A ~140m drive on Sol 1175 has brought the rover at the outskirts of the exposed light colored bedrock which will be the field for proximity science and sampling for the next month(s). The new RMC is 53.0000.
The location shown is a triangulation estimate. The path is a guess.
This is the lowest exposed area of the bedrock at Bright Angel, maybe the best candidate for proximity science and sampling. Also the area with fewer visible boulders, which apparently have tumbled down the steep northern bank.
Marsquakes are rare, but who would risk the rover being hit by a rock while doing science there? 😬
LOL! Sorry (not really) to be a party pooper, but are we supposed to cheer for #SpaceX each and every time they test a rocket? Whether it explodes on the launch pad, in mid-air, upon re-entry or upon landing? Have we done so with other tests? Like with NASA's tests, which are paid for directly by the taxpayer?
No, we haven't. So then, wake me up when the tests are done with and a usable rocket can fly and transport cargo and people safely to somewhere.
Warm greetings to those 2000 people who chose to receive my occasional 65 dB bursts of space, tech, art, and political noise, thus turning them into messages bearing meaning rather than letting them slip into obscurity "like tears in rain" ¹
(I obviously disapprove of the word "followers")
For those technically inclined, 65 dBA is a legal limit for outdoors noise at residential areas.
The Fediverse.
Such a lovely place.
¹ like tears in rain: A nod to Rutger Hauer's monologue in Blade Runner.
NASA is moving forward with 10 studies to examine more affordable and faster methods of bringing samples from Mars’ surface back to Earth. The following companies and proposals were selected:
• Lockheed Martin
• SpaceX
• Aerojet Rocketdyne
• Blue Origin
• Quantum Space
• Northrop Grumman
• Whittinghill Aerospace
• NASA centers
• JPL
• JH/APL
Gael Langevin is a French sculptor and designer. His creation is InMoov, the first Open Source 3D printed life-size robot.
The body expressions Gael gas programmed into his 'poem' (the original meaning of the word, 'ποίημα', is 'something made') are worth a thousand words and this one: Art.
What astounds me in political commentary these days is the complete lack of analytical depth, as if political systems did not exist and everything were a matter of good or bad will of persons, like, Trump, Musk, the rich and the Republicans are bad, Biden, Obama, (Soros?) and the Democrats are good, etc. It's like Neanderthals looking up at night, seeing the planets move, and describing it to others. No theory, no underlying physics, no cause and effect.
On Sol 1168 the rover moved to RMC 52.5032 across the ancient riverbed and stopped a few meters away from a light colored layer of rock at the foot of the northern bank, which appears to be the same layer with that of Bright Angel.
¹"the bacon strip": unofficial name for a light colored layer of rock back at the Three Forks area.
The HiRISE/USGS imagery has been imported into QGIS and since forgotten. I'm not fiddling with the rest of the imagery any more, though I used to do that earlier in this mission.
"Space economy" seems to have real impact on the way NASA engages with the public. I've spent a lot of time creating workflows with their data, e.g. for the #MarsWeather reports, LA, etc, but they're now discontinuing services while the mission is still active. That's not very encouraging.
@65dBnoise I think we've all seen the decline in the timelines of the release of new data, and in some cases the complete loss of some data with the move to the new style web pages. Not encouraging at all. It's a sad state of affairs. I did use the on-line feedback form to complain, but I feel that was just shouting into a vacuum