Spirit & Opportunity

Josh Cryer · 2004-01-08 11:05:21

The skull and spike (but not the shark fin) are actually visible in the full color Pancam image.

Rxke kindly provided a link to a crop of it. It's pretty cute.

Josh Cryer · 2004-01-08 11:53:36

Totally missed the first half of the conference. Goshdarnit...

Josh Cryer · 2004-01-08 12:03:05

BTW, the JPL site has already updated with the images that were shown at the conference (the part I unfortunately missed).

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/

Stu · 2004-01-08 12:11:35

BTW, the JPL site has already updated with the images that were shown at the conference (the part I unfortunately missed).
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/

How come when I click on the link to download the tiff image absolutely nothing happens?

I'll fill you in on the Press Conf content a little later, ok?

S

Josh Cryer · 2004-01-08 12:16:48

Hey, when I first went to it it claimed "high resoultion image currently unavailable." But when I went back just now, it's available, and I'm downloading it fine (65 megs, though). Perhaps they were just upping it during the times we both went to it.

If it's not working for you, though, lemme know, I'll be happy to send the file to you whenver. Right now I have to take care of some errands. I would love to be filled in if it's not too much trouble.

Stu · 2004-01-08 12:44:41

Hey, when I first went to it it claimed "high resoultion image currently unavailable." But when I went back just now, it's available, and I'm downloading it fine (65 megs, though). Perhaps they were just upping it during the times we both went to it.
If it's not working for you, though, lemme know, I'll be happy to send the file to you whenver. Right now I have to take care of some errands. I would love to be filled in if it's not too much trouble.

Went back to the site, clicked on the 67meg tiff link, and still nothing happens... computer's going out the window in a moment! Which link are you following Josh?

Thanks for the sending offer, but I think sending a 67meg image is beyond the call of duty! ;-)

Ok, some Conference notes:

PAN CAM: the PanCam continues to perform brilliantly, as the latest pic proves. And the good news is that the WHOLE of the eagerly-awaited "Mission Success" panorama is now taken and stored onboard Spirit, awaiting uplink to Earth. It should be available within the next 2 - 4 sols. So far we have seen 40% of it.

NEW IMAGE: was unveiled to more "wow!"s from the (has to be said, gradually-diminishing) press audience. Big difference with this image - the horizon rises steeply to the right. However, this is not a sign that there's a big hill there, it's a sign that the lander is tipped over slightly. The complete panorama will be processed to give a pleasingly flat horizon. The new uimage shows the landscape in a roughly northerly direction relative to the lander, and is dominated by rocks, dunes and a hill-rippled horizon. The rocks display amazing variety of size, shape and colour, and along with the now-familiar dark blue-grey rocks, it shows many lighter rocks, some appearing almost white. There are also patches of sand dunes, and one in particular, to the image's right, is intriguing because it appears to be topped with a hard, dark layer. They want to look at that more closely. Sleepy Hollow is very well seen on the new image, 16x more clear now than in image #1, and is revealed to be bordered on the far side by a ledge or ridge of some kind, possibly exposing sub-surface material. The light material filling SH could be either wind-blown dust or - and I thought this was a very intriguing reference - material which has lightened thru evaporation. Also, the new image shows that the dark markings seen within SH are actually dark "donut rings", again suggesting they may be impact bounce marks from Spirit as it descended. Sleepy Hollow is still a candidate site to visit after rover egress.

ACTIVITY REPORT: Yesterday's attempt to retract that annoying airbag did not succceed, so they;re going to try something else, namely retracting a further 6 revolutions of the retracting gear. (Later in the conference someone ased if Spirit could just drive over it. Answer: yes, but they'd rather use a safer option.)

"Stand-up" activities are imminent, and the procedure will take approx 3 days in total.

Earliest Egress? Sol 12, but that might be postponed by a further 2 or 3 days. NO RUSH, it was stressed. Everyone is keen to get off the platform, but the emphasis has to be on getting it right, safely. Quite: "Brave, but not stoopid!" is the mantra...

In preparation for egress, the Rover's drivers are already practising, using 3D data of the surrounding landscape to simulate driving off the platform and beyond. They have been given a list of 6 candidate visiting sites to practise with, but these are just provisional.

Today's conference panel included two students from the RED ROVER GOES TO MARS program, which has been involved in placing the "Mars sundial" on the rover, and the name-bearing CD too. One image shown was of "Biff Starling", one of the two lego-naut Mars explorers.

High Gain Antenna is working fine... everyone's tired... everyone's desperate to start driving...

Think they're the highlights, sorry if I've missed anything out.

S

jetset · 2004-01-08 15:47:06

Another skull........?

From the latest pic

Josh Cryer · 2004-01-08 15:56:03

Thank you kindly, Stu. I'd gotten a good idea of what went on, and I surely wish I didn't miss the unveiling of the latest Pancam image. It's always so exciting to "be there" when that sort of thing happens.

Here's a direct link to the .tif file I got (WARNING, 67.5 megabyte file!): http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/tiff/PIA05015.tif

This is the page I went to to get it: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalo … r=pia05015

No clue why it isn't working for you, but I can definitely put it up on my computer and you could download, it would take several hours though. Very odd that it doesn't work for you (perhaps right clicking on the direct link I made, and saving the file would be the best route).

Stu · 2004-01-08 23:31:07

Thank you kindly, Stu. I'd gotten a good idea of what went on, and I surely wish I didn't miss the unveiling of the latest Pancam image. It's always so exciting to "be there" when that sort of thing happens.
Here's a direct link to the .tif file I got (WARNING, 67.5 megabyte file!): http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/tiff/PIA05015.tif
This is the page I went to to get it: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalo … r=pia05015
No clue why it isn't working for you, but I can definitely put it up on my computer and you could download, it would take several hours though. Very odd that it doesn't work for you (perhaps right clicking on the direct link I made, and saving the file would be the best route).

No prob Josh, hope the notes helped you catch up.

I managed to get the pic eventually - no luck with the .tif image at all, maybe my browser doesn't like them or something.

Looking forward to the rest of the Mission Success panorama now... as an amateur rockhound I'm absolutely FASCINATED by the diversity of the rocks in the area.

VERY interesting story running on the BBC this morning... quickly looked for the "correct" Forum to post it in in the Manned Missions section but haven't got time now, so here it is...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3381531.stm

S

Josh Cryer · 2004-01-08 23:36:19

Stu, as far as I know, you can't view .tif's in most browsers, at least not without a plugin. I think Quicktime might let you view .tif's in browsers. You might want to use XnView to view .tif's anyway, because it's fast and allows you to pan around and zoom in and out effortlessly. And yeah, your little overview was very nice and informative, and I thank you again for it. Can't believe I missed it, as I had actually posted in this thread about the skull as it was airing and I don't even know; I must've been out of it because I didn't think it was starting for another hour!

That news that you posted is all over the net now, SlashDot has it, and it's posted in a few threads here. Personally, it'd be nice if it were true, but I'm skeptical still as to time frames, and affordablity. But it does sound really cool.

remcook · 2004-01-09 05:06:23

they said before that they have taken some mini-TES data. When is that going to arrive? Or do the colour pictures have priority?

remcook · 2004-01-09 05:23:49

..and:

is there somewhere a schedule of activities? What are they going to do this Sol?

Stu · 2004-01-09 07:30:46

Does anyone know if the airbags surrounding Spirit vented any of their gases quickly after landing, i.e. in bursts, or did they just slowly go down over the course of a few hours, like a balloon with a slow leak?

S

Stu · 2004-01-09 07:46:40

Here are two images, the first being pre-color corrected, the other color-corrected.
The question is: if i would be on Mars right now, what colors would i see around me? The ones from the original, not color-corrected image or the other ?

Well, if you were on Mars right now you'd see nothing, cos it's the middle of the night at Gusev :;):

But in the daytime you'd see the colours shown on the second image I'd say, the colour-corrected one. At least when the Sun was a decent height above the horizon and illuminating everything evenly. At dawn and dusk the terrain would look redder because of the reduced light levels and the sunlight slanting at a shallower angle through dustier air.

S

Josh Cryer · 2004-01-09 07:52:56

The explaination for the darker red image is that they used a 'darker' more near-infrared filter to image the picture. The filters were explained by the imaging guy, and basically the left and right eyes on the Pancam have different sets of filters to maximize the information they can glean, but not so different in each that they'rd be unable to create a color accurate image if one or the other fails.

So yeah, the second image is far more likely to be what you see, but brightness, contrast, sharpness and color levels are different for each person. I personally think, for example, that Mars would seem brighter to me.

Josh Cryer · 2004-01-09 10:31:07

30 minutes until the press conference! I think. Yes, it should be. Let's wait and see. I hope so. Damn, what time is it? haha... Okay, yeah.

Byron · 2004-01-09 10:58:04

30 minutes until the press conference! I think. Yes, it should be. Let's wait and see. I hope so. Damn, what time is it? haha... Okay, yeah.

Do you think they've executed the airbag retraction by now? I sure hope the trick works, or we'll be looking at another 2-3 days to get the thing turned around for egress.

Hope to see some new pics too

B

Josh Cryer · 2004-01-09 12:12:15

As usual, SpaceFlightNow has done a relatively good overview: http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera … tonly.html

But I'll add some stuff since you guys have been kindly giving others information (hope no one else is doing this as I do it). Couple of things, Phil, the guy behind Mini-TES, showed us some interesting tidbits about the thermal properties of the local area, and it seems to match up quite well with what we see on Mars from TES on MGS (TES stands for Thermal Energy Spectrometer, I believe). We're seeing CO2, Silicates, water vapour (in the soil, but not listed, but indicated, Phil said, was his suspicions of water vapour in the atmosphere), and two hits of types of carbonate in the soil. The carbonate was the central point of the discussion, since it can indicate past water, and they're really intrigued by the findings so far and obviously can't wait to "chase out" the clues.

Airbag retraction didn't really do anything, so they're settling the petal, and are just going to regress off other side (can't remember which). The standup procedure worked as planned, though, and there are images of the front base rover cam already available at the JPL site.

Link, BTW, I should put this in my sig, but there's a limit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/

Although, oh! The offical site has also updated with the images. Good on you NASA, that's a first.

Okay, that's all I can really think of right now, everything does seem to be going quite as planned.

Oh, right, they had a comparasion of image data that was downloaded with Pathfinder/Sojourner, and Sprit really does shine. We're getting roughly 6 megabytes per Sol, which is pretty dang good!

Stu · 2004-01-09 12:25:27

Sol 6 Conference Highlights

* 72% of the panorama is now on the ground, 100% is stored onboard Spirit. No more panorama images were released today (boo!)

* Spirit's imaging and download performance is far exceeding that of previous probes.

*Today's Conference centered on the first results from the mini TES instruments, and Phil Christensen was obviously delighted with their performance. ("We have a laboratory-quality instrument on Mars," he beamed, adding, "in fact, it's a better quality instrument than I have in my lab... I might have to get my students to do something about that...!") During his presentation he showed a variety of false-colour images, superimposed on "normal" images, to show how miniTES is measuring the temperatures of the rocks and terrain around the Memorial Station. Rocks, being cool, appeared blue, while the dusty ground showed as various shades of pink, orange and yellow. Mars as a Predator might see it ;-) The dust inside features such as "Sleepy Hollow" appears to be very fine, very fluffy in consistency - which means TES will be used to help the team drive around the area, avoiding patches which might cause traction problems for Spirit.

Heralding the beginning of "the squiggly line science", Phil C showed a graph showing miniTES measurements compared with measurements from MGS - and both showed that CARBONATES are present in the vicinity.

This was the key point of the conference, because the presence and location of carbonates is the key to understanding the very nature of Gusev. paraphrasing Steve Squyres, Carbonates are minerals formed under different circumstances which can be dissolved in water.. meaning they can also be precipitated out of water, and leave traces in sediments. Carbonates in Gusev could come from other areas, and were blown in on teh wind, or they could have originated IN Gusev. How will they tell? Well, if the carbonates are found on the surface, they were probably blown in there from afar. Ifthey're found beneath the surface, or under rocks, then they are "Gusevian" for want of a better word, and were possibly deposited there thru sedimentation processes in an ancient lake. This is obviously going to be one of the mission's major tasks - find carbonates, and find out where the heck they came from. Steve Squyres said "We're going to be chasing carbonates for months..."

It was also announced that JPL will be arranging for schools to send in rocks so they can be compared with rocks studied on Mars, in the "School House Rocks" program.

There was also some very good engineering news, with the announcement that the first stage of the complicated Stand Up process has been completed successfully, and footage was shown of Spirit's front wheels lifting and spreading apart as the rover was raised off the floor of the lander. The airbags still stubbornly refuse to budeg, however, so it looks like Spirit will now turn 120 degrees to the right, and egress in a different direction. But this won't be a problem, it's all in the plan. It may, however, mean a reassessment of targets during the initial foray into the landscape - Sleepy Hollow might have to wait awhile.

Two more things struck me - Steve Squyres said that they're not exactly sure where they are yet, but he was sure that a "100m wide crater" lies within the rover's range. The hope is clearly that Spirit will drive there and be able to look at sub-surface material exposed by the crater's formation, i.e. carbonate-rich material. His eyes fairly lit up when he was talking about that, and he was very animated too - so animated in fact, that the guy next to him cheekily asked the press not to ask any more questions about craters, as it was "dangerous to be sat next to Steve Squyres when he's talking about them" :-)

Lastly, and inevitably, the panel was asked to respond to today's news story about an imminent pro-space Bush announcement. The silence was DEAFENING, I swear. Stony expressions all around. The only reaction was "We're focussing on our own objectives". Interesting.

More press conferences are scheduled for weekend.

Fascinating stuff, but I want more pictures...

S

Stu · 2004-01-09 12:29:04

But I'll add some stuff since you guys have been kindly giving others information (hope no one else is doing this as I do it).

Ah. Well, hopefully people don't mind these reviews too much. If anyone does I'll just stop mine, not a problem.

I have a lovely image in my mind now Josh... Spirit reaching the top of that crater edge, peering down into the crater's depths and seeing multiple sedimentary layering on the other side... how cool would *that* be?

S

Josh Cryer · 2004-01-09 12:34:28

Stu, you rock, hehe.

About no other Pancam iamges today. Totally agree on the boo. Guess they didn't want to give Jim (I believe that's the Pancam guys name) too much spotlight. I'm almost certain they got more Pancam imagry since the last conference. Wish they'd just release everything as it comes down the pipe. That would really hold us impatient people over.

Good points all around, though. I shouldn't have missed that bit about there being a large crater nearby. He's right. It's the perfect opportunity, because as you drive towards it, if the levels of carbonate increase, that would be good evidence that the carbonate is directly related to the ejecta (common sense or just basic logic here). That's really going to be exciting, because we're potentially looking at a long drive just as soon as we get off the rover and do some inital sampling in the immediate area. That's really what I wanted, because that means more, dynamic, images of the surrounding environment!

And about the Bush comment. Yeah. I don't even know what to say to their reactions myself. I'm actually surprised. You'd think they'd at least pop up and say "Woohoo, let's go explore Mars," but nope. Perhaps they feel deep down it's just politics as usual. That's what the guy who answered alluded to, at least.

I have a lovely image in my mind now Josh... Spirit reaching the top of that crater edge, peering down into the crater's depths and seeing multiple sedimentary layering on the other side... how cool would *that* be?

Coolest thing ever. How cool would it be to get several new images from different prespectives every day or every other day? Can you imagine? it'll be like being there! I can't wait until Spirit is off on her own, I really can't.

Stu · 2004-01-09 13:45:03

Coolest thing ever. How cool would it be to get several new images from different prespectives every day or every other day? Can you imagine? it'll be like being there! I can't wait until Spirit is off on her own, I really can't.

Well, the coolest thing *ever* would have to be for Spirit to trundle its way carefully down the slope of that crater, find a nice firm terrace to sit on, lean forwards with its robot arm and, peering into a sedimentary layer with its microscope camera, see tiny teeny fossils embedded in it... :;):

Oh well, I can dream...

Seriously tho, I find the whole carbonate thing intriguing, they're all obviously very fired-up about it. You can tell that they just can't wait to start snuffling around in all that lovely orange dirt.

S

jetset · 2004-01-09 18:01:21

What about 'The skulls'..?

no one has mentioned them......what are we really looking at here.?

We are looking for life, and the first thing I'd want to send rover off to is those symetrical 'rocks'.

Josh Cryer · 2004-01-09 18:18:19

Heheh

If, and this is a long shot here (because it's probably highly unlikely), they're actual skulls, Mini-TES should be able to pick them up very easily.

I don't think they're of any interest to the science team, though, but the conspiracy theorists might get them to have a look see at a unique rock during the time of Spirit's stay on Mars. Clue here is that if it doesn't look like what they want it to look like, they'll claim modifications, etc, were done.

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