Awsome image, Nico

This one really makes appetite for all the coming VPPs .. "Victoria Panorama Parties"

am I still dreaming this morning or

do the

new pics at exploratorium

mean that the Victoria Trek has already begun ???

OK, not so fast I should check the time stamps first ... coudl be only older images getting in now after the re-boot ...

Bye Bye Beagle !

Yes it seems so, and yes I welcome it too. Victoria are a far more interesting target with lower and older sediments or layers to be studied that if.... Opportunity can enter the crater.

Here's a spherical projection of the Sol 907 Navcam pan (what there is of it). Again this is equirectangular, so you can display it panorama mode in a spherical viewer like FSPViewer.



It's oriented with North at center, by the way - that's why it isn't lined up in an eye-pleasing way.

And here's the Pancam drive-direction mosaic:

I have really been looking forward to this final leg of the journey! The race has been long and at times rough. Ever since leaving Endurance in December of 2004 the ultimate goal for this rover has been to get to the grand victory price of the mission, Victoria Crater! An exhausting race is now headed for the final sprint across the smooth pavement towards the finnish line.

Hail the little rover that could! (More than anyone ever dreamt of)

Enjoy the final push!

Amen to that. Godspeed, little rover.

Marked with a blue cross across a white background, no doubt.

Personally, I would have been content to see them investigate Beagle a little more thoroughly, but ... oh, well.

Anyway, here's to a safe journey across the apron, and a swift wind in her sails.

I, too, would have expected a little more time spent at Beagle, but they did a quick scratch-and-sniff, did they not? I think perhaps they're able to look at things in given wavelengths and with the mini-TES and can generalize to rock types we've seen and analyzed in detail elsewhere. And how close in do you have to get to be able to spend time later, leisurely going through your mini-TES and pancam mosaics, analyzing the way various layers seem to be jumbled around?

I think maybe they got enough to fill in most of the pieces -- and that maybe some of what they'd look for wouldn't be evident until after they get to Victoria anyway.

Besides, once we get done spending a couple of Martian years inside Victoria, we'll be able to study the other edge of the Victoria ejecta blanket as we cross it, heading towards the distant Big Crater...

-the other Doug

And, to semi-celebrate this new leg of the traverse, is a re-post of an image I did some time ago showing Barringer Crater and Victoria Crater at the same scale.

If you have ever visited Barringer, this comparison will add to the depth of what we will see at Victoria.

--Bill

Oppy started to leave as the predicted time by the JPL one week ago.

On time! Then when I looked East - East South ahead, I started to feel somewhat uncomfortable. Not yet there is a easy driving. So the rover driver must drive carefully in crossing the ripples. It seems that the ripples will lose in few decens meters ahead.

Maybe, the best way is going in zipzap way in order to maintain the desired direction in whenever shortest path possible.

Go on nice day! clear sky and nothing clouds!

Rodolfo

About the picture, http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=214057969&size=l
, I have the inquiry about why the crest of ripples show white color in spite of the fact that the sand over that might be of the same as the others places. Is that highly infared picture.

Rodolfo

Been there once. I highly recommend it to anyone making a trip to the general vicinity. My first impressions getting close to it was a slight rise in the landscape with these weird piles of debris eveywhere. Similar to the point we're at on Mars now. Then you park your car and walk to the lip, and look down in.

The spine tingling, gut freezing moment came for me after a couple of minutes there, when I saw that the rock strata surrounding the crater was everywhere bent back away from the center. Not something easily noticed in photographs, it brought home a little bit the power of the impact event, and the fact that it was an explosion, a very big one, that created this hole in the ground.

This photo below may help readers to picture the scene. There are definite similarities to Oppy's current view of Victoria. If only Oppy had that paved road ahead of it!



On entering the site, they ask at the ticket booth where you heard of Meteor Crater. I guess it's all geared towards identifying the most effective advertising locations (they are a business, after all). I think the answer "Exploring Space - Ladybird books. I think I was about 6." didn't really help them.

It was an amazing, peaceful experience to be sitting on the rim of the crater. Only slightly spoilt by the strangely odd baking smell coming from the site museum's branch of Subway. Definitely worth a visit though. I mean the crater, not that branch of Subway (though the food was OK as Subway goes).