[X] My Assistant

[djellison]

http://www.msss.com/press_releases/mslselection/index.html

Some astonishing proposals there - full colour motion descent imagery

Not sure what use 10fps video is - as even MSL will still crawl along at a slow pace making it very boring viewing Notice the HDTV resolution of it though - James Cameron has got involved - should be interesting!

Doug

[Phil Stooke]

In the case of a rock or a 'ripple' etc., you can make a case that the closer you view it the more you can see. From Navcam to Pancam to MI we see more and more on these targets. But is this true for a dust devil? Up to a point, certainly - it's better to see it from 500 m than 5 km. Recently we have had these 'movies' in which a fair bit of structure is visible.

But I would suggest there's no advantage to getting much closer than that. A big diffuse object is seen better from a distance than close up. So I think a strategy of viewing across a wide area from a good vantage point - e.g. looking west from Larry's Lookout - is the best way to view dust devils. You may see a bit of structure in the nearer ones - though that doesn't teach you much... but you get good stats on occurrence, direction, height, optical depth and so on. Waiting until a rover experiences a wind/pressure signature and then taking images is the worst way to study them. (IMHO)

Phil

[dvandorn]

If I'm not mistaken, didn't Pathfinder actually detect a dust devil pass nearly over it? I remember reading a report of the event -- the wind direction changed through 360 degrees over less than a minute and the pressure shifted at all three spots along the mast where the meteorological pressure sensors were located, consistent with a dust devil passing.

IIRC, there were no visible changes in Pathfinder's area after its devil passed -- perhaps it passed overhead (i.e., a funnel that lifted off the ground and passed over Pathfinder itself)? So it's possible that instruments to detect a dust devil passing directly overhead might still not manage to let a probe capture images of it.

I think the only really effective way of capturing images of the little devils is a synoptic survey. But, hey -- any rover worth its salt can do that while performing other tasks, right? Like while doing a long Mossbauer or APXS integration?

-the other Doug