Daily Updates - February 18, 2004 - Mars rovers, Opportunity, Spirit . . .

NASA - JPL ^ | 02-18-2004 | NASA

[Phil V.]

Daily Updates - February 18, 2004

Spirit Status for sol 45 Spirit Does a "Wheel Wiggle" posted Feb. 18, 10:45 am PST

Spirit began sol 45, ending at 11:17 a.m. February 18, 2004 PST, at its previous target, Halo, by conducting analysis with the alpha particle x-ray spectrometer, microscopic imager and Moessbauer spectrometer. Spirit also took panoramic camera images and miniature thermal emission spectrometer observations before its arm was stowed for the northeast drive toward a circular depression dubbed Laguna Hollow.

The first 19 meters of the drive toward Laguna Hollow was commanded using go-to waypoint commands with the hazard avoidance system turned off. This mode – which was used for the first time this sol – provides automatic heading correction during a blind drive. Some fine-tuning toward the target brought the total drive for this sol to 22.7 meters (74.5 feet).

After reaching Laguna Hollow, Spirit "wiggled" its wheels to disturb or scuff the fine dust-like soil at this location, which allows for more detailed observations with the instruments on the robotic arm. After adjusting position to put the disturbed soil in reach of the arm, Spirit backed up and completed a miniature thermal emission spectrometer scan of the new work area. Before the sol ended, Spirit made one more adjustment, putting it in perfect position to analyze the scuffed area beginning on sol 46

The plan for sol 46, which will end at 11:57 a.m., February 19, 2004 PST, is to conduct observations on Laguna Hollow with the instruments on the robotic arm, including some higher resolution analysis that will involve an overnight tool change.

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Opportunity Status for sol 24 Peering into the Hole posted Feb. 18, 10:45 am PST

On sol 24, which ended at 10:59 p.m. Tuesday, PST, Opportunity used science instruments on its robotic arm to examine the hole it dug with its right front wheel on sol 23. The trench is about 50 centimeters (20 inches) long by 20 centimeters (8 inches) wide by 10 centimeters (4 inches) deep.

Sol 24's wake-up music was "Trench Town Rock" by Bob Marley.

The plan for sol 25, which will end at 11:38 p.m. Wednesday, PST, is to continue examining the walls and floor of the trench for clues about the history of Mars. Opportunity will also peek at its right front wheel with the panoramic camera to see what materials got stuck on the wheel from the trenching activity. Then, Opportunity will use the panoramic camera high on the rover’s mast to check out a former piece of itself -- the heat shield, which is sitting off in the distance. The heat shield protected the rover during cruise and during descent through the atmosphere on Jan. 4, 2004, PST.

[Phil V.]

I think you're correct about it being a splotch of dropped data.

Bad data? . . . same spot in two different pics?? . . . and, I think I see a shadow . . .

crystaline?

[LibWhacker]

Could be torn insulation from Spirit's lander? Except I don't see a shadow this time.

[LibWhacker]

Are you able to discern a shadow in both pics? Gonna fire up Windows magnifier again . . .

[djf]

Here's a shot of the rabbit at the Opportunity site taken by the Panoramic camera on Sol 2

I wish nasa would release more color pics. I don't buy the insulation theory. It looks like it has too much substance to be insulation. Now, the fact that similar objects appear at the two sites is important. A common software/hardware defect could explain it. But the photos taken by Opportunity showing the shadow discredit any glitches.

[LibWhacker]

I can't make out anything I can positively identify as a shadow. Darn thing doesn't even look like it's in contact with the ground to me, which makes it doubly hard to figure out which dark spot could be the shadow . . . Hmmm, it is very interesting. In thousands of pics, we've only seen this kind of thing twice!

[Phil V.]

Are you able to view in stereo? If so you'll notice that it appears in the bottom of a small depression. A stereo viewing is more suggetive of a shadow associated with it.

[LibWhacker]

Yep, the torn insulation theory isn't very convincing to me, either, mainly because I've seen a zillion torn things in my lifetime and that thing simply doesn't look like something that's been produced by natural tearing. It could be, of course, but it just doesn't look like it.

[LibWhacker]

Okay, that must be it, then. I'm not able to view things in stereo. Does it look like it's in contact with the ground to you?

[Phil V.]

hare today, goon tomorrow . . . bed time

[Phil V.]

Get a 12"sq of cardboard. Place one edge on the divide of the stereo pic. Put you nose on the near edge. Relax your eyes as though you're gazing off in the far distance. Practice and in time you'll draw the two pics into one. When it happens you'll be amazed!

[LibWhacker]

Thanks. Won't work in my case; only have one good eye.

Gotta hit the sack myself. Busy day tomorrow.

[Simmy2.5]

Hoagland is going to like this one...in fact...

As for the new pictures...I too can't see the shadow. As far as I know, its some sort of picture anomaly.

[DB]

You're not pestering me!

Thanks for all the pings!

[Ophiucus]

I'll be the first to guess, a rock with a hole in it.

Or a rock with a bright spot.

For Hoagland it will be a Martian monitoring device to assure that the rover doesn't encroach on any vital areas.

[from occupied ga]

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Something relatively bright in a scene can cause saturation in cameras of the type used in the rovers. Often the "blaze" is oriented along a vertical line of pixels. So the only real question is: what's bright or shiny that's causing this saturation? Somebody drop a quarter?

[Phil V.]

Scientists created this overlay map by laying navigation and panoramic camera images taken from the surface of Mars on top of one of Spirit's descent images taken as the spacecraft descended to the martian surface. The map was created to help track the path that Spirit has traveled through sol 44 and to put into perspective the distance left to travel before reaching the edge of the large crater nicknamed "Bonneville."

The area boxed in yellow contains the ground images that have been matched to and layered on top of the descent image. The yellow line shows the path that Spirit has traveled and the red dashed line shows the intended path for future sols. The blue circles highlight hollowed areas on the surface, such as Sleepy Hollow, near the lander, and Laguna Hollow, the sol 45 drive destination. Scientists use these hollowed areas - which can be seen in both the ground images and the descent image - to correctly match up the overlay.

Field geologists on Earth create maps like this to assist them in tracking their observations

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[ElkGroveDan]

As a former photographer who has worked in darkrooms and closely examined negatives, camera lenses and enlarger lenses, I have to say that a gut instinct tells me this "object" is probably not really there.

This thing when examined closely has no dimension to it. There is no shadow around it or anything to indicate that it is anything other than an interruption in the arrangement of pixels. Without explaining how it got from one lens to the other, I speculate that it looks like a fleck of paint, cellophane or other minuscule piece of debris that somehow has introduced itself into the photo process and has moved between photos.

I will note that the left and right shots are supposed to have been taken simultaneously, yet this object appears to have rotated 180 degrees between shots.

Something just ain't right here, but ten bucks and my left nut says that thing is not actually on the surface of Mars.

[CJ Wolf]

interesting.