And that big crater bottom left gets my vote after they finish with Endeavour.

Google (Mars) is your friend.



Oh! No problem at all; it's "only" 50km away...

I've been looking for Bopolu in the horizon pans, when we get to take them in that direction. I think we should be able to see it at some point, particularly as we roll off this "nose" of topography we're on and start our descent toward Endeavour - the topo also drops off to the southwest of us, and the intevening surface should 'get out of our way' soon.

-Tim.

That should be the intervening surface in southwest direction (~227°)

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...GP2427R1M1.HTML

If my math is correct, in the distance of 50km the rim have to be at least 368m... eh, ~370m high to appear over a flat horizon.

Could you point out the "high point" of our current path? More or less the point in which we could get a clear horizon view?

I like this thinking!
Let's see, we're just approaching the 19km mark, so just another 15 years and we're there?

It is interesting that of the 4 craters in that Google image, all have obvious ejacta aprons except Endeavour. Does that imply Endeavour is much more ancient, or does it hint that the geology is different? (and apologies in advance if I'm regurgitating previous posts)

Speaking not as a geologist, but as someone who played on the beach as a kid, Endeavor looks like a crater made in wet sand.

I'm off work today, so it'll have to wait until Monday. Problem is that the MOLA topography is pretty coarse in longitude in particular, so there could be higher frequency topography in the near and mid distance that isn't resolved by MOLA. Plus, we're near the edge of a large convergence angle stereo pair taken around April, so I can't see the smaller features in the stereo either. But in general we should be able to see more as we progress south and southeast from our current location. We have to take a gander periodically, which requires pointing pancam in the direction we're not driving. Probably albedo pans are our best bet for dection followed by targeted imaging. Or Navcam if the Bopolu rim is high enough to show at that scale.

-Tim.

As I recall, the thought is that Endeavour is very old, and the older terrain is draped by overlying sediment. The rim of Endeavour apparently is elevated above the sediment and has a distinctly different composition than what we've seen so far ... which is why it is an interesting destination to drive towards. Oppy has been driving over the overlying sediment all along, so reaching the rim of Endeavour would be a chance to see some really new geology. An argument may also be made that water may once have pooled within Endeavour, making for further interesting geology. The other craters, being more recent, would lack all or part of the sediment draping. Iazu (to the south in the Google Mars image) has the "splosh" outline characteristic of an impact into wet/icy terrain, while Bopolu (to the southwest) seems to lack this, perhaps indicative of different eras at the time of impact.

Endeavour is "under" the Meridiani sulfate deposits, poking through them, whereas Bopolu and Iazu formed after the deposits were laid down.

-Tim.

That fits with the impression I get of Bopolu that it looks like one of those "splat" craters in the icy soil regions. I'd be willing to predict that there would be evidence of flowing water on the downslope regions of the denser ejecta apron. In fact if you look at about the five o'clock position on Bopolu some river-canyon features are definitely visible which would have been cut by brief catastrophic melt/flooding.

Mark in your agendas...canyoning on Mars with Oppy by 2015.

I agree with your math. Can anyone estimate the height of Bopolu's rim above the surrounding plains using GM or whatever?

Try this:
http://hrscview.fu-berlin.de/cgi-bin/ion-p...

There is an elevated 'island' almost due south of us at about the same distance. Actually it's at the end of a larger peninsula that seems to rise above the plains, perhaps part of a very large crater rim. That island does look as if it casts an appreciable shadow so might also be worth checking out if someone is working on elevations. It has the added advantage of being located front centre for a southbound traveller.

http://www.google.com/mars/#lat=-3.118576&...mp;q=spacecraft