Post Conjunction: Santa Maria to Cape York, The Journey to 'Spirit Point' Options

[Tesheiner]

Opportunity Passes Small Crater and Big Milestone

Nothing really new on this press release except for (yet) another unit of distance.

30km = "12 times the distance racehorses will run next week at the Belmont Stakes"

[centsworth_II]

According to the Google calculator, Opportunity has reached another milestone: 150 furlongs!

[ngunn]

Oo-aarh, that be still half a furlong to go by my reckoning (unless we've moved since the last map update).

[MoreInput]

Just some more drives, and oppy reaches it's first Pico-Parsec: 1 ppc = 30,856 km (if I calculated correctly)
(Distance to Alpha Centauri just a little longer way: 1,3 pc)

[PDP8E]

Moreinput,
Your math is accurate.
The distance to Alpha Centauri AB is 1.338 ± 0.002 pc (that's a lot of pico parts!)

[Tesheiner]

Wow! If I'm reading the data correctly, Opportunity drove almost 4h today for a total of 165m.
Map update will follow.

[Stu]

165m..?!?!?!

Spirit is pushing her on. I knew it.

[Tesheiner]

Check the map. We are heading to (yet) another crater.
Since they are naming them upon exploration vessels/assets I would really like to see one of those being labelled "Spirit Crater".

[Stu]

Oh, please, Please, PLEASE let them name that big crater blasted out of the farside hills of Endeavour after Spirit, that would be just magnificent.

[Hungry4info]

...oppy reaches it's first Pico-Parsec: 1 ppc = 30,856 km (if I calculated correctly)

(emphasis mine)
So, is it that Opportunity has actually travelled a thousandth of a picoparsec?

[ngunn]

Check the map. We are heading to (yet) another crater.

Another impressive drive - that must be 150 furlongs now. This crater is the one I've been thinking could be 'Young Blocky'. Out of idle curiosity it would be nice to know if that's in fact the case. At any rate there should be some great images on the way.

[fredk]

An interesting tidbit in the latest MER update:

on Sol 2603... the rover performed a tank turn test. This is a maneuver where the rover drive one side or set of wheels forward while driving the other set of wheels on the other side in reverse to turn in place like a caterpillar or tank would. It's a way for the rover to turn without using the steering actuators.

While the tank turn test was successful and Opportunity achieved the desired turn in place, the maneuver actually puts more wear on the drive actuators, which are already operating beyond their guaranteed "lifetime" of revolutions, while the steering actuators are actually hundreds of thousands of revolutions under their "lifetime warranties;" thus, it's not likely to be employed soon.

I've wondered whether the new side-to-side "jig" on the blind part of the drives is putting stress on the steering actuators. This answers that - apparently they're in much better shape than the drive actuators.

[Vultur]

(emphasis mine)
So, is it that Opportunity has actually travelled a thousandth of a picoparsec?

No, 1 picoparsec = 30856 m = 30.856 km. But some countries use the comma where many English-speaking countries use a decimal point.

[Tesheiner]

Here's our next waypoint in the route. Image taken on sol 2617.

[Stu]

...and in 3D...