Monthly Archives: January 2011

Oppy’s image pipeline hasn’t dried-up yet, some pictures are still coming back, so let’s catch up on what Oppy has been taking a look at… First of all, Oppy has been taking another look at “Rodrigo de Jerez”, a strange grouping … Continue reading →

Seven years ago today, Opportunity landed on Mars. And I was there. Not actually there, of course. I wasn’t there in the control room at JPL, where dozens of MER engineers, techs and mission scientists were packed in like sardines, shoulders … Continue reading →

Seven years after landing on Mars, Oppy is taking a well-deserved rest, standing still near the edge of Santa Maria to conduct an in-depth study of an exposed plate of pale, ancient bedrock, “Luis de Torres”, that was altered by water many … Continue reading →

It’s hard to believe, but it’s true: seven years ago, the Mars Exploration Rover “Opportunity” landed on Mars. Seven years. And the rover, which was, famously, meant to last 90 days, is Still Working, still driving across Mars, still making … Continue reading →

Now this is interesting. I can’t claim any credit for the idea behind making this animation because I saw it done on a Mars-related forum by a member called “Psych”. It’s a two frame animation (although you won’t actually see … Continue reading →

The latest batch of raw images to come back from Oppy includes several sets of red, green and blue filtered images, which allowed me to make colour views of the hills of Endeavour crater. I’m really pleased with them, and … Continue reading →

If you’re a regular reader (and if you are, thank you for being one!) you’ll know that as well as this blog I also write poetry inspired by astronomy, including poems about the missions of the Mars rovers. For a while … Continue reading →

As you can see from that 3D picture, Oppy has started to work on the exposed outcrop “Luis de Torres”, lowering her robot arm onto it to allow the package of scientific instruments on the end to get to work … Continue reading →

Here’s an image I’ve made just for fun. I’m not claiming it’s 100%realistic or accurate as far as the colours are concerned – although the Sun’s position is as accurate as Starry Night can place it – I just thought … Continue reading →

What would it be like to walk alongside Oppy as she trundles around Santa Maria crater? Well, I can show you… sort of… ish… Here’s an animation I made yesterday, adding together more than 20 small Oppy images to make … Continue reading →