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Old February 10th 04, 12:10 AM
Doug...
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Default Opportunity backshell and the parachute

In article ,
says...
I'm almost sure to have discovered, in one of the last images released
by JPL/MER and acquired by MER-A navigation camera on Sol 13, the
backshell and the parachute, located not far from the rover. The
feature wasn't visible in the previously released images because the
rim of the crater covered the horizon in that direction from the
initial rover/lander location.
The images code is 1N129339550EFF0300P1652L0M1/R0M1 (look to the left
portion of the horizon).
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...0P1652R0M1.JPG
Any comment? Regards.


A lot of people saw that. I saw comments about it on a small bulletin
board dedicated to Mars exploration as soon as those images became
available. The Pancam has been used to image the area, and indeed there
is a very good image of the backshell, sitting on its now-empty base
side, looking like a slightly squashed Apollo CM, with the 'chute
sitting next to it. And the MOC image of the landing site shows the
backshell and 'chute in exactly the same location. It's about 450
meters (1,400 to 1,500 feet) from the lander, to the southwest.

You can also see the heatshield impact point on the orbital imagery, and
an interesting set of surface disturbances around where the retro-
rockets fired. The bounce marks are less obvious than at Gusev, but are
minimally visible. Opportunity apparently bounced about a half mile or
so, and after the very first bounce changed direction from generally
easterly to north-northeast.

Doug