Mars rover update: September 20, 2016
Opportunity comes first this time because it actually is more interesting.
Opportunity
For the overall context of Opportunity’s travels at Endeavour Crater, see this post, Opportunity’s future travels on Mars.
Having several choices on where to head, the Opportunity science team this week chose took what looks like the most daring route, heading almost due east towards the floor of Endeavour Crater. In fact, a review of their route and the images that the rover continues to take suggests that the panorama I created last week looked almost due east, not to the southeast as I had guessed. I have amended the most recent overhead traverse image, cropped and reduced below, to show what I now think that panorama was showing.
I will readily admit that I am unsure about this. The panorama appears to show four mounds, so that is what I am including. Because it is difficult to judge scale in these images (no scale bar is provided), I think I have been misjudging distances and mound sizes. The panorama shows objects that are farther away and look larger in the overhead traverse image.
This traverse map only shows us the rover’s travels through Sol 4493. The most recent images from Opportunity are dated Sol 4499. During that Martian week it appears the rover has crept closer to the brighter of the two mounds on the hillside before it. Below is a panorama I have created from images taken on Sol 4498, showing this.
I have not indicated on the traverse map what this panorama is seeing because I am not sure which mound it is aimed at. I suspect it is second mound from the bottom, but until we have more information on the rover’s actual route since Sol 4493 it is hard to tell. What I can say without doubt is that the rover science team has now taken Opportunity much farther into Endeavour Crater than they had during their exploration of Marathon Valley. I now suspect that they want to explore the region up to the cliff face to the east, which would put them at the inside edge of the crater’s rim and give them ample opportunities (no pun intended) to compare it to the already studied outside edge.
Curiosity
For the overall context of Curiosity’s travels, see this post, Pinpointing Curiosity’s location in Gale Crater.
Since last week’s update Curiosity has remained positioned near the southernmost butte of the Murray Buttes area. They have been attempting to drill into a bright feature at the base of this butte, but have had drill issues. The first drill attempt “did not complete as expected.” The second drill attempt completed the drill hole, but then there “was a timing issue during sample manipulation.” (See this page for these updates.) None of these issues appear to be serious technical problems, merely the day-to-day challenges of drilling holes remotely with a robot on another planet millions of miles away. It would be nice however if the scientists making the reports could be clearer about what they mean.
The image on the right, cropped and reduced, provides a nice view of Curiosity’s sampling capture system, including its sieve used to sift out the right sized samples.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Good to see Opportunity heading into the crater.