Pathfinder site, for comparison with HIRISE Options

[Phil Stooke]

Presumably we will see a HIRISE image of the Pathfinder site at some point, so I am posting a polar view of the site here for comparison. I started with the Presidential Panorama. There was a slight mis-match between the ends of the pan - as if it had been slightly cropped for posting - which I can't fix, but it doesn't do too much damage to the polar view.

Phil

(PS - no, I can't really spare the time for this but you know how it is)

[djellison]

That's a bit freaky, I was thinking "hmm - Pathfinder polar....I'll do that when I've had dinner" about 2 hrs ago.

Also interesting...
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02652
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01238
And especially
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00828
and
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01150


Doug

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

How much bigger is Pathfinder than one of the MER's? Also, the large rock, Yogi, is even visible in the high resolution MOC images, so it should look amazing to HiRISE.

[djellison]

The white grid on that image is 4m squares - and the lander would probably just about fit inside one, with the airbags poking out the sides of it. 15 to 20 HiRISE pixels.

Doug

[tedstryk]

I have posted it before, but this is a Sojourner polar from Sol 76. If it didn't move much after the lander died, it would be nearby.

[climber]

That's a bit freaky, I was thinking "hmm - Pathfinder polar....I'll do that when I've had dinner" about 2 hrs ago.
Doug

...and if I'm not lost, Doug, you were not even 20 when Pathfinder get to Mars, correct ?

[Astrophil]

Am I right in thinking that the current state of knowledge about the location is still reflected by this press release?
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/09

[Phil Stooke]

Yes, except that I prefer this slight adjustment, which I think gives a better match to the North Knob and other features.

Phil

[tedstryk]

I was 18 at the time of the Pathfinder mission. I vividly remember waiting hours to download its "huge" mosaics via my 14.4 modem.

[djellison]

I was 18, got up early to watch some coverage on BBC 2 here in the UK, and then went to the LIbrary to download the early pans onto a floppy disk, take them home, and print them out on a 24 pin B'n'W dot matrix . Then, on a P60 (possibly with a 133MMX overdrive chip, can't remember) - trying to better line up the frames in the mosaics that were released...without much luck. I thikn that was the genesis of my image editing obsession.

Doug

[Phil Stooke]

Well, I guess this is the next test, Pathfinder's site.

At the top of this thread is my polar panorama of the MPFD site. Then in post 8 I show the object identified by MSSS as the lander, in their press release. That's the point indicated by the convergence of the white lines. My best guess is just a few pixels from that again, a small correction based on the polar pan and azimuths to a few surrounding features.

This story also starts with Tim Parker, who (as Matt Golombek told me) spotted the Twin Peaks on the WSW horizon in the first few frames downlinked on landing day and recognized them from Viking images of the landing ellipse. Based on that identification he predicted that a crater rim would appear on the southeastern horizon when they got more images down, and sure enough there it was. Azimuths to distant hills and small details seen on the rim of that crater confirmed the match.

Phil

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

Well, I guess this is the next test, Pathfinder's site.

I think this image(s) will be the most fascinating one of the "known" landing sites. And if, by some miracle, Sojourner is resolvable, I know a few people who are interested where it ended up (e.g., to see if its onboard out-of-comm routines actually worked). Anyone want to start a pool?

[tuvas]

I think this image(s) will be the most fascinating one of the "known" landing sites. And if, by some miracle, Sojourner is resolvable, I know a few people who are interested where it ended up (e.g., to see if its onboard out-of-comm routines actually worked). Anyone want to start a pool?

You wouldn't be the first, as I understand, there's a pool going around with the MPF people at JPL/NASA as to where it ended up as well.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

You wouldn't be the first, as I understand, there's a pool going around with the MPF people at JPL/NASA as to where it ended up as well.

Yeah, I know about that pool, too

[djellison]

And they're all OVER the place

Personally - my pin is near the fwd egress aid

Doug