Mars Global Surveyor photographs Spirit lander

Mars Global Surveyor photographs Spirit lander on Martian surface:

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/.../23/index.html

- Rusty Barton

Rusty B wrote:

Mars Global Surveyor photographs Spirit lander on Martian surface:

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/.../23/index.html




That's _really_ something...thanks for posting that!

Pat

On 26 Jan 2004 05:06:42 -0800, (Rusty B)
wrote:

Mars Global Surveyor photographs Spirit lander on Martian surface:


Cool! Thanks




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"Pat Flannery" wrote in message ...
Rusty B wrote:

Mars Global Surveyor photographs Spirit lander on Martian surface:
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/.../23/index.html

That's _really_ something...thanks for posting that!

I wonder if they can take such a close look at the Beagle 2 landing
(or crash) site. Or is it too big an area to search?


--
__ "A good leader knows when it's best to ignore the __
('__` screams for help and focus on the bigger picture." '__`)
//6(6; ©OOL mmiv :^)^\\
`\_-/ http://home.t-online.de/home/ulrich....lmann/redbaron \-_/'

In sci.space.history Ool wrote on Tue, 27 Jan 2004 19:11:38 +0100:

:O I wonder if they can take such a close look at the Beagle 2 landing
:O (or crash) site. Or is it too big an area to search?

That is an excellent image of Spirit and its associated landing
hardware. The problem with Beagle 2 is that the uncertainty
ellipse for its final resting place is huge. They knew exactly
where to look for Spirit from the DIMES images and will be able
to do the same for Opportunity. In both cases, they also had
excellent tracking data which was used to identify the landing
site to within about 30 meters even without the images by MGS.
We, of course, have none of that for Beagle 2.

Jim.

Jim Scotti
Lunar & Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721 USA http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~jscotti/

On Tue, 27 Jan 2004 19:11:38 +0100, "Ool"
wrote:

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message ...
Rusty B wrote:

Mars Global Surveyor photographs Spirit lander on Martian surface:
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/.../23/index.html

That's _really_ something...thanks for posting that!

I wonder if they can take such a close look at the Beagle 2 landing
(or crash) site. Or is it too big an area to search?

Previous posters have reported that the resolution isn't fine enough
to see Beagle, what happened to it will have to remain a mystery till
we have people in the area, yet another reason to send people to Mars.

In article ,
Ool wrote:
Mars Global Surveyor photographs Spirit lander on Martian surface:
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/.../23/index.html

I wonder if they can take such a close look at the Beagle 2 landing
(or crash) site. Or is it too big an area to search?

That's the problem -- Beagle 2 could be anywhere in an area many
kilometers across.
--
MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer
since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. |

"Ool" wrote in
:

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...
Rusty B wrote:

Mars Global Surveyor photographs Spirit lander on Martian surface:
http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/.../23/index.html

That's _really_ something...thanks for posting that!

I wonder if they can take such a close look at the Beagle 2 landing
(or crash) site. Or is it too big an area to search?



Beagle is quite a bit smaller than the MER lander, so making a somewhat
more difficult target, but not outside the capability of the imagery
available.

The problem is that the search area for beagle is ******HUGE****** compared
to that of MER. The rover location could be checked by doppler effect from
the orbiters, to about 1Km. And within that by visual reference to terrain
features from the onboard cameras to about 25m pinpoint. The location of
beagle is (likely) somewhere within its projected landing ellipse. This
covers some 500km * 100Km, or about 15 million times the area to photograph
at maxx resolution. Not practical at all.

Ool wrote:


I wonder if they can take such a close look at the Beagle 2 landing
(or crash) site. Or is it too big an area to search?


How about Viking 1 and 2 to this degree of image resolution? ...and more
interesting yet, the Soviet Mars landers?

Pat

In article ,
Pat Flannery wrote:
How about Viking 1 and 2 to this degree of image resolution? ...and more
interesting yet, the Soviet Mars landers?

They tried for Mars Pathfinder and the Viking landers earlier, without
success. But this new technique not only improves resolution, it also
improves contrast (roughly speaking), so I expect they'll try again if
they get the chance. (They need a pass that comes pretty close to
directly overhead.)

Note that it took them two tries to nail Spirit. This particular
spacecraft/camera combination was not designed for precision targeted
imaging. The high-resolution mode of the camera was intended mostly for
semi-random sampling of the surface.

There is a problem with Viking 2, in that its exact location is not known
with certainty. Its horizon is almost featureless, and orbital imagery of
the area was none too good. A few years ago, Phil Stooke at UWO arrived
at a possible location using some image-analysis tricks, but it's still
very tentative. It may not be worth trying for it with MGS unless there
is first an indication -- say, a successful try at Viking 1 -- that the
camera can actually pick out a dust-covered Viking.

I would guess that the locations of the Soviet landers are too poorly
known to make it worth trying for them.
--
MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer
since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. |