http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=681&view=findpost&p=178234. It's time to move on.
Next target? Philosilicates.
-----
Edited on Sep 16 2011.
This thread is dedicated to the exploration of Cape York, starting on sol 2703 when Opportunity left the "rocky garden" and started moving towards Chester Lake.
As soon as we move to the east edge of CY, I think the view to Endeavour's far side and the north rim will improve significantly.
Sol 2703-2704 Navcam panorama (updated)
http://midnightmartian.com/space/images/MERB2703_2704NavcamLeft.jpg
http://midnightmartian.com/space/images/MERB2703_2704NavcamRight.jpg
http://midnightmartian.com/space/images/MERB2703_2704NavcamAnaglyph.jpg
I just finished reading http://www.planetary.org/news/2011/0901_Mars_Exploration_Rover_Update.html (by Salley Rayl @ TPS); a great reading with a lot of goodies, as usual. I'm copying here a reference about our next waypoint:
Some goodies from today...
To any Canadian, HBC can only mean Hudson's Bay Company... though maybe to a MER driver it means something different... did Oppy lose a hubcap?
Phil
So what might these 3 plus billion year old clay deposits actually look like to Opportunity's cameras? Are they likely to be dramatically obvious or very subtle perhaps indistinguishable from their surroundings?
This may help visualize where we are: http://midnightmartian.com/space/images/MERB2703-2706View1_labels.jpg http://midnightmartian.com/space/images/MERB2703-2706View2_labels.jpg
Here is the HBC mosaic:
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php/b2706
Nice!
Sol 2707 Navcam http://midnightmartian.com/space/images/MERB2707NavcamLeft.jpg http://midnightmartian.com/space/images/MERB2707NavcamRight.jpg http://midnightmartian.com/space/images/MERB2707NavcamAnaglyph_far.jpg
http://midnightmartian.com/space/images/MERB2707PositionView.jpg
'Kirkland Lake' from the south,
pancam flicker gif, sol 2706
I love the crazy lustre of the bedrock in the latest pancams - Chester Lake perhaps?
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-07/1P368674572EFFBN00P2394L7M1.JPG?sol2709
How much information does the lustre give the geologically minded here about the rock? Can't wait to see this in colour...
I think it's going to awhile before the geologists get tired of this place
fredk's "Chester Lake" L2-5-7 pancams. Others can undoubtedly do better
I continue to be stunned and amazed, not only at the imagery coming from Oppy, but the gorgeous processing y'alls are doing. Thank you so many times!
"Chester Lake" looks very interesting. Ridges of harder, darker rock jutting up out of lighter rock... cracks... pits... it's got it all...
Some of the shiny bits do look like knobbly inclusions of a harder material, but others look like flat quadrilaterals bounded by
the surface crack patterns, as if they could be places where thin flakes of weathered surface material have recently broken away. I wonder if any of the loose flakes lying around the vicinity can be matched up shape-wise to individual shiny patches on the rock?
Chester Lake in 'false but trying' and 'stretched to within an inch' colours.
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php/b2709
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php/b2709
Fascinating...
Sol 2710 Navcam panorama http://midnightmartian.com/space/images/MERB2710NavcamLeft.jpg http://midnightmartian.com/space/images/MERB2710NavcamRight.jpg http://midnightmartian.com/space/images/MERB2710NavcamAnaglyph.jpg
Marvellous, guys! Starts to recall me Spirit Odyssey on Husband hill!
Some comments on Chester Lake (and a false colour (?!) pancam view) http://opportunityendeavour.blogspot.com/2011/09/story-and-context.html "Paraphrased" from Squyres:
Maybe it is the orbital images of that locality that look Noachian rather than that specific rock.
The new target is Salisbury... my home town! - I mean the one in Wiltshire, not one of the Salisburys in the colonies.
Phil
Another magnifcent view...
True that, Serpens. The geomorph of this area is more complex and convoluted than we we assume or possibly can imagine. It's like standing on a small chunk of the Canadian Shield and figuring out depositional environments with a handlens and a Brunton.
Ah, the comparative simplicity of seven years on the playa may have spoilt us...
--Bill (almost giddy with anticipation over impending MI's and APXS)
Could some of you tell a non-geologist what kinds of questions the new detail we're encountering might answer. What more will we learn about the history of Mars -- besides the overly mentioned issue of water.
Steve M
We don't know all the details, but it seems the sulfate and blueberry rocks of the plains we've just left were formed in a relatively brief period in the middle of Martian history. Water was there, and probably very salty and foul-tasting water! - not very pleasant for life. These rocks at Cape York are much older, and may have formed in very different conditions. What we hope to learn is, what were those conditions? Warm or cold? Reducing or oxidizing conditions? Acidic or alkaline? Lots of water or only a bit? Water in the ground, or melting out of overlying snow? So we would expect evidence of water, but it's the environmental conditions that are most important.
Phil
That is it, exactly. When a rock like basalt weathers, in the presence of water, it breaks down into clay minerals (the phyllosilicates in the news) and various anions and cations ("minerals" dissolved in the water). The type of clays, and other weathering byproducts, is dependent on the ionic makeup of the water to begin with, as well as the temperature and whether the environment was oxidizing or reducing. By looking at the weathered zone on the hill, we can tell what the conditions were way back then.
--Bill
Thanks Bill and Phil, that's a really clear, really useful explanation of the significance of this place. Much appreciated.
There is the complication of deciding whether any clays that may be found were formed by weathering of the basalts before the impact or after brecciation and deposition on the crater rim. It's not an easy puzzle.
Thanks Phil and Bill for that explanation and SteveM for the question.
Now I, as a non-geologist, understand what is going on on Mars
besides driving and taking pictures and measurements.
That is the purpose of this website, or not ?.
jan van Driel
It's above it. The latest navcam mosaic (from sol 2710) misses the peeble by just a few cm or so but the one taken at the previous site, before the final approach to Chester Lake, catches it. I highlighted the peeble and the whole area on this partly mosaic from sol 2707.
Actually they took a left Navcam image at the same time as the color Pancam image, and it fits in with the Sol 2710 panorama.
http://mmb.unmannedspaceflight.com/MERB2710_2713_Sept11_2011_View.jpg
Full 360 degree panorama with single color image:
http://mmb.unmannedspaceflight.com/MERB2710_2713_Sept11_2011_combined_medium.jpg
http://mmb.unmannedspaceflight.com/MERB2710_2713_Sept11_2011_combined.mov (5 MB)
Edit: Improved the images a bit.
Sorry I didn't get back earlier to thank Phil and Bill fore the helpful answers (doing some remodeling and those who've been there know what that does to free time).
Steve M
Time once again to play http://mmb.unmannedspaceflight.com/MERB2710_2714_mmb_view.jpg (Sol 2710-2714). See Stu's post for names; the bottom one with the NASA logo is "Salisbury 1".
As there were a lot of variations on the same image of Opportunity's IDD for 9/11, it was worth moving them all to their http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=7071.
NB: mhoward's panoramas which included the IDD shot were not moved as they incorporated the wider view of Oppy's current location.
Nice pair of rocks (names?).
A composite of the current pan plus names. I am finding it hard to go back to sites from years ago and recover the names used at the time - even the PDS interface to names is clumsy and incomplete. I would like to encourage our merry band to continue to document names as we have been doing here.
Phil
It looks like it might fall apart if you touched it.....and it kind of looks like a meatball
Stoughton, sol 2716 L456
According to Scott Maxwell's Twitter site, the IDD will brush and APXS - mossbauer the site with a grind on friday. But later says their is a lively debate on getting on with moving.
If they use the limmited resource of the grind, I bet a mossbauer is likely. And with the time that would take would a large super pan or super res shot take place in light of the not so hot tau?
Also the grinder doesn't have many grinds left. If it quits could you use a turning wheel with the rover in place like they did early in the mission to partly decrust rock -without hurting the wheel or contaminating the rock with wheel stuff?
Monty.
My interpretation of the 'Larder Lake' L2/5/7 pancam images, Sol 2715.
Ok, just finished splitting the "Cape York" thread. This new one starts with the approach to Chester Lake (and the Lakelands) and should be the current one 'til they finish sniffing and exploring this area. All posts related to Tisdale, Odyssey and previous sites should be posted on the other proper threads.
That is the start of the Endeavour pan. Those 5 will be joined by 10 more tomorrowsol, and hopefully more next week. All in L257 colour.
This is strange.
Over the last couple of weeks I've had serious problems trying to get the MI's to match up with the Pancams for location images. Today I think I found out why.
One of the oddities of the way MI's are presented is that the images are inverted compared to the "normal" Pancam (and other cameras) view. No problem, as standard procedure I invert the MI's after download so that they match the orientation of the Pancam images. Today I was attempting to match the latest MI's with the latest Pancams and I saw that the MI's are now being transferred in the same "correct" orientation as the Pancam images.
Has anyone else noticed this? I need to go back and check the past few week's MI's, and check also at Hortonheardawho's Flicker site (who frequently makes MI location charts).
--Bill
Remember - the MI could be oriented different way depending on where the IDD is placed. This isn't a post-production issue, so to speak.
NickF -- that's quite a tilt in your sol 2715 post. Are we already looking at hills in the distance?
The Panoramic L2 view of Endeavour Crater.
Taken on Sol 2715.
Jan van Driel
Beautiful Pan von Jan! Now I understand the tilted perspective in NickF's clip.
The numbers we've seen indicate tau has dropped a fair bit in the last month or so, but with these new pancams we can directly see how much the transparency has improved in the last few weeks. Compare these frames from 2679 and 2718 looking across to Iazu:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/p/2679/1P366016008EFFBM00P2384L2M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-17/1P369487946EFFBN19P2285L2M1.JPG?sol2718
According to the database it's the "Endeavour 1" mosaic, parts 1 and 2. Once it's down, the L257 color version should be really something. The color parts we've seen are already amazing. Lot of work to put it all together, though.
http://mmb.unmannedspaceflight.com/MERB2715_2718_Pancam_Endeavour1_L2_cropped.jpg
Thanks for the stitches, guys - this is a stunning view. Lots of colour variation too - the L2's are showing very different details than the L7's.
Here's a long baseline anaglyph from sols 2679 and 2718. The lighting is pretty different between the frames, and the stereo effect is pretty extreme for Solander point, so this may be one for the hard-core anaglyphers out there. Some nice structure on the inner slope of Tribulation, though.
Heads up for a RAT hole sometime tonight!
-m
Thanks to everyone for stitching the latest thrilling pan... what an amazing place this is...
If you want a new background on your computerscreen
here is the one.
Jan van Driel
"Just wait for me in the car while I go run up that hill for a sec..."
Nice preliminary RAT MI's this morning, and I was able to get things straightened out and produce a couple of IDD location images
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r91/wilga_photo/Oppy/L257-1P368674511EFFBN00P2394L2M1--annot.jpg
Other images at the P'bucket site linked below.
--Bill
Wow! That rock was awfully soft...look at all of the powder.
I'm glad the old girl wasn't given anything too difficult to chew
Is there a nice summary somewhere of what instruments are still working and what sort of science Opportunity is still able to do? Obviously the pictures alone are still spectacular, but I'm wondering what else is still working.
--Greg
Pancam - Fine, and less dusty than it has been
MiniTES - Bust
IDD - Azimuth joint bust - can position instrument along a vertical plane, not full 3D space.
APXS - Fine
MI - Fine
RAT - Fine ( but obviously, teeth are consumed to near death )
Mossbauer - VERY VERY tired. We're > 10 half-lives into it - so integrations that would have taken 6 hrs could technically take > 6 months. A good integration now would involved several weeks.
I can't help but think that if I were the MER team I'd aim for a likely looking rock in early November, do some documentation, put out the Moessbauer, and take a nice long Thanksgiving & Christmas holiday while it integrates!
From http://opportunityendeavour.blogspot.com/2011/09/day-in-life-bsols-2719-2721-secret.html
That rock was incredibly soft. I wasn't expecting that. In retrospect, perhaps I should have expected it. The outcrop is worn down just as flat as the surrounding Meridiani sandstones, so why wouldn't we expect it to be soft?
"Poor man's" superres from the 2720 Tribulation/Solander 16 L6 frames:
For sure. The surface we are looking at is the product of 3 bln years of deposition, weathering and erosion and each rock fragment tells a story. Some of these rocks are ejectite'd impactites.
There are going to be many profound papers generated from the data at this site.
I'm sure that they know precisely what the "hardness" of the rock is from the engineering data, which we in the p'nut gallery are not privy to. Just as they have an idea what mineral is represently by every "RGB color" we see in the Pancams. Even with seriously degraded IDD parts, geologists have made do with scratch plates, acid bottles and rock hammers and calibrated "TLAR"eyeballs for decades for mineral identification.
The first thing they are doing on Sol-2722 ("today") is making a FHazcam assessment of the RAT teeth("frhaz_RAT_bit_check_subframe") and getting ready to do chemistry ("front_haz_idd_apxs_doc").
Having snagged the post-grind Pancams of Salisbury1 from the 0:35 Data Express and done my preliminary oooh-ing and ahhh-ing, I'm hitting the sack again... yawnn
--Bill
Couldn't get my beauty rest, I ended up working on the new images. Note the implication of different mineralogy-- the RAT cuttings are purplish or gray, instead of the usual ochre or blue.
--Bill
Here's an attempt at a color flicker pair. L257, R21(synthesized green), animated GIF, anaglyph
All that different to earlier grindings?
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20040305a/16-jb-03-hole1-B041R1_br.jpg
Good example. This is the first RAT done in Eagle Crater on Sol-36.
More difference than 21km and 2+ Billion years...
--Bill
It would be interesting to compile a sequence of images showing the RAT holes at different dates - right now we are getting that small circle inside the larger one, which was not seen in the first hole. When did it start looking like that?
Phil
It may be a result of the damage to the RAT brush. At the very least it's not new. I see similar circle-within-a-circle patterns in http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=6852&view=findpost&p=170958 from Sol 2513.
The circle-within-a-circle is how the RAT operates. The carbide cutters are on an arm that moves around in a cyclical motion. You can see how it works in the images at the Athena site (the link to the "Honeywell Robotics" RAT site is dead):
http://athena.cornell.edu/the_mission/ins_rat.html
After the grind is done the brush is supposed to clear away the cuttings but the brush is kaflooey...
You can get an idea of how well it works from this animation:
http://images.spaceref.com/news/2004/rover.armspin.mov
--Bill
Interesting responses! But that's why it would be interesting to collect RAT images throughout the mission to see how the holes have varied in appearance. Anyone? (I don't have time right now)
Phil
... and even more useful for the person who makes the comparison image! Actually I think straight pancam images would be easier to use for this.
Phil
Ok, just thought it was worth a look for you. I'll have a delve into the archives tomorrow.
It's a great site, Stu! I just don't have time to look at this question right now - up to my ears in Itokawa problems.
Phil
A composite pancam/microscope image of the recent RAT hole in 'Chester Lake'
pancam L456 sol 2721
microscope sol 2719 (jvandriel's image from here)
I'm not familiar with that mineral, but AFAIK perlite is a volcanic glass (obsidian) that is hydrated and when heated, it expands producing a light weight, light-colored material. From the few pictures I've found it looks like a medium-greyish rock with a pearly luster. The diagnostic feature is that it expands greatly when heated.
What have we seen here that looks like perlite? And how was it identified? It would be good to find a perlite since that would imply an impact melt that was hydrated because it was created from a wet parent material.
Enquiring minds need to know...
--Bill
"Perlite" (I assume it's the same stuff) is a soil conditioner commonly used in hydroponic gardening. It's very soft - you can grind it between your fingers, and I think even under today's martian environmental conditions, exposed perlite would have long since eroded away from just the rarefied effects of the wind. I suppose there might be deposits of it buried underground dating from the noachian era, but very unlikely that it could be mined with just a RAT. (I'm no geologist - please let me know if this is a completely different substance I am thinking of.)
A break from mineralogy: the cyclops is crying.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2011-09-21/1P369487087EFFBN19P2285L2M2.JPG
The crater seems to collect and 'focus' the downslope streak.
Great view!
Phil
Ah is a gee-ologist but 40 years outta school. "Perlite", as far as I can tell, is a manmade product created by heating a hydrated obsidian to some 1600*F where the volcanic glass softens and the entrained water causes it to"foam up" and expand. And as far as I can tell, hydrated obsidian, the mineral, is also (and possibly informally) called "perlite". I don't think that the manmade commercial soil additive occurs in natural deposits anywhere. However, I wonder if the "hydrated obsidian" could refer to an impact melt created from a water-saturated source material. With certain temperatures/pressures/timeframes I can see this as "possible".
Over time, a glass can weather or degrade from a "glassy" form to a "crystalline" form, a process called "devitrification". In obsidian samples, this is seen as "snowflake obsidian". It could devitrify into a smectite or a clay mineral, but I've seen no suggestions at Salisbury1 of devitrification of the impact melt.
And, picking nits, obsidian is a siliceous rhyolytic glass which is not compatible with the mafic (silica-poor) basalts we see in this region of Mars, so we're looking for glass of basaltic composition, such as a tachylite.
Why get worked up this much about a volcanic glass? It may well be the best way to do a comparative study of the creation and weathering of impact melt (impact glass) on Mars.
--Bill
Here's an L2/5/7 composite from sol 2718, part of the 'big pan'. There are some subtlety fascinating variations in colour coming through.
Good points, Tom.
I think we are seeing glasses (impact melts) here-- we certainly see impact breccias with many angular clasts that have a vitreous appearance. If not from Endeavour, then from any of the several other impacts evident in the area.
We don't see that many Precambrian glasses here on Earth. But PC rocks here have been buried, metamorphosed, tectonicizated and generally weathered in a warm and wet oxidizing environment. On Mars, they've been in dry storage for megamillenia (by comparison), so I think that a glass would stay glassy much longer. But this is the first example we've been of the type, so who knows...
Google in usually your friend, but in this case was a tangle of ambiguity. Most of the hits for "perlite" were for the garden soil additive with loose pointers towards the volcanic glass mineral. And I've not seen my copy of Dana for decades...
What was the source of that "perlite" photo you showed? I tried to back my way out through the "bigcache.googleapis.com" URL but I got 404'd.
Nice new Pancams of site "Chester Lake2" this AM, and the tracking web suggests more MI's upcoming with soem APXS work. Then, I've heard, Oppy'll be moving on by the weekend.
These are interesting times...
--Bill
Sol 2722 Front Hazcam.
The RAT is still working.
Jan van Driel
As there are still missing data I haven't tried too hard to perfect this, but the the view is so astounding that I can't keep this preliminary version to myself!
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php/b2715
James
Absolutely gorgeous James! I've been trying to make the same view but can't get the ends to behave, or the colours to all blend, so I've gone with the central section and trying to bring out subtle shades and features in the central dome...
Both are spectacular! Thanks.
Phil
wowie! What a spectacular view.
Q- do we see haze in the distance? It looks so much like the San Fernando Valley, my brain computes an earth analog :-)
Apologies if this has already been discussed, I searched for "haze" in this topic and the Cape York thread.
Ah, good search. Being an imprecise name, I didn't use "perlite" with "obsidian" in the same search term.
Did dig up a couple of references via the image search:
The hydration and alteration of perlite and rhyolite
http://jgs.lyellcollection.org/content/166/5/895.abstract
and
--Bill
I don't know a thing how you all get the pictures and "driving data" from (I think) exploritorium. But, is there a way to see the results of the APXS that we're doing on Chester Lake from that data? Be great to know what the results of the Zinc levels and discuss it here.
No, sorry! You have to wait for the APXS team to announce something.
Phil
APXS = real science! There's no way the team would release the important stuff like that before they had a chance to publish the results themselves.
The pictures have relatively little science value (at least it's unlikely anyone would scoop the team and publish something based on the pics alone). That's why we get to see the pictures in real time.
True. It would be next to impossible to identify mineral makeup from pancam using the raw images from the web over only 11 wavelengths. Deconvolving spectra would be a huge challenge and would require data not available such as the CCD and electronics temperatures when the image was taken to enable proper calibration. The calibration target chips included hematite and goethite powder and were conditioned with UV exposure before launch, but after all this time could well have suffered from UV deterioration. I would assume that Jim Bell would have ensured laboratory spectra from expected minerals /combinations over expected temperature ranges using the actual deployed pancam to provide comnparative baselines. Certainly out of the amateur league.
But the Pancam and MI provide a huge amount of visual data and it is the correlation of all data that enables the production of the absolutely outstanding science papers we have become used to.
Three years ago today (if I've read the dates right), on sol 1661, Oppy paused in her trek around the edge of Victoria Crater, stopping just in front of a small crater called "Sputnik", and we all marvelled at the incredible vista before her: the great crater's capes and bays stretched away on all sides, its crumbling cliffs and dust-rippled floor all fighting for our attention. Oppy sent back three pictures of "Sputnik" which, when joined together, looked like this...
I'm getting dizzy! Hope we don't fall in...
Very nice pic, Stu.
Phil Stooke
Opportunity has been imaged on Cape York by MRO.
http://www.universetoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/ESP_024015_1775_crop1.jpg.
Mossbauer is down on the re-brushed Salisbruy-1 target and integrating away as we speak...*
Yay!
We plan to sit here for at least the remainder of the week, with MB measurements in the planning loop to determine when we like what we see. Some more magic from the team will be streaming out in the next 2 weeks as we hit the Nominal (planning 5 days/week) planning cycle!
-m
*EDIT: Well, in about half an hour... :
Have you got confirmation of this Matt? 2728 looks like another runout from the tracking data.
Stitched/sharpened/sprinkled with magic dust view of the Salisbury hole...
Wonderful post-brush MIs from Sol-2728-- they provide more tantalizing insights into character and properties of the rock and cuttings at Salisbury.
--Bill
The missing piece came down, so as promised I've had another go at this...
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php/b2715v2
James
An evocative masterpiece, congrats...
Heh, so the best laid plans of RATs and MERs...
Worked up an IDD location montage for Salisbury this morning. Interesting to see from the Pancams what Oppy's been grinding upon.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r91/wilga_photo/Oppy/salisbury_IDD_loc.jpg
--Bill
Oh, that's very good!
Phil
(to clarify, I mean both of the above two posts)
Possibly the best double act comment pair on the site, ever...
"Say goodnight, Gracie..."
Supposedly Oppy will be doing a MB integration at Salibury for a few days, but in the pipeline are images of the Next Drive Direction (P2397) and a super-res image set at Sutherland Point (presumably the post-C.York target).
--Bill
Yeah, there's a veritable fork in the road today and Monday. They are possibly going to simply "rinse and repeat" the last few sols' plans of MB integrations, since we get two "free" sols of it when we make the weekend plans on Fridays. There seems to be agreement that we shouldn't drive away just yet. Monday is likely going to be a "clean up and drive off" day.
-m
Agreed, the in-place bedrock nearby appears to be similar to Salisbury so Oppy's done all that can be done at this location. They might want to zap the RAT hole with the MB for a longer integration time, but that's all. They need to work their way up-hill to the next outcrop on the way to the CRISM clays near the "summit crater". Geologically there was so much happening here that moving a short distance up in the section will put us in a whole 'nuther sequence of events.
--Bill
I see you added some shear to the images to "flatten out" the anaglyph, James. Did you do that by hand, or using some automated routine?
That's quite the anaglyph! I wouldn't want to try driving over it if that was the real topography...
Phil
Colourised sol 2732 panorama...
It's important to differentiate between color and colorized. That mosaic, Stu - is color. Taking a Navcam pan and tinting it orange would be colorized.
One creates something with more information than the component parts alone, the other, technically, reduces it. Yours - importantly - is the former.
You're right, my mistake. Long, not particularly clean day at work, knackered, meant to say colour.
Fascinating place, Cape York, isn't it? And we were worried it would be a flat, featureless "Nothing to see here, move along" kind of place. Looking forward to looking back down on it from halfway up Tribulation one day...
Edit: 3D crop view...
Ah - that is why the result has some dramatic wavy distortions in it.
Phil
Here are some images I've worked up whilst musing the delivery of a set of "Next Drive Direction" Pancams last week.
First off is a recent HiRISE image of Cape York showing Oppy at the Chester Lake outcrop. Annotated, it shows Oppy as R, possible site "Skead Kirkland Lake" as 1, possible site "BostonCreek LarderLake" as 2 and an unidentified rock pile seen on the horizon of the drive direction panorama as 3. The dashed yellow line is simply the observed "trend" in the outcrops seen in the aerials-- the strata on the rim of crater Endeavour are tilted or uplifted and dip towards the northwest. Features aligned along this trend direction are likely of a similar age and, although there may be differences in the rocks, they are linked by time of formation. Strata downhill will be older and strata uphill will be younger in age. As a general rule, more-or-less.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r91/wilga_photo/Oppy/ESP_024015_1775_RED--crop-Next_Drive_Dir_Sol-2730-annot.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r91/wilga_photo/Oppy/1P370627485EFFBN19P2397L2M1-pano.jpg
The outcrop Skead Kirkland Lake is one we've drooled at before and is an interesting-looking exposure. Why is there an unusual purplish iridescent sheen to the rock? I'll guess it's a weathering phenomenon, which is the important step in turning silicate rocks into clays. Wouldn't hurt to have a closer look-- not necessarily a full IDD session, but a series of close-in Pancams would be peachy.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r91/wilga_photo/Oppy/L257-1P370716206EFFBN19P2398L2M1.jpg
Next would be the outcrop BostonCreek LarderLake **. Along the trend-timeline as Skead, but why is it different? Look at the number of beds seen in this outcrop. Whereas most of the rocks seen here have been a massive impact breccia (apparently), this unit is more finely bedded, which implies different depositional processes were at work here. And just over the hill is the "summit crater" with the CRISM clays scattered about, so "Boston" is a important puzzle piece. I tried to merge the color information with the grayscale detail, but couldn't get it to work out, so here are two similar but different views.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r91/wilga_photo/Oppy/L257-1P369207402ESFBN19P2540L2M1-1.jpg
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r91/wilga_photo/Oppy/1P370627552EFFBN19P2397L2M1--crop-enh.jpg
--Bill
** "BostonCreek LarderLake" has been named Shoemaker Ridge (after Gene Shoemaker, a planetary geologist).
Can't wait to get over that rise.
http://mmb.unmannedspaceflight.com/MERB2715_2732PancamAnaglyphL2R2.jpg
http://mmb.unmannedspaceflight.com/MERB2715_2732PancamL2_360x32_m.jpg
Short Question regarding Coloring of Photos.
Is there any site out there that shows how Nasa or JPL converts the Black and White images into true Color Images?
Thanks.
From the Cornell Pancam team with multiple references:
http://pancam.astro.cornell.edu/pancam_instrument/projects_1.html
That's as close to " how Nasa or JPL converts the Black and White images into true Color Images" as you will find.
This is more of a laypersons discussion of it:
http://www.highmars.org/niac/education/mer/
From the latest http://www.planetary.org/news/2011/0930_Mars_Exploration_Rover_Update.html some news about Chester Lake:
Question about an image posted in the http://www.planetary.org/news/2011/0930_Mars_Exploration_Rover_Update.html: what is the feature running from top left to bottom right? If it's not the rim of Endeavour, is it another crater rim, or some kind of lava flow? A shoreline from the watery past?
Apologies in advance if this has been discussed; searching continues to baffle!
And as an accompaniment with the above image, a slightly enlarged (120%) and sharpened anaglyph of the southern half of Cape York, all the way to the phyllosilicate crater - complete with Oppy! (Hopefully answering brellis's question too. )
Sifting through the wonderful PS update, it seems to be the SW edge of Cape York. Correct?
edit: thanks wiggle!
Another question: is the bright feature in the distance in this pic the eastern edge of Cape York? Why is it bright? Okay, that was two questions!
edit: I referred to it as the Ventura Freeway in the context of a crater the size of the San Fernando Valley, CA. A bright feature running through the middle-right of the pic
ADMIN EDIT : Removed embedding of image - it was 4500 pixels across.
Use a link and/or thumbnail
http://www.db-prods.net/marsroversimages/Opportunity/2011/Sol2681-pancam.jpg
The "Ventura Freeway" from your link appears to be a stretch of bright dunes skirting Endeavour's enormous mound.
Google Mars suggests these dunes are some 3km in the distance...
Thanks, Dan. I always get lost in the SF valley, lol
Moved a few posts to start the new thread "http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=7081".
As usual, posts related to the upcoming destination Shoemaker Ridge, there. Posts related to Chester Lake, still here.
Technically, we are still in the "Lakelands" area when we get to the next stop "Skead Kirkland Lake ". From a lithologic and staratigraphic standpoint "Skead" and "Chester" are quite similar, whereas "BostonCreek LarderLake" (now known as "Shoemaker Ridge") is indeed quite different than anything we've seen.
No big deal, just noting a technicality...
--Bill
The PS update noted that Steve Squyres mentioned that Chester Lake “"has sort of a basaltic composition. It does not have a zinc enrichment like we saw at [Tisdale 2]."
”
The published APXS comparative graph for Tisdale 2 showed elevated Zn and Br but did not address Cu. I think that enhanced Br is consistent with basaltic glass but If Cu was also elevated it would possibly indicate past, hot hydrothermal activity. If not then possibly a cold seep or basaltic weathering (plagioclase?). Does anyone have any idea of the Cu level?
Meridiani on the edge of the Tharsis uplift? That's a bit of a stretch!
Phil
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