MSL Route Map Options

[Phil Stooke]

Thread created for posting MSL route maps and map updates.
Comments / suggestions adding value to the route maps are allowed, but discussions regarding the route itself and "future" paths are not. Use the currently active thread for the latter.

Eduardo Tesheiner
Moderator
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Here's an updated map of activities near the landing site and the start of a map of the route to Glenelg. I may get one more step added to this before I have to take a break Aug. 31 to Sept 16, and I will resume it after that. Details will be revised as necessary as we go.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

I would just like to add - don't necessarily think of this as 'my' thread. I would be delighted to see other visualizations of the route, topo maps and other base maps from anyone else (not representations of future routes, but certainly other ways to visualize what has been done).

And to repeat something i said on the previous thread, I am forced to take a break from this from now until 16 September. I will update on the 17th or as soon as possible after that, and then frequently after that.

Phil

[nprev]

Copy that, Phil!

Course tracing plots from everyone are of course welcome, and all I can say is please follow Eduardo's guidance in the first post of this thread. This is to be our one-stop source for MSL's position on the surface as Eduardo so generously has done for the MERs.

I'll just be the evil robot lurking around...watching...

[elakdawalla]

While I will not be able to reliably update a route map, I'd be interested in contributing by creating carefully scaled photographic base maps on which other members of the community could help by plotting points, and providing a place for those to live on planetary.org. However, I'm not quite sure how to do this in a way that others will be able to use. If I were doing this by myself, I'd make the maps in Adobe Illustrator, but I suspect I'm one of the few people here who uses it or has access to it. I can save Illustrator files as editable PDFs, or as EPS files -- if I did it that way, would others be able to contribute by adding points and segments using whatever software you have access to? I would insist on doing it in some piece of vector graphics software so that the maps could be scaled.

[Pando]

Emily, how about using Google Mars KML? It can be edited as a file and posted here as an attachment, and you could update it periodically in the planetary.org site.

However, I don't know how accurate the current imagery at Google Mars is.

Just a thought.

[Tesheiner]

Emily, how about using Google Mars KML? ... However, I don't know how accurate the current imagery at Google Mars is.

I had to deal with this problem when I took the decision to create the KMLs for Opportunity. I wanted to avoid the need to update each and every position plot on the route overlay in case of an update to the map background e.g. in case a more accurate one was provided -- remember when we were creating the tiles to cover the ground up to Endeavour? --

What I did and still do is to keep all the rover positions registered in (x, y) coordinates to a reference HiRISE image. When creating the KML layer, the process automatically converts those ones to lat / long with the help of some "control points" (e.g. bright patches, little craters) I chose near the route path. If the GE background changes I only need to adjust the lat / long of those control points and re-run the KML generation process. This method was *very* helpful when the maps at Opportunity site were updated by NASA / AMES. Remember the two versions of KML files I kept some time ago?

[elakdawalla]

That makes sense. How did you do that? Is your route map simply a spreadsheet of X,Y locations in pixels that you convert into KML language?

[Tesheiner]

Well, it's more than that.
But, yes, one of the columns is the (x, y) position on a reference map. Those are "automagically" converted to lat / long (another column) and the whole spreadsheet is parsed by a VB macro which creates the KML file.

Just testing...
 Route_Map_Sol22.kml ( 2.32K ) Number of downloads: 3750

[Tesheiner]

Still testing... now with sol 24.
 Route_Map_Sol24.kml ( 2.57K ) Number of downloads: 4350

[Cruzeiro do Sul]

Hy Tesheiner. I used to follow your updates of Opportunity route maps for years now. I find them fascinating and very easy to consult with the "grid" that allow us to compare the distances between each drive, much more than Google Mars KLM's. Forgive me to be unaware on this, but what you need to do such maps for the Curiosity journey?

[Doc]

Still testing... now with sol 24.
 Route_Map_Sol24.kml ( 2.57K ) Number of downloads: 4350

Looks good for a test Tesheiner.

[Tesheiner]

Hy Tesheiner. I used to follow your updates of Opportunity route maps for years now. I find them fascinating and very easy to consult with the "grid" that allow us to compare the distances between each drive, much more than Google Mars KLM's. Forgive me to be unaware on this, but what you need to do such maps for the Curiosity journey?

A good image of the terrain (this may be a good one) and spare time to setup the photoshop like environment.
Patience, my little grasshopper.

[Cruzeiro do Sul]

Ok, thanks! I wonder if you would need some autorisation from JPL or something like this to uses some maps that they made. Insteed, I understand that you do all this stuff all by yourself Congratulations, it's a great job...which need TIME. Maybe you can take some holidays on Mars for to have some extra 38 minutes each day to do so.

[Tesheiner]

I was a little bit lost after the two latest drives (sols 26 and 29) but this post pointing to the HiRISE picture taken of the rover tracks just made my day.
Here's an updated route map for Google Earth.

 Route_Map_Sol29.kml ( 2.96K ) Number of downloads: 3941

[Doc]

I was a little bit lost after the two latest drives (sols 26 and 29)

Glad to hear I was not alone