Zhurong maps, traverse route and location mapping Options

[Huguet]

China's Zhurong rover drives for over 410 meters on Mars
I believe, this means, we will get some parachute close-ups soon.

http://www.chinanews.com/gn/2021/07-11/9517522.shtml
"According to news from the National Space Administration, as of today (July 11) at 20 o'clock, the "Zhu Rong" rover has traveled a total of 410.025 meters and operating conditions are normal."

[Phil Stooke]

I updated my map with the parachute images. The sol dates might be one sol out depending on exact timing. The sol 56 marker is where I think the approach Hazcam image was taken, but only an approximate location.

Phil

[kymani76]

As usual Phil beat me to the update, bur anyway here is my take, color version. Track total is about 420m.

[Phil Stooke]

You are doing some really nice work here - for all missions! Thanks.

Phil

[kymani76]

Thanks Phil. Means a lot. In fact you just gave me an idea to add the fourth one. See Exomars thread post #570.

[Phil Stooke]

I just had an interesting and very welcome email from a reader of the forum who corrected me on my estimated sol numbers. I have updated my map with the corrected numbers and added an approximate location near the second dune - I am not sure which sol the rover arrived near that dune but we may know it after new images are released.

Corrections are always welcome - we really need as many eyes on this as possible.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

The Chinese map I linked to in the main thread lets me improve my map.

Phil

[Phil Stooke]

My best guess for sol 75 would be right at the bottom of my map.

The query after 'c. 72' is for the date. The location is good.

Phil

[kymani76]

Tentative sol 75 update. I left the dates out, because I'm not sure whether UTC or Chinese time is used for counting.
I also improved on base HiRise image, although color balance is hard with these images.
Total track is 708 meters in length.

[Hungry4info]

New drive map from here.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Bill Harris]

I give them passing marks on autonomous driving (or for careful directed driving).

--Bill

[ollopa]

....... The landing site is very close to the center of that ellipse and about 40 km from the initial site.

Phil

[attachment=47933:ellipses.jpg]

Phil: I am really struggling to reconcile the scale bar in this scene with everything else I have seen. 40 km between the dots is not what the scalebar says? Am I right? All of which is interesting because I simply don't understand why they didn't go north. If "dot-to-dot" is 40 km, then the prominent pitted cone to the NW is barely 10 km away, whereas the cones to the south are at least 20 km away, maybe a good bit more.

This stuff is way beyond my payscale: can anyone show a wider regional map with distances to key features, compared to the total traverse so far?

I realise "Why didn't they go North" is a different topic, but IMHO it has to begin with scale comparisons of other target options in the scene. We should have a HiRISE DTM of the landing site area very soon, but I am very sensitive to the fact that people who might like to weigh in here are being very *very* careful in order (I assume) to preserve valuable contacts in Utopia!

[Phil Stooke]

You are right, it should be more like 30 km between dots. I don't remember where the 40 km came from but it doesn't match the map. I might have been quoting some other source or just put too much Baileys on my cornflakes that morning.

I think they want to use the ground-penetrating radar on a trough about 1700 m south of the current position, which would be an interesting thing to do. Then keep going that way and hope to reach a cone.

Phil

[Hungry4info]

New drive map from here.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Phil Stooke]

This map is very useful, but I am intrigued to find that it does not overlay the new orbiter image of the track very precisely. I will wait until we have a new HiRISE image before updating my map. The orbiter image was taken on 24 August and this map matches that except for the last point, so this map was probably made with data up to 23 August, a week prior to release.

Phil