The Open day was an opportunity to be a little more relaxed about the trials and to invite the local people and tourists of Tenerife to come and see Bridget in action. We had many visitors including Parador staff and their families, local interest groups, people that had seen the news reports on the Television and in the newspapers. We even had a group from the European Parliament who happened to be in the area as well as a group of scientists interested in the survival of lichens in space. Children with their parents were given the opportunity to get up close to the rover and some even got the opportunity to control the PanCam or Bridget. A fun day was had by all with the PRoVisG and Rover teams explaining how the rover works and how the Field Trials were going. Despite the welcome interruptions we managed to get through a good amount of work, achieving around 70% of the results of a normal imaging day. 1) Doing 70% of the Scheduled plan in terms of imaging (see plan below) KEY to the days plan (below) Pan = panorama vo = visual odometry (a form of distance measurement that uses camera images)
 2) Bumping into some members of the European Parliament that were staying in the Parador Hotel and having the chance to tell them about PRoVisG and Bridget.  3) Having another good, productive day of Field Trials.
4) Having the chance to show Bridget to people and make them enthusiastic about space.
5) Having run out of battery and not being able to drill --> We'll have to start earlier tomorrow to compensate. Actually that's not a highlight. That's a lowlight, but since it's solvable, there is no problem.
To see more pictures of the day, see below (alternatively try the PicasaWeb Link. )
Read the blog for the day - Blog 17/09/11 |