A roughly assembled post drive R-NavCam panorama using MS-ICE to assemble the 31 frames from Sol 4660 (September 15, 2025) Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech. I’ll post details of the drive once I have them.

  • frank@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    3·
    1 month ago

    What are drive details like? Besides the path it took and how it differed from expectations?

    • SpecialSetOfSieves@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      1 month ago

      Here’s an example from the Perseverance rover community - it includes details like the length of the drive (in metres and in minutes), the rover’s geographic position, orientation and elevation at the end of the drive, and so on.

      We don’t have any information on what the expectations or plans are for the drives when we get this data - that is only reported months later, when planning data is publicly released. Paul Hammond and I are slowly working on making this sort of information more accessible (I’m trying to add annotated maps and context, for example), so if you have any ideas on what you’d like to see from these updates, feel free to share.

      • frank@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        3·
        30 days ago

        Super cool. I think the most surprising part of all of this is that it hit over 20* positive pitch, that seems like a lot and a bit risky?

        • paulhammond5155@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          3·
          29 days ago

          I think the most surprising part of all of this is that it hit over 20* positive pitch, that seems like a lot and a bit risky?

          I believe it’s well inside the design tilt limits, however I’m unable to locate the actual reference at this time. The highest end-of-drive pitch by Curiosity was on Sol 2692, the pitch was +28.51°, which provided a maximum tilt of +29.12°. IIRC that tilt was exceeded mid drive when it was climbing onto a ridge earlier in the mission. Tilt fault protection is enabled by default during each drive, and the nominal flight tilt limit is 30°. However, the tilt limit is typically lowered by the Rover Planners for each drive or drive segment, based on the maximum predicted tilt experienced in the simulation of the planned drive. If I can find the reference docs, I’ll add another reply.

          • paulhammond5155@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
            3·
            29 days ago

            If I can find the reference docs, I’ll add another reply.

            I found the mission update (Sol 2693 issued in March 2020) that referred to the rover exceeding a 30 degree tilt during a drive link They don’t provide the exact tilt value, just that they were a fraction of a degree less than the record held by Opportunity rover of 32 degrees tilt (March 10, 2016)