Going To Mogollon..., ...and points South Options

[Marz]

Victoria is apparently somewhere between 2500 and 3000m away depending on the route taken.
.... To achieve that she would have to start soon and initially average around 50-60m per Sol. By the time she reaches Victoria she would be driving for about 18m per Sol.

Yikes! 50m/Sol is pretty aggressive around Erebus. Maybe if the dunes flatten out a bit. The manuevering up to Erebus was pretty darn slow, with few drives being more than 20m.

Well, as Daffy Duck would sing, "you never know where you're goin' till ya get there!"

[Marslauncher]

So didnt I read that we should have had a drive? hope the pictures come down soon!

I am itching to see new pictures!

John Cooke

[Shaka]

So didnt I read that we should have had a drive? hope the pictures come down soon!

I am itching to see new pictures!

John Cooke

There's an epidemic of that kind of pruritis, John. But the drive was aborted due to continuing arm stalls.

Sol 734: The plan for this sol was to stow the arm, drive about 36 meters (118 feet) to an area known as "Zane Grey," and unstow the arm. The arm stalled just before it reached the ready position (before stowing), and the drive did not occur.

Latest JPL update. Can anybody calculate where this Zane Grey is, 36m from our present position? Is it the black rubble pile or is it the rim proper?

[bergadder]

--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Toma B @ Feb 16 2006, 07:59 PM) </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->
Opportunity will never reach Victoria Crater at this pace...PLEASE make up your mind and start DRIVING!!!

I can understand the frustration. I'd love to see the place as well: the possibility to reach it is there, and this will diminish every day that long drives south are postponed and mechanics and electronics are aging.

But (and it's said before often): This mission is not about pretty pictures, it's about science.

We also need to remember that there is another Science that must be covered, and that is the science of protecting the JPL budget from manned spaceflight. At this time when money is been diverted away from science, its time of a show for the public, senate and any oversite group on that budget. And I think a great show would be Victoria Crater. Risk/reward tough call...

[Marslauncher]

I fully support science days and investigation, I am just as eager as every one else to move on however , is there any consensus as to a work around for the arm stalls?

Thanks

John Cooke

[jamescanvin]

...the drive was aborted due to continuing arm stalls.

Latest JPL update. Can anybody calculate where this Zane Grey is, 36m from our present position? Is it the black rubble pile or is it the rim proper?

The update also says

Sol 735 (Feb. 16, 2006): The plan for this sol includes remote sensing and a short diagnostic activity for the arm.

Lets hope nothing more has gone wrong!

And just when we thought we were leaving...

James

[tacitus]

Are they still trying to stow the arm completely or in the new "safer" position above the solar panels for this longer drive?

[Tesheiner]

There's an epidemic of that kind of pruritis, John. But the drive was aborted due to continuing arm stalls.

Latest JPL update. Can anybody calculate where this Zane Grey is, 36m from our present position? Is it the black rubble pile or is it the rim proper?

Zane Grey can't be the rim 'cause it's about 90m+ away.
Imo, it's one of those two outcrops at the first leg on this old route proposal. The current pancam view is basically the same; Oppy has barely moved around the point she was on the end of november.


Original post: http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...indpost&p=28324

[Tesheiner]

Are they still trying to stow the arm completely or in the new "safer" position above the solar panels for this longer drive?

The former.

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

The tech probs are really stacking up...Im begining to think that Opportunity will spend her last days around Erebus.

[djellison]

The tech probs are really stacking up...Im begining to think that Opportunity will spend her last days around Erebus.

Mobility wise, Opportunity is in fairly good health. Once they get that arm stowed, we'll be under way I'm sure.

Doug

[Bill Harris]

Imo, it's one of those two outcrops at the first leg on this old route proposal...

I would agree with your placement of the Zane Grey outcrop. I might suspect that it is the lefthand outcrop-- look at the 3x vert exagg I posted yesterday and the left route looks less sandy.

This puts us a couple of Sols from that "Nirvana outcrop"...

--Bill

[Tesheiner]

This puts us a couple of Sols from that "Nirvana outcrop"...

This puts us a couple of driving Sols from that "Nirvana outcrop"...

Let's hope tosol's troubleshooting is ok and we have Oppy on the move for sol 736... just hope; I won't make any bet.

[Bill Harris]

"We'll get there eventually..."

<sigh>

--Bill

[Bill Harris]

I picked up a "proper" L2 Pancam today at the JPL site which shows better detail than the R1 we looked at yesterday. Slightly tweaked and sharpened, I'm sharing cropped views of the exposure at Mogollon with no vertical exaggeration and with 3x vertical exaggeration.

--Bill