[meteorite-list] Opportunity Has Been Located in MGS MOC Images

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:31:21 2004
Message-ID: <200402091706.JAA02971_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/02/09/index.html

        MGS MOC Image of Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, on Mars

                MGS MOC Release No. MOC2-631, 9 February 2004

    1 February 2004 MOC ROTO 1 February 2004 MOC ROTO image, features
              image labeled
            [Image] [Image]

  6 February 2004 cPROTO image 6 February 2004 cPROTO image, featured
           [Image] labeled
                                                 [Image]

  Parachute and Backshell from MGS MOC
         and Opportunity Pancam Location of Opportunity site in
                [Image] original landing ellipse [Image]
         Pancam image courtesy
            NASA/JPL/Cornell

 All images, please credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems. The Pancam
        image (inset in Parachute and Backshell picture) is courtesy
                              NASA/JPL/Cornell

This month, the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)
acquired two images of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER-B), Opportunity,
sitting within an impact crater of approximately 20 meters (~66 feet)
diameter. The first picture (top two images, above) was obtained on 1
February 2004 at a resolution of about 1.5 meters (5 ft.) per pixel. The
second view, at about 50 centimeters (~1.6 ft.) per pixel, was taken on 6
February 2004 (middle two images, above).

The 1 February 2004 image is a Roll-Only Targeted Observation (ROTO), it was
acquired by rolling the MGS spacecraft approximately 22.7° off-nadir toward
the west. The picture shows the location of the Opportunity lander within a
20 meter (~66 ft.) diameter crater on the dark plains of Meridiani. At the
time the picture was taken, the rover had already driven off the lander. The
image also shows several features related to the landing of Opportunity,
which occurred on 25 January 2004. Just left of center is the location of
the first bounce as Opportunity's airbags hit the ground. Just before the
airbagged lander was released, rockets fired and disrupted the surface at
that location. After the lander was released, the backshell and parachute
drifted westward and landed at the site indicated. Meanwhile, the
heatshield, which was ejected before the rockets fired and airbags inflated,
impacted to the southwest of the "first bounce" location. The lander itself
ended up in a nearby crater, within which the rover has been operating for
just over two weeks. The image is illuminated from the left/lower left;
north is up; and the 200 meter scale bar is about 656 feet long. Note that
the large crater on the right-center side of the image, and the crater in
which the Opportunity lander sits, both have a wind streak, somewhat
brighter than the general Meridiani plains, pointing toward the lower right
(southeast). These wind streaks indicate that the dominant winds blow
through the region from the northwest (upper left).

The 6 February 2004 image was a Pitch-and-Roll Targeted Observation with
planetary motion compensation (cPROTO). In this case, the MGS spacecraft was
pointed about 18.7° off-nadir (toward the east) and pitched at a rate that
allowed a resolution of approximately 50 cm (~1.6 ft.) per pixel resolution.
Developed in 2003, the cPROTO technique is still fairly new and the images
do not always hit exactly where the MOC team plans. The first cPROTO attempt
to view the Opportunity lander was acquired on 30 January 2004 but it missed
by more than 3 km (1.9 miles). The second attempt was made on 6 February
2004, and it hit the crater that contains the lander and rover (middle two
images, above), but it did not get the backshell, parachute, first bounce,
or heatshield features. On 6 February 2004, the Opportunity rover had moved
sufficient distance from the lander (to investigate the rock outcrop area
known as "Snout") that it could almost be seen as a separate, dark object
(middle images, above). The image is illuminated from the left/lower left;
north is up; and the 10 meter scale bar is about 33 feet long.

The second-to-last image (bottom left, above) shown here is a composite of
the Opportunity Pancam view of the MER-B parachute and backshell (color
inset) and the 1 February 2004 MOC image that shows the distance to the
parachute and backshell from the landing site. This distance is 440 meters,
equivalent to about 481 yards (nearly 5 football fields; 1,444 feet). The
Pancam image appears courtesy of NASA/JPL/Cornell.

The last image (bottom, right, above) shows a mosaic of MGS MOC and Mars
Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System visible (THEMIS-VIS) images of the
Opportunity landing ellipse. The arrow in the small image shown above points
to the location of the Opportunity lander. The large image (click on the
small image) presents a circle enclosing the crater in which the lander is
located. The white ellipse is about 87 km (54 mi) long and 11 km (6.8 mi.)
wide, north is up.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built
the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates
the camera from its facilities in San Diego, California. The Jet Propulsion
Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global
Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin
Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, California and Denver, Colorado.
Received on Mon 09 Feb 2004 12:06:32 PM PST