Mars and Me: Opportunity Sol 957 (Spirit Sol 978)

2011-10-03

Opportunity Sol 957 (Spirit Sol 978)

So all we have to do is approach Cape Verde. It would help if we knew where it was: we have dueling localization estimates, and in the end we take our best guess.

Thanks to the recent flight software upload, we're nervous about using our usual waypoint commands anywhere near the crater. So we sequence a 40m shot at Cape Verde, using lower-level driving and reinforcing turns every 5m. The last 5m uses guarded motion -- it will autonomously stop if it detects a hazard, such as a cliff edge -- but otherwise there's nothing fancy.

It's gonna be a hell of a view. Victoria Crater is an awesome place, well worth the slog it took to get here.

Since we're shooting toward the crater rim, we decide to put in a few keepout zones to make doubly (actually, triply) sure we don't go in. Since circles are the easiest kind of keepout zone to specify, we put a big circle directly in our path, and two smaller ones off to the sides. I take a look from the overhead view in RSVP ... then adjust the two smaller circles slightly, and it's perfect: the Mickey Zone of Death.