone... I wouldn't mention it if it weren't so rare for me to be right about something

Edit - both Stu's anaglyphs and the official SSI animation of the workspace show lots of vertical relief on the 10s of cm scale.

[dvandorn]

So... when are we going to start seeing some *deep* trenching?

I'd think that we'd need to first remove the upper regolith from a reasonably large patch and then start working on digging directly into the ice substrate. If we ever want to get ice samples into TEGA and WCL, we'll need to be working directly in the ice layer, I would think.

So far, I've not seen anything deeper than down to the very top of the ice layer -- we hit it and then we go off to the side. I grant you, it may not be easy to dig through the ice layer, but from the looks of things (and someone correct me if I'm wrong), it doesn't look like we have yet even tried.

-the other Doug

[elakdawalla]

This question's been asked in press briefings. There's no intention to dig deeply into ice -- the deep digging discussed in the mission planning was to get to the ice, not into it. Digging now will be to expose the ice table, examine its contours, see what happens as it goes toward the polygon boundaries. They'll rasp into it to get samples but my understanding is that they don't plan to try to get deeply into its interior -- if I understand correctly, they won't get more than a few millimeters into it.

--Emily

[ngunn]

They seem to be confident of being able to get some ice into the most accessible TEGA ovens - the end ones - before it sublimes away. That's an admirable goal but I think achieving it may not be at all straightforward. I say go for it and good luck!

What about the chances of delivering ice to the other instruments - any thoughts?

[jmjawors]

TEGA is really the main instrument for ice. Ice in the WCL, for instance, wouldn't tell them much at all since it's just adding water to water. They'd definitely have to work fast to catch some in the microscope, but it'd be worth a try IMO.

[ahecht]

Apparently the RAC has a macro mode:

[djellison]

Apparently the RAC has a macro mode:

That's sort of the point of it - adjustable focus to fully image the contents of the scoop.

Doug

[01101001]

What is this nicely machined part, the cylinder lower right, imaged about a dozen times on Sol 30?



Just noticed there must be at least two of them pictured, for they were taken by the SSI, azimuth 305 and 167.

[Airbag]

A sol 29/31 comparison (using ugordan's sol 29 image shown above as a reference)



Possible light layer seen in the far "wall"; the dark layers may be some shadow effects (low Sun angle) from a couple of rough ledges. Also some more shallow excavations and/or and impression of the scoop - see the "vertical" lines pattern. The "normal" pattern appears to be the "washboard road" horizontal ridges produced by the scoop "chattering" (?) over the harder underlying surface (or maybe showing the resolution of the steps in scoop's control?).

No more white layers, and some new dark splodges that seem to bear no obvious relationship to either the light or dark ones from sol 29, but maybe associated with the sol 29 white layer?

Airbag

[James Sorenson]

This is only speculation right now, but since in wonderland we dont see the bright material that we see in the dodo-goldilocks trench and the arm struck a solid surface in the wonderland trench, could we be seeing a higher ratio of soil to ice in wonderland?. Could that explain those dark sploches?.

[hortonheardawho]

sol 8 - 31 comparison of lander leg:



Yikes!

Full frame comparison here.

[James Sorenson]

WOW! that is interesting indeed . Any possibility's that the legs were covered by dust on landing, and wind is slowly blowing it off?. looks like ice to me.