Opportunity Sol 1105 (Spirit Sol 1125)

It's a straightforward day in the Land of Opportunity as we bump all of about 8m to the rim of Cabo Corrientes, setting ourselves up to take the first eye of our long-baseline stereo image here. It's kind of a yawner, as these things go, since I have a shadow (Tara) doing all the real work. I kinda miss the days when I actually got to drive the damn rover once in a while.

I do have one clever idea that makes me feel glad I showed up. Our post-drive imaging is a 3x1 NCAM, which is way more than we really need to support the 4m bump we'll do next. We pretty much know where it'll go, since it has to be perpendicular to the wide-baseline stereo images, so we don't have as much uncertainty about the drive direction as a 3x1 NCAM provides for. My moderately clever idea is to take a 2x1 in the likely direction and a 1x1 in the opposite direction, just in case we realize there's not enough room one way and we'll have to go the other way instead. Both directions are perpendicular to the imaging direction, so either one could potentially serve the purpose.

OK, maybe "clever" is overstating the case. I'm just trying to justify my existence, okay? Work with me, here.

[Next post: sol 1128 (Opportunity sol 1107), March 6.]