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Doubletrackin’

Doubletrackin’
Doubletrackin’ Here and there in May, Opportunity “hit that perfect combination of really smooth terrain from all of the dust and sand” she was driving over, said Lead Flight Director and Rover Planner Mike Seibert. The road was so smooth in fact, there were times that, when the rover backtracked, it confused its Visual Odometry system. “When the cleat pattern repeats itself in the same spot in the image, the VO doesn’t think we’ve moved or thinks we’ve moved too much,” he said. “But aside from that, what we have been driving over has been fantastic.” NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / ASU