First Fram Crater, now a weeklong weather study? WHY AREN'T WE GOING TO ENDURANCE CRATER????
Sorry, just frustrated. #-o
Established Member
First Fram Crater, now a weeklong weather study? WHY AREN'T WE GOING TO ENDURANCE CRATER????
Sorry, just frustrated. #-o
Established Member
Er, link?
Established Member
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs...portunity.html
....they may head back to Fram Crater lol
"After taking images from the rim of Fram Crater and drilling into a nearby rock, Opportunity was commanded to pull away and head toward an open plain for a week-long investigation of Mars' atmosphere and temperature, with particular attention on conditions during night. The data will be combined with information collected by Mars Express this week to give the teams a more detailed perspective of the planet's surface and atmosphere.
Meanwhile, Mars rover managers will be deciding whether to return Opportunity to Fram Crater for a closer look at the rock outcrop, or continue on to its next target, Endeavour Crater."
Vulcan Administrator
Nooo!Originally Posted by EFossa
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Established Member
They've got this little crater a few feet deep with an outcrop smaller than the one in Eagle Crater. A day or two's drive away, there's a crater hundreds of feet across with tens of meters of outcrop. AND WE STAY AT THE LITTLE CRATER? What is JPL thinking?Nooo!
Insert awesome title here
There's time for everything, isn't there?
Vulcan Administrator
Well, if Opportunity finishes with Endurance, there's talk about sending it several kilometers south to some interesting geological stuff down that way, so the answer is probably no. But it wouldn't surprise me - at the rate they're going - if Opportunity spends the rest of its career checking out Endurance.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Order of Kilopi
A week long weather study does sound odd. A couple of days at the most, I would have thought. Maybe with all the driving and not many stops there has been something of a backlog of meterological observations that need to be made, observations that could not be made inside Endurance.
Also going back to a site already visited is strange too. Perhaps something showed up in some of the spectral data that changed some minds?
Jon
Established Member
All rightLet's study the weather!! \
Order of Kilopi
Well,it seems like the going-away is to get out on the normal plains, the predominant Meridiani feature, away from those odd exposed rocks, for the weather study. I think the going-back is just a potential to keep their options open.
They gathered a good deal of bedrock data at Fram, and they probably need some of that weather-study time to analyze the results to see if they are consistent with the observations at Eagle Crater. If there is something interesting, they can returnto Fram. If it's the same old bedrock, they an go on toward Endurance.
I can understand their thinking that Fram is a bird in the hand. They know it can be explored, if the quick-look data indicates it might be worth it. They don't know what's at Endurance, or if its potentially interesting bits can be reached.
Established Member
Im hoping they can make it south to some of that "interesting geological stuff" too, but if they go into Endurance, I dont think they will ever be coming out.Well, if Opportunity finishes with Endurance, there's talk about sending it several kilometers south to some interesting geological stuff down that way, so the answer is probably no. But it wouldn't surprise me - at the rate they're going - if Opportunity spends the rest of its career checking out Endurance.
Vulcan Administrator
I wonder if there's some sort of convenient juxtaposition with Mars Express.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Member
I agrre with BigJim
I too am frustrated by the Rover's strategy to always delay the
more interesting targets (Endurance Cratres / Columbia Hills) in favor
of the little ones (spending days and weeks examining more of the same little asphalt rocks)
I understand such a prudent sarategy in the beginning of the mission,
where it is mots important to gather as much science data as possible
but now we are in the extnded mission with even improved mobilty !
MOBILITY is the key word here: that's what those great hardware is born to do ! move and drive and explore the most intersting targets
that's the great advantage over a "fixed sitting" probe like the Vikings:
so why not take more advantage of the mobility.
Imagine we could study samples from entirely different geological terrains,
tens of kilometers apart instead of only studying little stons every
50 meters or so...
If we took real advantage of the rover's mobility it would be
almost as we had landed many probes in many different areas..
Established Member
I, too, got the impression the weather study was a joint effort with Mars Express overhead simultaneously. Thus the timing.
You raise an important question about investigative strategy. Do we poke around at every rock and get the best understanding we can of each area, or do we run around and gather some data from a lot of locations? Note: whatever decision they make, someone will be unhappy with it.
Established Member
Reading this thread, I'm starting to have the weird feeling that I'm listening in on one of those vacation arguments, the one that goes:
Person A: "I wanna see Disneyland."
Person B: "Well, I wanna visit every one of those funky little antique shops that we drove past on the way here."
Person A: "Disneyland is bigger, and more important."
Person B: "Yeah, but I might find something really valuable at one of those funky little antique shops."
Person A: "We didn't drive all this way to visit a bunch of funky little antique shops! If we drove all this way, we ought to at least go and look at Disneyland!"
Person B: "These might be very special antique shops. And besides, I'm the one who's paying for this trip."
Person A: [stony silence]
This kind of thing always end in tears...
Administrator
=D>
"You kids behave back there or I swear I'm going to turn this rover around and go home"
Established Member
"Alright, that's it! Back to Winnipeg!"
:wink:
Order of Kilopi
Don't make me have to stop this rover! :wink:
Established Member
Are we there yet??? :wink:
Honored Member
I'm bored!!!
Order of Kilopi
I gotta go bafwoom!
Established Member
How does a rover go to the bathroom in space?
Established Member
Verrry carefully! 8)
Sorry, just couldn't resist.ops:
Somebody get this back on-topic.
Vulcan Administrator
Do you think I could get a press pass for representing badastronomy.com and then ask them at the next press conference "Why don't you get your [derrieres] in gear and get over to Endurance?"
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Established Member
I think they are
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/flig...ctor/index.cfm
Order of Kilopi
The 4/26 Flight Direstor's Update http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/flig...ctor/index.cfm has Opportunity, after a few sols 40 meters from Fram, now moving on toward Endurace.
Vulcan Administrator
Ooh, thanks for that link - some good information there! Wish we didn't have to keep hunting for it, though....
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote