[X] My Assistant

[PaulM]

Opportunity is currently on a slope which is tilted 25 degrees to the South and Winter is approaching. At the height of Winter the Sun will presumably be low in the Northern sky. Has JPL ever given any deadlines for Opportunity to drive out of Duck bay and back onto level ground again? I wonder if there is time to cut the remaining 2 RAT holes planned in the white band before the sun becomes too low in the Northern sky to provide power to drive out of Duck bay?

What I would like to see Opportunity do next is to drive around to the Southern end of Victoria and then re-enter Victoria on a North facing slope. There presumably there would be time to throroughly investigate the outcrops below the white band.

[Shaka]

Astro0
PS: Now I know I'm going stir crazy

You just need a long weekend in the Big Smoke. Sydney or the Bush!

[djellison]

Opportunity is near equatorial ( compared to Spirit's southern latitudes ) - and very clean - currently plenty of Whr's and I don't think it'll be getting a great deal worse.

Doug

[Shaka]

Opportunity is currently on a slope which is tilted 25 degrees to the South and Winter is approaching.

Yes, I suppose this should become a concern eventually, although everyone seems to be worrying mainly, with justification, about Spirit right now. Has anyone got the predicted power levels at the winter solstice for this position? The current tilt seems to be more ESE than directly south, but it would be more northerly up against the near face of Cabo Frio or other capes further south. These locations also tend to have direct illumination in both the morning and afternoon during winter. At the far south side, it would be difficult to avoid periodic shading near the capes. The math is getting complicated! It would be nice if we could finish our Duck Bay transect, but we have spent a lot of time here with the Smith brothers. (Could Oppy be in love? )
Whither our gallant explorer?


Edit: Well Doug offered some reassurance as I typed. Does this mean we can get through winter in Duck Bay?

[djellison]

You're right - the slope is ESE - so to be honest, not a lot of delta to the power. A bit of a gain in the morning - a bit of a drop in the evening.

Oppy's not so much in love, it's more a case of arthritis.

Doug

[jvandriel]

The Mi mosaic taken on Sol 1373 after brushing.

jvandriel

[Tesheiner]

I understand that there has been some difficulty with the brush, but I was wondering if we have any indication of when Opportunity might do some rolling again. I'm kind of curious to know more about the minerals that make up the rocks below the white stripe.

Every morning I check for the planned imaging activity on both rovers.
And according to "the codes" in the pancam data tracking webpage, Opportunity is expected to be moving again on sol 1380.


Edited: Found this note on the latest status report: 'Scientists planned to have the rover finish up work on Smith and then descend to the last of three light-colored rings of rock. This final ring is known as "Lyell."'

This post has been edited by Tesheiner: Dec 11 2007, 02:38 PM

[antoniseb]

according to "the codes" in the pancam data tracking webpage, Opportunity is expected to be moving again on sol 1380

Thanks. Tomorrow is a good day to roll.

[Tesheiner]

... Opportunity is expected to be moving again on sol 1380.

False alarm.
None of the planned driving related sequences were executed.

[antoniseb]

Oh well. While I'd really like to get details from other locations, I do understand that they need to get their procedures together with the new limitations on the grinder and brush. Here's to some day in the unforeseen future when Opportunity knocks again.

[Tesheiner]

Second attempt, now on sol 1382.

CODE

01382::p1201::07::2::0::0::2::0::4::front_haz_penultimate_1bpp_pri17
01382::p1214::05::2::0::0::2::0::4::front_haz_ultimate_4bpp_pri15
01382::p1301::06::2::0::0::2::0::4::rear_haz_penultimate_1bpp_pri17
01382::p1312::07::2::0::0::2::0::4::rear_haz_ultimate_2_bpp_pri15
01382::p1920::07::20::0::0::20::0::40::navcam_10x1_az_90_pri_critical

(I hope to not bang my head again on the wall ...)

[djellison]

Given it's now 1800ish on 1381 - this'll be down in about 24-36 hours.

[Shaka]

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...AEP1201R0M1.JPG
Edit: Is there an easy way to reduce the inserted image to a more modest thumbnail size?

Yes - don't inset a great big image into a thread, inline. Just add a link. Lack of inner monolgue also corrected. Doug

[Tesheiner]

Here's the 360º navcam panorama.


> Is there an easy way to reduce the inserted image to a more modest thumbnail size?

Here's what I usually do.

CODE

[url="http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2007-12-13/1F250875277EFF8800P1214R0M1.JPG"][attachment=12880:1F250875...4R0M1_th.jpg][/url]

Download the picture and reduce it's size to 200x200 (*), then attach it here (it's a small 6 kBytes JPEG). Insert the attachment into the post and add a link to the original image.
(*) The trick is on the image size. By doing this, we are neither overloading the forum's server nor the viewer's bandwidth.

[CosmicRocker]

I guess Opportunity has begun the move down to Lyell, the next lowest layer. I noticed that the sol 1382 image sets contained many repeated images. Some of the navcams and hazcams have two and sometimes three version numbers. There seems to have been a pattern, with the repetitive versions alternating between left and right cameras. I don't recall seeing image sets like this before. I am guessing this must be some kind of test, but does anyone have any ideas about which kind of test? I tried to check the PCDT site for possible clues, but it is not opening for me at the moment.

edit: The tracking site came back up, but it does not the show extra images. Might it be that the repetitive images were not taken on Mars, but duplicated somewhere in the processing stream after they came down?