Where There's A Will, There's A Way, But..., Getting to Victoria Options

[nasaman58]

I'm thrilled that Oppy's out of the dune, and I'll admit that I have not scoured and computer processed the raw pictures like good forum members should, but I think I still raise a good question: Do any of you have any ideas as to how on Earth (or Mars, rather) Oppy will be able to get to Erebus or Victoria given that it looks like the terrain leading up to these astrogeological treasure troves is the same as what got Oppy stuck in the first place? Does it sound viable to drive around the culprit dune staying in the valleys inbetween to get there? It seems this would be a majorly long and inefficeint switch-back driving method, but honestly, is there any other foreseeable way?

[sapodilla]

Cruising in valleys between the dunes is my recipe till Oppy get to safer ground. And I think that from Erebus forward to south the white areas are exposed bedrock where it is safe to drive even using blind drive.

[dvandorn]

As I understand it, the rovers can be programmed to do auto-nav sequences in which the height of obstacles to be avoided is a variable. In other words, until we get out of potentially dangerous drift territory, Oppy's autonav could (conceivably) be set to avoid any object higher than, say, 20cm above its current position. That would naturally lead it to follow interdunal areas.

It would be slow, but steady (10 to 20 m per day, maybe) but it would get us out of this landform, where we can drive faster again...

-the other Doug

[Mode5]

I expect to see some very slow and cautious manuevering.

Quoting the MSNBC story :
The "highway" could be a stretch of exposed bedrock, leading toward Erebus Crater — which would be a very good thing for Squyres and his colleagues. Or it could be a huge pile of Martian dust.

[djellison]

MRO imagery cant arrive fast enough eh? The problem is that whilst MGS MOC imagery is good, amazing even with CPROTO, it's still not quite good enough to navigate with on the scale of MER.

Doug

[wyogold]

MRO imagery cant arrive fast enough eh? The problem is that whilst MGS MOC imagery is good, amazing even with CPROTO, it's still not quite good enough to navigate with on the scale of MER.

Doug

Plus even at great resolution you can't know for sure what things look like till you get there. Top down view is deceptive.

scott

[edstrick]

One of the things used to "aize" the resolution and camera size on Recon Orbiter is the ability to see details at a rover's size well enough to use them for navigation and site geological investigation. Even the best CPROTO stuff from Global Surveyor just poo's out as we approach the level of detail we need.

[RNeuhaus]

According to the picture which shows the right line from Oppy present position to Erebus, has intricates formations of dunes. It is like a maze of lines. (1)

1) http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...ype=post&id=635

The wind pattern is from East to West. The east side, has firmer sand (less loose sand) and the west side is where sand falls from the windblown. Hence, it is safer to climb from East to West than from West to East.

2) http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...ype=post&id=639

The best way is to navigate between valleys and not on crest. If the Oppy has to cross a crest and the pending slope must be low (10 degree or depends on the compact of land "evaporite with blueberries" or "loose sand").

According to the picture, the best way is to avoid to cross a "sea of dunes" since it is very complicated to drive by remote control. The zone which has flatter lane is on the western side of the picture 2). So Oppy must travel a little toward western lands until get a flatter land before heading to south where is Ebrerus' outcrops.

Rodolfo

[helvick]

So Oppy must travel a little toward western lands until get a flatter land before heading to south where is Ebrerus' outcrops.

Rodolfo

Yep - Follow the Blueberry Road. Well,the greyish road that might be blue in the right light. Oh alright, flat looking bit that I've decided might be a road.

OK flatish.

Aw heck - any Rover drivers lurking who can put me out of my misery?

[Tesheiner]

Follow the "Blueberry Road" (SW) or "Erebus Highway" (SSE)...
It is difficult to make a decision just based on an image taken by MGS.

I remember someone posted a 360º panorama in which Voyager crater was still visible (and it was a navcam pano). In such a case, it would be possible to resolve - if not on this same pano, on a similar one made with pancam images - the features that makes "Erebus Highway" and also guess about how the dunes develop on the way ahead (getting bigger or smaller) either SW or SSE.

I've tried to find such pancam 360º-panorama but no luck.

Tesheiner

[djellison]

Thing is - Erebus and Erebus highway are probably a little bit lower than where we are now

Doug

[Tesheiner]

In such a case, we should be near the "Hell of a view" point, right?

See: http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...findpost&p=7727

[Phil Stooke]

This is the 360 pan:

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...ype=post&id=529

but more useful is this previous post:

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...ype=post&id=470

The second is a sol 437 pancam image of the southern horizon, and the lower version shows it with 10 times vertical exaggeration. Erebus is a group of light and dark spots. The 'highway' just shows up as a group of white spots at left. From this distance there is no useful detail to help plan a drive.

Phil

[Tesheiner]

Thanks Phil.

Looking to those images it is still not possible to determine if "Erebus Highway" is basically sand or bright rock.

Besides this point, I have to correct myself when previously said that "we should be near the 'hell of a view' point".

This is a bit OT, but I just combined the vertical profile posted here with one of the MGS images included in the original report (link), and this is the result.

[attachment=658:attachment]

That point is located more or less mid-way between Erebus and Victoria.

Tesheiner

[Bill Harris]

So at present we appear to be near the contact between units C and D on the Vertical Profile map?

--Bill