I'm curious to see crism data of the interior of endeavour crater...is there a link?

Whats the record for the russian rover on the moon? 35km??

Cant recall where but i had read that there was a possibility that the water activity in meridiani could be related to lava coming into contact with ice underground when the tharsis bulge was forming... meridiani lies on a slope from the tharsis bulge and mariner valley is close by!

Just wish that you are right and that Oppy will survive to give us those years for future work and discovery!!

The Endeavour central mound looks to me like its a windblown basaltic sand dune like el dorado at spirits site...i'm not seeing any layering there....besides it seems to be too dusty and dangerous for Oppy to drive on it...most likely it will get stuck just as it did at purgatory!

@ Stu amazing pic well done!

@ Toma I wish I was there myself right now I would probably have walked around the whole place by now and would be on top of Tribulation already to get a better view of the surroundings and phyllos!

Looking at orbital images of CY makes one think that phyllosilicate signature on top of it would be inaccessable to Oppy but looking at it from the ground, it shows up to be a gentle navigable slope for the rover IMHO so its just a matter of days before we get to sniff some new rock so just sit back and enjoy!!

Thanks neo for that..I was wondering at which point along CY would oppy get to sniff phylosilicates.

I'v been tryimg to look for crism data of CY. Could someone post a link? Thanks

Not quite there....almost there...how high is that step onto Spirit point?

So when is the final drive to Spirit point planned?

I was in Carson valley Nevada exactly this time last year and I know what you mean!!

Wow Botany bay seems rough terrain to me! Hope it wont be a prob for Opportunity to get to Spirit point from here!

I bet he's looking for potential martian microbes up in the arctic ice!

Steve Squyres must be a happy man! Arent we all!

Is it going to be about methane or new finding of calcium carbonate??

How far are we from Cape York?

I am no planetary geologist and therfore may not be knowledgable to answer such queries but I think that CY forms part of endeavour crater rim and thus represents material excavated from deeper layers on Mars which presumably contain the clays which predate the sulphates!

would the hump be a volcano and the surrounding grooves, lava flows?

Looking at the 3D Hirise image again, there seems to be a ridge just before getting to cape York! The cape is hidden behind this ridge and it will take opportunity to ascend right to the top of this ridge before it will get a good whole view of the cape.

Having sulphates and clays at the same site could be interesting in identifying climatic changes that occurred 3-4 billion years ago not to mention dinosaur bones!

To be fair, there seems to be a lot of traversibility for the rover to do and thus years of work on Mars which is exciting in itself.

well said sunspot..I feel that NASA wants to make up for the disappointment of landing Spirit in Gusev and now we get Gale.

I see that those who have been lobbying for GALE seem to be having it their way at last! I was more keen on Mawrth which didnt seem to have been favoured for most of the time ..thats my impression ! Oh well, despite this, Gale seems to be an exciting destination and now just hope that Curiosity gets to MARS!

I'm hoping MSL will last a lifetime! I'm not in a postion to judge on the eventual site selected and I trust that the engineers and scientists will make the best choice at the end. All I am saying is that I prefer Mawrth for the simple reason that it represents the earliest Martian history compared to the other sites. Its like reading a book..u want to read from the start rather than start from the middle section for it to make more sense. This is my judgement. Whether I am right or wrong I'll leave it to the people directly involved in this decision.I'll be happy with whatever they decide. At the end of the day what counts is that we'll have another Mars mission to follow for years to come and that makes me excited wherever it happens on Mars!