Spirit & Opportunity *5* - Let's start with new NASA conference!

Palomar · 2004-04-19 10:21:23

*Don't mind me.

I just picked up the newest issue of "Mad" magazine. A little spoof of the MER's is on page 8: "Why The Mars Rovers Cost $280 Million."

Includes pic of one of them. Here's the Mad cost rundown:

$50 Million: When not examining rocks, S & O programmed to secretly download sexy pics of Sally Ride for h*rny NASA geeks.

$40 Million: Cup holders redesigned to carry 32-oz Big Gulp.

$175 Million: Search-for-life equipment includes recorded loop of Sylvester Stallone yelling, "Yo! Anybody home?"

$75 Million: Rover chassis completely overhauled by those guys on 'American Chopper.'

$50 Million: Development of low-gravity fuzzy dice (for hanging from non-existant rear-view mirror).

$5 Million: Humorous bumper sticker: "My other vehicle impacted on Uranus"

::shakes head:: :laugh:

--Cindy

GraemeSkinner · 2004-04-19 12:28:14

Is the shine on this ratted rock from the abrasive nature of the tool or does the surface look like metal to you?
[http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA05074.jpg]IMAGE LINK

Graeme

Stu · 2004-04-19 13:01:38

Gorgeous new detailed panorama of the Columbia Hills available here...

[http://www.keithlaney.com/SCI/SCIbigpan_web.jpg]http://www.keithlaney.com/SCI/SCIbigpan_web.jpg

... with new, intriguing detail visible on the sides of the hills, and confirming my suspicion that there's a lovely big crater on the top of "Husband Hill", the tallest of the hills in the middle of the range.

Those lower slopes seem a LOT closer now, don't they?

Stu · 2004-04-19 15:12:30

Opportunity must have been annoyed about being upstaged by Spirit's view of the Hills..

Take a look at this amazing view of rock-filled Fram Crater, en-route to Endurance...

[http://mer.rlproject.com/index.php?show … 35entry735]http://mer.rlproject.com/index.p....ntry735

Oh boy oh boy oh boy...

Josh Cryer · 2004-04-19 15:27:47

Oh my god, those hills have seriously jumped out at us! They must be huge!

And is it just me, or has Opportunity just come across some more sediments in Fram crater?

Stu · 2004-04-19 15:36:36

And is it just me, or has Opportunity just come across some more sediments in Fram crater?

No, it's not just you... at the risk of sounding like a heretic (and wrecking my own story...! ) I think the outcrops in Fram appear to be made of less-weathered, more-interesting looking rocks... they certainly seem to my - admittedly untrained - eyes to be less eroded and more detailed... can't WAIT to see them in close-up!

There's also a great 3D pic of Fram, with Endurance in the background, here...

[http://www.marsunearthed.com/Opportunit … y49_3D.htm]http://www.marsunearthed.com/Opportu...._3D.htm

And yes, the hills do seem a lot closer.

GraemeSkinner · 2004-04-20 00:03:25

Am I correct in thinking that the Pancams take pictures of the sun from time to time for calibration (or some other purpose)? If so is this one of the first eclipse pictures taken from Mars. [http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/2P1355 … 1.JPG.html]Image Link.

Graeme

GJG · 2004-04-20 10:00:52

Anyone interested in the "shell-like" objects imaged by Spirit Pancam on Sol 104?? [http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/ … 86L2M1.JPG]

These look alot like the "mystery object" seen on the backside of Route66. How can these thin surfaced hollow objects be formed??

Stu · 2004-04-20 10:24:20

Wow...

[http://mer.rlproject.com/fram.jpg]http://mer.rlproject.com/fram.jpg

Just imagine how spectacular the pics of the depths of Endurance are going to be...

atajurk · 2004-04-20 12:02:50

I seems that Fram crater is much more recent than Eagle crater. ???

Stu · 2004-04-20 12:34:08

Nice image of a rock inside Fram showing layering...

[http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opport … 32R1M1.JPG]http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars....1M1.JPG

cassioli · 2004-04-20 13:02:03

Gorgeous new detailed panorama of the Columbia Hills available here...
[http://www.keithlaney.com/SCI/SCIbigpan_web.jpg]http://www.keithlaney.com/SCI/SCIbigpan_web.jpg

Are you ready? A new, great "scoop" is going to appear on funny-forums and stupid-magazines: :band:

Luca

Stu · 2004-04-20 13:43:15

A new, great "scoop" is going to appear on funny-forums and stupid-magazines:

The sound you can hear if you listen carefully is Mr Hoagland tapping away furiously at his keyboard, writing "I told you so... I told you so... I told you so..." a hundred times, like Bart Simpson writing on that blackboard... :;):

atomoid · 2004-04-20 17:58:05

Am I correct in thinking that the Pancams take pictures of the sun from time to time for calibration (or some other purpose)? If so is this one of the first eclipse pictures taken from Mars. [http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/2P1355 … 1.JPG.html]Image Link.
Graeme

there were [http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/rover-i … age-2.html]these eclipses too... but i like the latest one since you can see the less-than-round shape of the eclipsing moon.

GraemeSkinner · 2004-04-20 23:54:57

there were [http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/rover-i … age-2.html]these eclipses too... but i like the latest one since you can see the less-than-round shape of the eclipsing moon.

Thanks atomoid, after I posted the link yesterday I spent a bit of time with Starry Night setting the viewing location to that of Spirit - took a while but Phobos just clipped the edge of the sun nicely around the right time. It would be good if Phobos made a transit across the full solar disc (and of course if one of the rovers took pictures of it) but perhaps thats just wishful thinking.

Graeme

Josh Cryer · 2004-04-21 14:05:58

The cool thing about those eclipses is that they give us a good idea of the relative proportions of the Mars' moons. Have there been any attempts to image Phobos or Deimos during the day? I know it's probably unlikely, but I think maybe it's possible to at least see Phobos because of the thin Martian atmosphere.

atomoid · 2004-04-21 17:26:01

The cool thing about those eclipses is that they give us a good idea of the relative proportions of the Mars' moons. Have there been any attempts to image Phobos or Deimos during the day? I know it's probably unlikely, but I think maybe it's possible to at least see Phobos because of the thin Martian atmosphere.

Actually, since Diemos is not only much smaller but is also much further away than Phobos (as viewed from surface of Mars), it appears that much more tiny against the face of the sun. To get the actual objective relative comparison, you'd be better served by http://solarviews.com/raw/ast/gaspra5.jpg]this image comparing asteroid 951 Gaspra (top) compared with Deimos (lower left) and Phobos (lower right).

It would indeed be interesting to get a view of Phobos during the daytime. I hope they try, my impression is that the pancam could probably get a decent shot of it even through the dust. Better yet, i hope they try to get a shot the eclipse shadow on the ground when Spirit is on top of the hills. That might be a high enough vantage point to get a good oblate view of the shadow moving across the surrounding plains.

Here's some http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/P … .jpg]great closeups of Phobos. If you could stand on Mars and watch Phobos passing overhead, you would notice that this moon appears to be only about half the size of what Earth's Moon looks like when viewed from the ground. In addition, the Sun would seem to have shrunk to about 2/3 (or nearly 1/2) of its size as seen from Earth. Phobos, having an orbital period of slightly less than 8 hours, would appear to rise in the west and set in the east only five and a half hours later.

dicktice · 2004-04-21 18:33:22

Beautiful: What a great, nearly ready-made space station Phobos would make! Stretching a mesh over over that huge crater would turn it into an ideal "junk drawer" while you figure out what to do all the stuff coming up more-or-less at random from Earth-space.

Palomar · 2004-04-22 13:29:54

*This just in from space.com's "Astronotes":

***
Mars Rovers Face Radio Silence

The data link between Earth and the two Mars rovers -- Spirit and Opportunity -- is to be severed for about a week in September. The culprit is not technological but a fact of celestial mechanics. The reason is due to the positions of Earth and Mars during that month that place the planets on opposite sides of the Sun.

"We can't communicate with the spacecraft at all," said Jennifer Trosper, Spirit Mission Manager from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. She spoke Tuesday at the Air and Space Symposium being held this week in Washington D.C., organized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Trosper told SPACE.com that the lengthy radio silence will not impact the rovers. The robots will continue their duties once Earth-Mars communications are regained.
***

--Cindy

atomoid · 2004-04-23 00:50:27

*This just in from space.com's "Astronotes":
***
Mars Rovers Face Radio Silence
The data link between Earth and the two Mars rovers -- Spirit and Opportunity -- is to be severed for about a week in September. The culprit is not technological but a fact of celestial mechanics. The reason is due to the positions of Earth and Mars during that month that place the planets on opposite sides of the Sun.
"We can't communicate with the spacecraft at all," said Jennifer Trosper, Spirit Mission Manager from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. She spoke Tuesday at the Air and Space Symposium being held this week in Washington D.C., organized by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Trosper told SPACE.com that the lengthy radio silence will not impact the rovers. The robots will continue their duties once Earth-Mars communications are regained.
***
--Cindy

i thought they might be able to get a relay from some other probe that doesnt suffer from being in the vicinity of earth (like Ulysseys), im sure they've thought of this, so i guess the rover or mars relay satelites dont have enough power to get a signal strong enough for distant probes to pick up (does anyone know if this is true?)

-- Its interesting how the raw images databases on NASA and lyle.org has been quiet for a couple days now (cold turkey! cant get my daily mars fix!) -yet, there are new images that NASA is putting up such as the http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/ … html]April 22nd press release that shows a closeup of RAT hole on Pilbara... wha? i thought the raw photos base contained everything before it ever gets adjusted and used for press releases and such... yet the http://www.lyle.org/mars/imagery/1P1357 … .html]most recent raw image as of today is still a couple days older than today's press release image... whats going on at NASA?? ?

Stephen · 2004-04-23 01:23:19

Is it my imagination or is the JPL team getting a little tardy posting images to its "raw images" site? (Eg they've now got a pair of Sol 107 images for Spirit posted on the front page of their Mars rover site but the "raw images" site seems to be stuck at Sol 105.)

=====
Stephen

Arccos · 2004-04-23 04:21:51

Yes, I miss new raw images too.

cassioli · 2004-04-23 05:56:03

Its interesting how the raw images databases on NASA and lyle.org has been quiet for a couple days now (cold turkey! cant get my daily mars fix!) [...]
whats going on at NASA?? ?

I think they have two problems:
1)
(from http://mars.telascience.org/home/]http: … org/home/)

April 21, 2004: Maestro has been revived! We received great news this morning -- new Maestro funding has been approved to continue production of Maestro data releases. Our sponsors have been very pleased with the reception of Maestro by the public and want to see our outreach effort continue through the entire mission. The new releases will be less frequent but will cover a longer period of time.
Please check back for new updates.
April 16, 2004: The eighth and ninth Opportunity data sets, and the tenth and eleventh Spirit data sets have been released for Maestro. These data sets include Opportunity's continued exploration of the Eagle Crater outcrop and Spirit's arrival at Bonneville Crater. These releases cover Opportunity sols 39 - 50 and Spirit sols 60 - 69.
We regretfully announce that these will be the final Maestro data releases. The 90-sol primary mission of the Mars Exploration Rovers has been completed for Spirit; Opportunity will reach that milestone in a few days. With the Maestro public outreach effort, we've tried to share this historic adventure with you. Thank you all for your enthusiasm and support. It's been a wonderful and exciting time.

= money for public distribution of data is getting short

2)
(from http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/ … ...l#sol78

sol 78, Apr 12, 2004: Opportunity Stands Down for Flight Software Update
Opportunity began a four-sol stand-down on sol 75, which ended at 8:58 a.m. PST on April 9, 2004. During this time, the rover will receive a flight software update that should make its remaining martian days even safer and more productive. The upload will run through sol 78 with a rover re-boot on sol 79, Tuesday, April 13.

Rovers were down for extraordinary mainteinance.

Luca

Stu · 2004-04-23 13:09:50

Hey, looks like we're in the foot-hills at last...

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit … ...1M1.JPG

Palomar · 2004-04-23 13:51:18

Hey, looks like we're in the foot-hills at last...
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit … ...1M1.JPG

*Wow, I'll say. Initial download (prior to it downsizing automatically) has a real "in your face" quality.

What a contrast...not a blade of vegetation anywhere, and I step outdoors and see a garden planet.

There are some hills approximately 35 miles north of my city, which have a scant amount of mesquite bushes (which are tiny to begin with) on them. Take a pic at sunrise or sunset, and those purplish/red/orangish hills would look like Mars.

--Cindy

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