Data Set Overview : This RDR is produced by OPGS to provide the position and orientation of various coordinate systems indexed by the Rover Motion Counter, or RMC. An RMC file is nothing more than a collection of coordinate system definitions expressed in an XML formatted text file. Two important specializations of the file are described here - Site Vector Files (SVF) and Rover Vector Files (RVF). For an in depth discussion of all RMC files, please refer to the MER Project Software Interface Specification (SIS), Rover Motion Counter (RMC) Master File, Version 1.0, JPL D-22854, August 1, 2004.  Processing : This Operations RDR is generated by OPGS/MIPL using the Mars Suite of VICAR image processing software at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The input is a series of numbers that are used to keep track of the location of a rover. Any time an actuator on the rover moves, the RMC is incremented. This allows ground software to keep track of data that was acquired from the same location.  Data : Site Vector Files ----------------- A Site Vector File (SVF) is an RMC file that contains nothing but Site Frame definitions. Each Site is defined relative to the immediately previous Site, and all Sites back to 0 must be defined (Site 0 has no reference and is not in the file). Thus the file defines a continuous chain of Sites from 0 up to the current Site.  Site Vector Files are used to determine the relationship between Sites. Since EDR's do not contain any Site Frame definitions in their labels, and RDRs may contain at most one, an SVF is required any time data from more than one site is being compared or combined.   Rover Vector Files ------------------ Similar to a Site Vector File, a Rover Vector File (RVF) contains nothing but Rover Frame definitions. However, instead of containing _all_ Rover Frame definitions, an RVF file contains only Rover Frame definitions within one Site. Thus different RVF files will exist for each Site.  RVF files will typically not contain an entry for each and every RMC within their Site. Instead, an RVF file contains an entry for every RMC at which the rover location changed.  If it is subsequently determined that the rover moved between drives (say, the IDD moved the rover), then a solution is generated for that, and an entry is created in the RVF for the RMC value at which the move occurred.  Thus, the file contains only deltas - RMC values at which the location of the rover changed.   Coordinate System : There are several types of coordinate frames in use by MER (see [EDR SIS]). For the purposes of this document, the Site and Rover frames are the most important.  Each type of frame has many different instances. For example, every time the rover moves, a different instance of the Rover coordinate frame is created (since the Rover frame is attached to the rover). A different Site frame is created whenever the project declares a Site. The RMC is used to indicate which instance of a coordinate frame is being referred to.   Software : The OPGS/MIPL Mars Suite of VICAR image processing was used to generate these RDRs.   Media/Format : The data set will initially be delivered and kept online. Upon Mission completion, the RMC Operations RDRs will be delivered to PDS on DVD.

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