I have only anecdotal evidence to support this, but:
Looking at images like this from the same time last Martian year, when we were on the crater floor, it seemed pretty dusty then, as well.
We’ve known for quite some time, however, that this general time of year (northern hemisphere winter) is dusty, and we’re not very far into spring as yet. I think there would be a lot of science value in observing dust devil and wind gust activity from a significant elevation like this, and I long to see the kind of views you’re talking about as well. Unfortunately, dust devils are more of a summer thing, and the mission seems determined to get Percy up and over the summit ASAP. I personally learned to look at Mars differently after seeing the colour images from Ingenuity’s later flights, and the perspective on this canyon and delta region from the summit could be significant, not to mention inspiring… provided we could actually see what the view really has to offer.
I’ve complained about the nosebleeds enough already, so I’m going to refrain from commenting on Ken Farley’s driving habits.
Agreed re dusty seasons, it’s bad timing and a great pity. There have been a number of recent dust devils in Jezero captured by the cameras. One of the image processing nerds on Mastodon posts them occasionally, but they are usually impossible to see in the raw NavCam image sets, as they are so feint, it takes special processing to extract the data. I’ll see if I can find some of his posts and share them here.
There’s a new set of NavCam images just hit the server on sol 1343, complete with a ‘RMC site’ number change (to 63.0000). However a close review of the HazCam images from 1342 and 1343, shows us that the rover is in the exact same place. So I’m assuming it was either a failed drive, or there were issues with the motion sensors at the end of the drive on 1342 that forced a reset. We won’t know the cause either way unless we get one of those rare mission updates, or we wait 6 months and see the mission managers repot in the PDS
I have only anecdotal evidence to support this, but:
Looking at images like this from the same time last Martian year, when we were on the crater floor, it seemed pretty dusty then, as well.
We’ve known for quite some time, however, that this general time of year (northern hemisphere winter) is dusty, and we’re not very far into spring as yet. I think there would be a lot of science value in observing dust devil and wind gust activity from a significant elevation like this, and I long to see the kind of views you’re talking about as well. Unfortunately, dust devils are more of a summer thing, and the mission seems determined to get Percy up and over the summit ASAP. I personally learned to look at Mars differently after seeing the colour images from Ingenuity’s later flights, and the perspective on this canyon and delta region from the summit could be significant, not to mention inspiring… provided we could actually see what the view really has to offer.
I’ve complained about the nosebleeds enough already, so I’m going to refrain from commenting on Ken Farley’s driving habits.
Agreed re dusty seasons, it’s bad timing and a great pity. There have been a number of recent dust devils in Jezero captured by the cameras. One of the image processing nerds on Mastodon posts them occasionally, but they are usually impossible to see in the raw NavCam image sets, as they are so feint, it takes special processing to extract the data. I’ll see if I can find some of his posts and share them here.
There’s a new set of NavCam images just hit the server on sol 1343, complete with a ‘RMC site’ number change (to 63.0000). However a close review of the HazCam images from 1342 and 1343, shows us that the rover is in the exact same place. So I’m assuming it was either a failed drive, or there were issues with the motion sensors at the end of the drive on 1342 that forced a reset. We won’t know the cause either way unless we get one of those rare mission updates, or we wait 6 months and see the mission managers repot in the PDS