#Ingenuity is seen here sticking its solar panel above the sandy waves of #ValinorHills in this image from Sol 1152 received today. While the solar panel of the #MarsHelicopter may still be visible from the rover at its present location on Sol 1159, it will soon disappear when #Perseverance clears the ripples it's facing on its way northwest to Bright Angel.
Those shortcuts I thought I found through the regolith ripples look pretty impassable from this angle; but maybe they'll look better as the rover comes closer to them.
Quickly processed, leveled, cropped MCZ_RIGHT mosaic, FL: 63mm
looking WNW (284°) from RMC 52.2750
Sol 1156, LMST: 12:44:54
New location for #Perseverance on Sol 1156, after a rather short ~16m drive downhill, which brought the rover 2m lower, to RMC 52.2750. There is now a ~10m remaining vertical distance to be covered to the bottom of the riverbank and onto the ancient riverbed of Neretva Vallis.
#Perseverance drove 10m on Sol 1150, to RMC 52.2638. As mentioned earlier, this appears to be the most difficult part of the descent to the ancient riverbed of Neretva Vallis, on the way to Bright Angel, a rock formation of geological interest.
The maps were drawn with @QGIS, using data from #NASA's #MMGIS, imagery from #HiRISE and DTMs from #USGS
New location for #Perseverance on Sol 1148, RMC 52.2540
The rover is now approaching the most difficult part of the descent, but apparently it has no problem negotiating the steep slope at a slower pace.
The maps show the estimated new location along with the guessed drive path and a number of predictions for its coming drives. It seems it will reach Bright Angel sometime between Sol 1156 and 1160, assuming no pauses.
This is Bright Angel, a light colored rock formation in the ancient Neretva Vallis riverbed; the next scientific target for #Perseverance .
Looking at all those loose rocks on the steep slope above it, it's good that the geologically interesting parts are (I guess) those farthest from them.
Processed, leveled MCZ_RIGHT, FL: 110mm
looking WNW (297°) from RMC 52.1950
Sol 1145, LMST: 11:22:33
Yet another rework of my speculative routes for #Perseverance to reach Bright Angel. This one shows two much faster routes (green) to the riverbed, passing through a few regolith ripples, but leading to a mostly flat and rock-free terrain.
The green route seems preferable to me (but IANAG), provided there are no scientifically interesting locations along the the south bank, which the rover has been traversing for a number of sols now (white dashed line).
Les paysages qui entourent Perseverance sont vraiment majestueux ces temps-ci. Le rover remonte le lit asséché de la rivière Neretva, qui perce le rempart du cratère Jezero, rempart qu'on voit ici en arrière-plan. Il s'élève à plusieurs centaines de mètres de haut !
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