One Mars Probe Photographs Another

sighted writes "In one of the more remarkable shots ever taken by robotic space explorers, the Opportunity Mars rover has been photographed by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ." From the article: "Shown in the image are 'Duck Bay,' the eroded segment of the crater rim where Opportunity first arrived at the crater; 'Cabo Frio,' a sharp promontory to the south of Duck Bay; and 'Cape Verde,' another promontory to the north. When viewed at the highest resolution, this image shows the rover itself, wheel tracks in the soil behind it, and the rover's shadow, including the shadow of the camera mast. After this image was taken, Opportunity moved to the very tip of Cape Verde to perform more imaging of the interior of the crater."

Re:Proof!

[sighted]

That's an interesting observation. I don't know if there was ever life on Mars before, but there is now (at least in proxy). That rover is probably the only thing moving on that plain, perhaps ever. It reminds me of the end of The Martian Chronicles, when the family looks into the canal to see the Martians, and their own reflections look back at them.

Re:Impressive resolution

[mopomi]

Try 544 channels at ~18 m/pixel.

http://crism.jhuapl.edu/instrument/innoDesign.php [jhuapl.edu]

Re:Will this change Opportunity's plans?

[iamlucky13]

Would they change where they send him to play? Probably not. Current planning has been conducted based on images taken my the Mars Odyssey and Mars Global Surveyor probes. The best images of the area from those probes are around 1/4 the resolution (1-2 meters/pixel) if I remember right. Still, they show the major features and led to the decision to try to reach the crater.

If you look at the path the rover took from Endurance crater to Victoria, it's pretty much a straight line. The goal for the last 6 months was just to get there. The rover has been running for 10 times as long as needed to be considered a successful mission, and almost 3 times as long as even the most optimistic estimates (they had to get a special budget approval for the operations team after the end of the first year...after two planned-for operational budget extensions).

Even if they had more confidence in the continued longevity of Opportunity, they probably still wouldn't have changed the course much. First, Duck Bay looks like a potentially excellent entrance to the crater, so it's a good place to begin observations. Second, Victoria is half a mile across (1.5 miles around). In a little under 3 years, they've accrued a total of about 5 miles of driving. The further around they start their approach, the longer they have to wait for really detailed pictures that will allow them to pick the true points of interest.

This picture is way cool. I remember way back when they first landed and the MGS caught a picture of the rovers. It was single-spectrum (B&W), and you could see 3 or 4 darker grey pixels that were labeled as the rover, half a dozen or so pixels labeled as the lander, and a sparse string of very slightly darker pixels that seemed to nearly line up labeled as the rover tracks. In this picture you can actually see what direction it's pointed and just barely make out the white stripe of the camera mast.

Re:Depression

[caseih]

Wasting billions of dollars? You have a strange idea of where money goes. Those billions of dollars that if spent on a space race would ultimately increase the size of our economy (national and global) by up to three fold (if I remember my Econ 101 class correctly). That amplifies the affect of the money and really allows that money to now benefit many more people, that it would if we spent it directly on, say, some kind of welfare assistance. Of course it's the disparity that we should worry about. But still. It's not like our money goes into space with the rockets.