Oppy seems to be surviving the storm and assuming that Oppy gets in and out of Victoria crater it seems worthwhile to continue discussing where Oppy might go after Victoria

Steve Squyres is quoted in the 3rd of June Planetary Society MER update as making the following statement:

"Everyone at JPL, on our science team, and at NASA Headquarters, felt that if we were ever going to do this the time was now," Squyres added. "The kind of stuff we want to do inside this crater really requires a healthy six-wheeled rover, which is what we have now. We're interested in getting in there, doing our business, and getting out while the vehicle still has those six wheels to enable us to climb out. Then we've got a lot more science to do on the plains around the crater," he said, noting that the scientists already have their eyes on the cobbles and other deeply eroded craters like Erebus back out on the plains. "But now is the time to enter Victoria Crater."

The way I read this is that Oppy might well be sent back to Erebus itself and if so this might be part of a bigger plan to drive back to the good driving country around Eagle crater. My guess is that Oppy will be sent North past Erebus following its old tracks so as to get off the etched terrain as quickly as possible and then will head due North.

Large interesting craters do seem in short supply north of Eagle but at the very least if Oppy travels more than a few km North of Eagle it will be able to sample older strata than that exposed in Victoria and Endurance craters.

What I would like to see is Oppy being driven North off the Merridiani heamatite deposits altogether. Perhaps there is an exposed section of the base of the Merridiani deposits North of Eagle crater?

Does anyone know how far North of Eagle crater Oppy would have to drive to drive off the area of heamatite deposits that were mapped from orbit before Oppy landed?

It took two years, flat out, to get from Endurance to Victoria. The dunes north of Erebus were slow, nasty driving. I can't imagine a scenario where you would want to re-encounter that terrain.

Welcome to UMSF PaulM.



I'm not sure exactly how many km Opportunity would have to go to get off hematite deposits altogether, but I think multiples of the total driving distance to date--which, as Doug indicated, makes it an unlikely goal.



But I'm sure SS and team will try and get the maximum science out of what ever they do.



Floyd

On the other hand, a drive to the west rim of Big Crater/Ithaca to the east/southeast of Victoria would achieve much the same thing, as the rim seems to rise above the hematite, as well as likely predating it.

The idea of Opportunity making an Odyssey to Ithaca appeals to me. It would be better still if it had a wife, son, and swineherder there waiting for it.

And don't forget Argos, the aged, faithful dog.

TTT

I find it interesting to speculate where the "deeply eroded craters like Erebus" that Steve Squyres says Opportunity will head towards might be.

The problem is that once Opportunity leaves the Victoria ejecta blanket it will be literaly "stuck in a rut" again. Opportunity has problems crossing dune crests and so the most obvious directions to send Opportunity are NNW back to Erebus or SSE in the direction of Ithaca crater.

This means that for me the most obvious "deeply eroded crater" to head towards is Erebus itself.

Opportunity did cross dune crests between sols 621 and 626 but was only able to do so easily because the dunes were low.

I do not have the bandwidth to download HIRISE pictures at maximum resolution but if I did it would be interesting to speculate about routes to other eroded craters close to Victoria that Opportunity could reach by making a combination of NNW-SSE trending legs between high dune crests and legs diagonaly across those low dunes that exist in the Victoria area? Are there any patches of low dunes in the Victoria area?

Speaking of the "Oddysey," or the "Grand Voyage" as I call it, there was a new MRO image a few months ago (PSP_004289_1780_RED) that covered more of the terrain south of Victoria. Maybe some of you noticed it. In the far southeast of the image, there is a type of terrain that I don't remember seeing before in MRO images of the area. It looks dark, almost giving the visual impression of an area that has been "scraped" clean somehow. The area is just southeast of "Mini-Endurance", a slightly smaller twin of Endurance Crater which is about as far south-southeast of Victoria as Endurance is north. I'm not a geologist, but I found it intriguing. A clip of the image from IAS Viewer is attached.

I stared for some time at the potential path south. It seems to me like there are some rough drifts immediately south, but perhaps not much worse than what the rover has already dealt with. I think the path gets better the farther south you go, and around Mini-Endurance the terrain looks about as good as it did around Endurance.

Hey, I can dream, can't I ...?

Yes indeed. I came to much the same conclusion back on the last page of this thread. Good to know I'm not the only one looking I wish I were driving.

So, with the news that it is time to move on, and get back out on the plains, should we resurrect this thread? Perhaps not with the pie in the sky goals previously mentioned (not that there's anything wrong with that) but with a look to some realistic, obtainable targets that people might be willing to speculate on?

Personally, I'm looking forward to some new adventures. I freely admit I'm a sight-see-er, not a scientist. As much as I was thankful to reach the relative safety of Victoria after an eternity in potential Purgatories, and as beautiful and rewarding as it has been, I find myself longing for the daily tension of roving the ripples. Call me mad, just don't call me late for dinner.

Brian

Am I missing something? Did we not come all this way for the deepest ever look into the stratigraphy of Mars, and are we not at present barely below the pre-Victoria ground surface? I can only guess it's too dangrous to go further in. Well if it is time to exit again then for my money the most interesting target in the vicinity is - Victoria Crater. Anyone for a rim traverse in the opposite direction?

There's hopefully another few metres to go 'in' yet. Then a few weeks, I would expect, of study there. Then another few weeks of getting a little closer to the cape, get higher res shots there, and then out.

Thereafter? We've got to turn left, we already went right

The only thing that can be reasonably expected for Opportunity beyond Victoria if she were to leave is a gradual crawl into oblivion. The exploration motive that would push for a drive back out into the Meridiani wastes has some emotional appeal but I can't see that anyone who was actually in charge of such a multi-million dollar explorer could decide to waste it on such a pointless exercise.

If the team have decided that the current location has been exhausted then I'm with ngunn - continue on along the counterclockwise path and find something else to photograph, poke and analyse to the best of her ability.

Possibly I'm reading too much into Steve's comments. They might very well have additional work at, but out of, the crater in the works. Sure sounds like they are planning to move on in the TPS update:

Opportunity meanwhile, will be wrapping up the Victoria campaign and roving onward, but where exactly has not been determined. "The issue is how long do we dare stay inside Victoria Crater? At what point do we decide it's time to get out on the plains and do something new?" said Squyres. "The rover is doing great and is in great health, but if we lose a wheel, it's going to be tough getting out." There is no reason to suspect there is anything wrong with Opportunity's wheels. "But the characteristics of some of these failures is you don't see them coming. We're pushing these rovers awful hard." Opportunity's next major destination awaits a decision the MER team will probably make soon.

Brian

Potential targets for after Victoria that have been mentioned in the past include "cobbles" out on the plains and ancient eroded craters like Erebus (I think it was the "festoons" that interested them most about Erebus).

It might seem that the parts of the rim we haven't explored yet would be obvious targets, but the real question to ask is what is the potential scientific value of targets. I've had the impression that the results so far at Victoria haven't been too remarkable scientifically (but of course stunning visually!). Squyres etal must decide whether there's potentially much worthwhile to be gained from exploring the rest of the rim and entering Victoria elsewhere, to get some sense of the lateral variability of the layers in this region, or if the potential returns are greater out on the plains. As far as more time inside Victoria, apart from the question of traversability they seem to be quite concerned about the possibility of wheel failure trapping the rover.