To the Cape!, Quackmire and arm troubles Options

[djellison]

GREAT stuff - now...onward to Cape Verde!

Doug

[dot.dk]

The arm didn't move a single millimeter by the looks of it

And they finally got all wheels on the ground again

[Tesheiner]

Good to see her out of the trap.
Last drive was executed in many steps, like the previous drive attempts. I calculated the slip factor on each of these steps and we can see a sudden decrease at the end of the drive: 93%, 95%, 95%, 85%, 51%.

[climber]

I remember when Oppy get free of Purgatory. In the animation we could see the weels getting more and more efficient.
BTW, I guess Oppy has still the depth record in Mars diging. Not for long I guess, not for long.

[Pertinax]

Please pardon the question: On Oppy's most recent fwd HazCam image, what is the circular brush for on the arm near the upper left of the image? I have not been able to remember it nor have I found any descriptive refrence to it in the little bit of searching I have done thus far this morning.


(And ditto the HURRAY for again being out of the 'trenches' )


-- Pertinax

[jamescanvin]

That's been asked a number of times before around here.

It's to clean the RAT, in particular the magnets on the RAT I believe.

I can't ever remember it being used however.

[Pertinax]

Thank you James.

I was sure it had been asked, and likely well more than once! Much to my frustration though I couldn't remember the answer! Arrgh.

Anyway, thank you again.


-- Pertinax

[BrianL]

Oppy has still the depth record in Mars diging. Not for long I guess, not for long.

I don't know. I don't see Phoenix digging anything like this. Especially if ice is just a short distance down.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...IP1314R0M1.HTML

Brian

[Ant103]

Good to see Oppy finaly released of this sandy crap .

Here is a view front of the rover showing disturbed soil :

Have you seen the boulder ejected by one of the wheel?
Before : http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...AHP1990L0M1.JPG
After : http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...ATP1990L0M1.JPG
Maybe tilt of the ground have contributed to the rolling of this boulder (I want to say the "rolling stone" )

And a panorama at the other side :

[climber]

Nice pano, Ant. I don't know why but , it looks different from the one before. May be because I'm more seen too much Northern plain panos

[Tesheiner]

Well, the fight with the sand trap hasn't finished.
Here you have animated GIFs from the forward and rear hazcams and we can see that the rear-right wheel (left on the image) started to move up again. Slip factor on the two steps of the last drive (sol 1550) was 63% and then 91%.

[BrianL]

Oppy, the message is clear. Victoria no longer wants you. She's clearly tired of you constantly staring at her cliffs and has said, nope, these are not for you. Sadly, it's time to move on. There are plenty of craters out there who I'm sure will be more receptive to your advances.

Brian

[charborob]

I'm with you. Let's get out of here before Oppy gets stuck for good.

[djellison]

One small quagmire does not render all of duck-bay unnavigable. Saying that Cape Verde is an impossible target is unjustified and probably quite wrong. Neither of you were in UMSF during the thrash to Burns Cliff. It took a long time, it meant getting stuck quite a lot - but it was worth it - it was worth every single sol it took to get there ( and it took a lot )

Doug

[akuo]

I agree with Doug, Cape Verde is too good to miss now. If anything, the fact that the arm is out front has made it a more justified target now. In this position the arm can reach higher walls, if that is deemed possible. Also the drive to Cape Verde is the shortest distance to a real target, a lot of driving might damage the arm motors or joints if they start searching for science targets.