Great words from BrianL...
Wonderful indeed, each and every one of us as part of the original Endeavour crew, facing challenges and delighting us with moments of pure beauty, exploring unroved ground...
The journey...the journey! Not the arrival!

Doug, it could not possibly be a path of joy the entire way...because, simply, that is not the nature of the Epics!

Of course we can think that getting stucked for too many sols is a dreadful think to happen but...at this distance...would the road to Victoria have been the same without Purgatory? Doug, it could not possibly be a path of joy the entire way...because, simply, that is not the nature of the Epics! These require Drama!

EDITED: Stu, fantastic poem, but..."rest now little one..."?!
I thought you had learned something in the last days about Oppy's powers to surprise us...by then she'll be, not trekking, but flying her way out of Endeavour...

marsophile...looks like the first martian attempt to launch a rover towards Earth was successful!

I can only do a quick stitch of that mosaic.


This was a "drive direction" mosaic, meaning that the plan is to go on that direction. "Cape Victoria" might be our next stop and the view from here towards Cabo Frio, Verde, St Mary should be impressive.

Yes, it should be

360 degree view on Sol 1664 (anyone is thirsty ) :


And the 1666 non-complete view, the same as the -beautiful- Michael Howard pan

It looks like the antenna on my desktop weather alert radio. I don't actually believe that is what it is, but I wanted to get the ball rolling.

Jack

Thanks Paolo, so you're not only driving, you can manage imagery!
Well, anyway, I'll be more confortable if you stay focused in the drive dirrection instead of the rear

Endeavour is SO big that even when we'll "arrive", we'll not be there yet. From now on, it's going to be ONLY a journey Rui, only a journey

At times it's safer or easier for the rovers to drive backwards.


Paolo Amoroso

I am focussed on driving. That specific image was captured to visually inspect the tracks before turning the vehicle to a heading that would maximize uplink to Odyssey.
Knowing what heppened on the previous drive will help in setting up the next one. In this specific image, clean track, no signs of sinkage, Opportunity was sober.

Paolo

True. In what instances it is best to drive backwards?

Paolo

Uphill, or when either front wheel is locked

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...FP1997R0M1.HTML

The feature also appears in

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...23P1818L0M1.JPG

so it is not a cosmic ray hit.

It looks like it could be a rock being blasted into the air on a ballistic trajectory by a nearby meteor strike, however unlikely that may be.

No - those two images are one and the same - the M1 at the end is the first produced version of that image. If a piece of it doesn't come down, or comes down again, they make an M2 version or M3 etc etc.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...23P1818R0M1.JPG
and
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...3P1818RL0M1.JPG

Were taken at the same time - and the feature is only in one - so it is an imaging artifact, not a real object.

An image artifact?
And here I was thinking that crazy swiss rocketman had made it this far...


Are you sure Doug?...

I remember reading that it was thought that one of Spirit's front wheels developed a problem because the front wheels on Rovers are most highly stressed. I thought that for this reason that during Opportunity's trek to Victoria it was decided to alternate between driving forwards and driving backwards every few SOLs to even out the wear on Opportunity's 6 wheels.

Am I correct?