Stunning images of crushed/crashed heatshield

Stunning images of crushed/crashed heatshield

Here's a stunning view of the Martian junkyard that 'Opportunity' is
approaching.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opp.../1P156949002EF
F4075P2357R1M1.JPG

It's the crumpled heat shield -- will have lots of info on structural
features needed
in future heat shields -- but it doesn't look like it made much of a hole in
the ground.

The view to the right shows the disturbed soil, which might still be of
scientific interest:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opp.../1P156949566EF
F4075P2357L5M1.JPG

These are amazing pictures.

Compare this 'Opportunity' view with 'Spirit' heatshield:
http://mer.rlproject.com/sr_spirit_heatshield.jpg

Here are some other graphics, from Doug Ellison:

During entry/descent/landing (EDL) - the heatsheild was ejected first - not
long after deploying the parachute. So as the spacecraft was quite high at
that point - and still travelling quite fast - the heatshield essentially
went further down range that the rest of the spacecraft (i.e. east in case
of both rovers)

The backshell - and attached parachute stay with the spacecraft right to the
moment of firing the retro rockets at which point - the ball of airbags,
rover included, is cut off from a bridle swinging below the parachute and
backshell.

So - for each rover - there were three elements that made it to the ground.
Lander, heatsheild, and backshell with parachute.

In the case of opportunity - the backshell and parachute were spied quite
early on - a couple of hundred meters south of the crater - and then the
heatshield was spotted way out near Endurance crater.

http://mer.rlproject.com/opp_hardware.jpg


With spirit - the heatshield impacted the side of Bonneville crater - and
was seen up close, and infact imaged using super-resolution techniques that
Tim Parker tried with Pathfinder back in '97 - the results of which never
made it out of JPL - but I had a go myself

http://mer.rlproject.com/sr_spirit_heatshield.jpg

The backshell and chute ended up way north of the lander - and were spotted
part of the way up the flank of Bonneville crater -

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...MERA_Bonnevill
e_360_L256-A129R1.jpg
(39 odd meg) - that panorama is the only one for Spirit in which you can see
Lander, Heatshield and Backshell/Chute

The same is true of the Lion King panorama from Opportunity.



========

Jim O resumes narrative -- here are links to views of the heat shield when
it was new:

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/3...mer_clean1.jpg

http://athena.cornell.edu/the_missio...dware_gal.html

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/missi...shell1_500.jpg

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/missi...ecraft_br.html

There is also the gallery at :
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/spacecraft/
Mind the wordwrap.

Some of those links you gave aren't working. At least for me. As an
alternative to those folks who might be in the same boat as me, here's
the offical rover site's raw images sections (they've been doing a
really good job in uploading the new images in a timely manner):



For the front Hazcam images:


http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...nity_f324.html


For the Navcam:


http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...nity_n324.html



For the Pancam:



http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...nity_p324.html


Great stuff, and here's looking forward to even closer views.... Like
say with the microscopic imager. :-)
-Mike

On Thu, 23 Dec 2004 14:43:17 -0800, mdicenso wrote:

Some of those links you gave aren't working. At least for me. As an
alternative to those folks who might be in the same boat as me, here's
the offical rover site's raw images sections (they've been doing a
really good job in uploading the new images in a timely manner):



For the front Hazcam images:


http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...nity_f324.html


For the Navcam:


http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...nity_n324.html



For the Pancam:



http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...nity_p324.html


Great stuff, and here's looking forward to even closer views.... Like
say with the microscopic imager. :-)
-Mike


Ther reason they didn't work is the link took 2 lines. cut and paste into
a browser and it works fine, that's what I did.