The drive back to Duck Bay Options

[fredk]

Tosol (1162) Oppy appears to have begun the drive back to Duck Bay with a nice long drive that has taken us to just past the 1134-1137 leg, if I'm right:

As I wrote already in another thread, the current plans are to make one stop en route back to Duck Bay to reimage Cape St. Vincent from Cape of Good Hope. Near the end of the return to Duck Bay they plan more imaging of Cape St. Mary/Beacon from Verde.

Are there places along the route you'd like to see again? Views from new angles? Better views of/from the Beacon would be one of my picks. That is our best bet to catch a glimpse of Endurance, too. Of course many of these ideas won't have any scientific interest, but it's still fun to imagine.

Dare I ask it: predictions for date of arrival at Duck Bay?

Edit: Alan reminds me we've already got an entry pool thread.

[mhoward]

According to the tracking data, it was a 65.9 meter drive at about -62 azimuth (west-northwest). So it sure looks like the trip back to Duck Bay has begun.

[fredk]

Another long drive on sol 1163. We're back at the western side of VwP, just outside the 1108-1111 drive leg. This is a familiar view looking across VwP. Notice how the wind has blown light dust out of the old rover tracks; again the wind is blowing towards the rim:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...XUP0705R0M1.JPG

[Tesheiner]

Perhaps this might be the windiest place of the whole mission.
And about the same images from sol 1163, but now the pancams, it looks like this planned imaging session of CSV will be made from the rim right south from the current position.

[ddeerrff]

Perhaps this might be the windiest place of the whole mission.

I'm surprised I haven't seen anything posted here (or perhaps I missed it) about the 'cleaning event'
http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/mission/status.html#opportunity

[fredk]

From the route map thread:

Seeing the distance covered in the last few sols, I wonder, what is the longest single drive accomplished by Opportunity? Will its new hazard-avoidance software allow it to reach new lengths?

The distance to the next planned stop (Verde) after the current imaging location is a bit over 500 metres. It sure would be cool to see what they could do on this ideal driving surface of Victoria's apron. With 200-metre-plus drives, could we make it back to Verde in two or three sols?!

In reality we know they have trouble driving on these essentially featureless plains, and have to do a "drunken sailor walk" or whatever. I suppose that would limit the maximum drive lengths.

[MarsIsImportant]

I still like my Sol 1219 prediction for ingress. The MER team is going to want to study some of the changes made by the wind in the tracks. They will stop to do another in depth study of the beacon area. They might want to slow down to get better images of Cabo Frio. Another complete pan of the Duck Bay area will be necessary before entering. They will note any changes...as there now appears to be minor changes in small dust accumulations over fairly short periods of time (as evidenced from the changes in the tracks). I noticed some changes between the HiRise image and the Opportunity close ups at Valley Without Peril (very minor).

[CosmicRocker]

fredk: Returning to your original questions, one place along the route I would like to see again from new viewing angles would be the lump, as well as any of the rimmed ejecta blocks we might encounter along the way.

I'm surprised I haven't seen anything posted here (or perhaps I missed it) about the 'cleaning event'

I'm surprised you missed it, too.

[mhoward]

76m drive on Sol 1163, according to the tracking data.



Images for 1164 are down, but I haven't seen the data yet. Looks like a shorter drive toward the edge.

[mhoward]

Here's a view of where Opportunity is on sol 1164, according to the tracking data

[fredk]

Sol 1163 navcam. If you didn't know better you might think Oppy has been madly zipping around, then careening out of control near the end.

[mhoward]

Heh. It was taken on sol 1163 but it's actually at the sol 1162 location.

[ronatu]

Does anyone knows why Opps is turned back?

[mhoward]

Do you mean why are they retracing their steps? Apparantly they feel they have gathered enough data travelling around the rim, and they've determined that Duck Bay is the best place to enter Victoria Crater. Duck Bay is where we arrived at Victoria Crater, all that time ago.

[ronatu]

Do you mean why are they retracing their steps? Apparantly they feel they have gathered enough data travelling around the rim, and they've determined that Duck Bay is the best place to enter Victoria Crater. Duck Bay is where we arrived at Victoria Crater, all that time ago.

Educated guess?

Circle around Victoria was far from complete to jump to conclusion...