Starship Asterisk*

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090120.html


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Conquest of Space (1955)

General Samuel T. Merritt: Before any of you accept, I should like to make it unmistakably clear that the dangers of this journey are above and beyond anything that the Space Corps or your own governments have any right to ask of you. I can give you confounded little reason for this attempt to reach Mars, and no assurance at all that it will even be successful. It's my personal conviction that no one but an idiot would volunteer, and I shall strongly suspect the sanity of anyone who does. All right, we've all got it straight. Who wants to go?

I kind of miss the pictures that the rovers sent before shutting down for the winter. How long is the martian winter anyway? Twice as long as ours? I hope they can start the rovers clicking again after their hibernation.

Orin

I think my qualifications speak for themselves, so Count me in, Neufer!

How do the scientist who labeled this panorama of Mars know the heights of mountains or hills? On earth, we reference our ocean’s sea level. Is there a sea level like reference on Mars?

johnblanding wrote:How do the scientist who labeled this panorama of Mars know the heights of mountains or hills? On earth, we reference our ocean’s sea level. Is there a sea level like reference on Mars?

The reference level for Martian altitude is defined by the triple point of water: 6.105 mbar at 273.16K. That is, the elevation where the atmospheric pressure is 6.105 mbar near 0°C is the zero datum.

I'd assume that the hills identified in the image are with respect to this reference, although I suppose they could also be relative to the rover's position.

I took the labels for distances, not heights.

apodman wrote:I took the labels for distances, not heights.

Yes, that does seem to make more sense. I didn't look very closely; where my viewer came up zoomed, all I saw was Summit of Husband Hill, 754m, which obviously seems like a height on first glance, and I didn't pay much attention to the other labels (the image itself is too fascinating- the labels are really a distraction).

In any case, the question about heights on Mars was a good one, and interesting.

Thanks for your replies.

And, in addition to the meters and feet used to locate points of interest, the word "sol" or is it an abbreviation, is also included. What could sol mean?

johnblanding wrote:Thanks for your replies.

And, in addition to the meters and feet used to locate points of interest, the word "sol" or is it an abbreviation, is also included. What could sol mean?

"Sols" are just Martian days. The term is used to avoid confusion with normal Earth days as used by the mission controllers. I assume the reference in the labels is to the rover being in those spots at those dates. You can go through the raw image database by sols, so if you see something interesting near one of these date references, you know where to look for images made around that time and place.

Full-Circle "Santorini" Panorama from Opportunity
Full-Circle 'Bonestell' Panorama from Spirit (Annotated)

Very interesting. The measurements are definitely distances. No way that Grissom Hill is 5.3 miles high.

The one question I have is simple, and apparently overlooked:

Where are the tracks of travel, or "footprints" if you will, for the Spirit rover? I see evidence of winds on the terrain, but are they strong enough to cover the Spirit rover's tracks? If they're not strong enough, has it been stationed there long enough for the winds to completely cover any evidence of them? These 200 pictures were taken from it's stationary spot for winter, but when? A few weeks in?

Just something I thought would be a bit more apparent. Also, you guys missed a few spots cleaning up, between "West" and "Spirit Landing Site" there's black edging, and more directly above "West Spur".

orin stepanek wrote:I kind of miss the pictures that the rovers sent before shutting down for the winter. How long is the martian winter anyway? Twice as long as ours? I hope they can start the rovers clicking again after their hibernation.

http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00001816/

NASA Mission Pages - Mars Exploration Rovers
Mars Exploration Rover Mission JPL Home
Mars Exploration Rovers - The Planetary Society

Mars Spirit Rover behaving oddly
Astronomy.com - 2009 Jan 29

Mars Rover's Unexpected Behavior Puzzles NASA
Space.com - 2009 Jan 28

Mars Rover Team Diagnosing Unexpected Behavior
NASA Mission Pages - Mars Exploration Rovers - Mission Status Report - 2009 Jan 28

Spirit Resumes Driving
NASA Mission News - Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status Report - 2009 February 02

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit resumed driving Saturday after engineers gained confidence from diagnostic activities earlier in the week evaluating how well the rover senses its orientation.