I'm surprised that such a big part of the crater floor is smooth surface. I had the impression much more of it was covered by dunes, but it looks to me as if there's a hard nicely-packed smooth surface for driving around on the "inside" track, going from cape to cape... Well, we'll see.

Oh yes, BTW. I am happy that the dilemma was solved, and that we chose to look AT the beacon instead of sitting on it. Holy smoking rock wall!

Awesome view indeed! The entire dunefield visible...what a sight.

And again perfect pans from Indian, a striking perspective projection by Michael...
Life is good

And now I'm off to bed since I can't stand the wait for that press release

Nico

Um, don't you mean CLINK?

And I am most certainly here... though my excitement is tempered that I will soon have 2 weeks "cold turkey" to deal with....

No, I meant "chink"... only got little bitty coins right now, nothing heavy enough to make a "clink"

I think once again there's a mini-horizon at the entrance of the bay with an unseen steeper slope beyond that leading down to the dunefield.

What's that in your "Swear Jar", Lyford? Blueberries?

sorry I'm not realy up to date...what are we waiting for here tonight?

Two thoughts: 1. Do we have uplift or was there a hill here before the Victoria impact?
2. If there is uplift only here could it be evidence of an oblique impact? I've been wondering why the dunefield, presumably in the topographic low, is displaced northwards from the crater centre, towards the highest part of the rim.

Brilliant again Stu, and diane and everyone. Another grand night out on Mars.

Just a thought - perhaps we should hold a press conference express express . . .

I agree that there may have been a hill before Victoria; the Beacon appears to be cut from a hill if you look at what's behind Beacon up on the annulus.

However, there's still a reason for the uplift, and the uplift doesn't appear to have been even because of the angle of the layers in Beacon's face. So we still have a question, even though Victoria's impact may have destroyed the answer.

As an adherent to the "Ancient Victoria" school of thought, I wouldn't hold to the "hill" thought. This area, to my eye, is the quintessence of "flat". The only hills I could imagine on this plain would be parts of the rims of craters younger than Vicky. The oblique impact idea did cross my mind however. Some tough, bulky remnant of the original rim could be holding up "Cabo Beacono" - that is, retarding or reversing its collapse.
I think I wanna closer look at it - #$@& clink - hurry up pancams !

Very good colorization again, Stu !

After looking at these pictures and the torrent of MRO photos (hey, there's a good idea for the future MRO firehose...a BitTorrent!) all I can say is.....

"You're going to need a bigger jar"

My apologies to Martin Brody...

I already gave up...I'm setting up a direct deposit from my paycheck to the jar...

Well, it's not like I was the cleanest-mouthed guy in the Solar System in the first place...

Hey fellas. We should make a swear-fund. With interest it could finance the next Mars mission...