MSL "Drive, drive, drive" toward Glenelg, The scientists (mostly) get the keys - sols 38-56 Options

[Phil Stooke]

rough circular pan from sol 52. Nice outcrops!

Phil

[elakdawalla]

Via Twitter: The drive today employed visual odometry.

[udolein]

awesome sunset image on Sol 51. I like it !


Klick for animation

Cheers, Udo

[climber]

It seams that Curiosity is waving at the sun set....

[Reckless]

Hi all

I think there may be something shiny behind Curiosity as there is a bright spot in about the same spot in these left and right navcam images.

Roy

NRA_401937086EDR_F0042956NCAM00435M_
NLA_401937086EDR_F0042956NCAM00435M_

[mhoward]

I think there may be something shiny behind Curiosity as there is a bright spot in about the same spot in these left and right navcam images.

Good catch. That's sol 50. There was an even brighter one back on sol 38.

Bits of some part of MSL's EDL? Either that or the ground is sparkling at us.

[fredk]

Wow, good eye, Roy! A bit of specular reflection.

Edit: here are the direct links to make it easier:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/pr...NCAM00435M_.JPG
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl-raw-images/pr...NCAM00435M_.JPG

How many pixels wide would be useful? Is 3600 enough? 7200?

Double the resolution of your original would be nice, like you used on the closeup. Unless filesize is too large.

[charborob]

Sol 52 navcam pan of outcrop to be examined(?)

[Explorer1]

Yep, those 90 degree angles are gonna ruffle the loons' feathers...

[elakdawalla]

Moved my own and a few other peoples' posts on polar projected images to the Geomorphology thread.

[jmknapp]

So no word yet on any chemcam or apxs measurements of Jake?

[atomoid]

Thanks for continued interest in this. Since well be travelling for quite some time across the fallout area downwind of the entry path and heatshield impact, it wouldn't be too surprising (though perhaps sadly unlikely) to chance encounter more shiny EDL flotsam. though i wonder if anyone has a better idea of how far this type of flotsam (fabrics?) would be expected to travel given the wind, maybe it mostly landed far downwind and what we saw on SOLs 38&50 was skycrane or tether jetsam.

Hopefully the MSL team will take interest to image one and we can rule out speculars off shiny rock faces (or just bright white material standing out against dull dusty backgrounds overloading the sensor and causing a streak in SOL 38). If they were simple rock facet speculars, there should be shiny bits in a lot of images.

Seems fun to compile a compendium of sparkly bits and map them for future causes, so here's a start on a hit list, i hope it continues:

>> SOL 20 Little bright squiggle (thanks Fredk)

>> SOL 38: LEFT - RIGHT

>> SOL 50: LEFT - RIGHT
The Sol 50 one should be caught in that Sol 50 aft M100 panorama.
And here's the sol50 bright speck, viewed with M100: (thanks Fredk) <--hard to match up surroundings, perhaps its a different angle.

>> SOL 51: Add this to the list: MR SOL 51 -- Ronalds post

>> SOL 64 Another bright bit at the bottom of the frame (thanks Fredk)

>> another one, thanks Zelenyikot presumably in Post #401 (post links seem buggy, captured post 401 url instead brings up post 421... hmmm.


>> geez, a big one in the sol 107-109 gigapan lurking in the far left middle frame

[mhoward]

Sol 52 navcam pan of outcrop to be examined(?)

Could be, but seems like they regularly take Navcams off the right side of the rover there.

[charborob]

Could be, but seems like they regularly take Navcams off the right side of the rover there.

I was basing my assumption on this status report.

[elakdawalla]

So no word yet on any chemcam or apxs measurements of Jake?

It wasn't until after the briefing was over and I'd managed to get my couple questions in via Twitter that I realized they said nothing whatever about Jake, and now I'm kicking myself for not asking about it. They've been really circumspect about mineralogy/composition, but that's consistent with the pattern on Phoenix. I remember a couple of months into the Phoenix mission Lou Friedman got irritated with my reporting on operational details (they're trying to get X sample into Y TEGA chamber, etc) but no science; but of course that was a reflection of what they were sharing in press briefings. There is time set aside at the DPS meeting in two weeks (Wednesday Oct 17, in the afternoon) for first MSL results. Hopefully they'll be ready to share some preliminary stuff by then.