The western route, 5th leg after stop at Absecon / Reeds Bay Options

[Tesheiner]

Time for a new thread.
After moving southwards for ages, the "detour" by the western path has started with a 60+ meters drive on sol 1942.


There are no images yet --they should be available on the next update-- so this image was calculated solely based on the rover's mobility info. I'll update the route map later.

[Marz]

After moving southwards for ages, the "detour" by the western path has started with a 60+ meters drive on sol 1942.

Whoa, didn't realize Oppy was ready to move! I thought the integration at Absecon would take a few more sols. Kinda sad that it looks like we won't get to see the small Talisman crater on the approach. Is there a projected path for the western route (ustrax's route was amazingly prescient, so now I'm lost).

[MarkG]

So, on this last leg to the Martian west, across mostly pavement, what were the Right Front wheel's currents like?

[jamescanvin]

Is there a projected path for the western route (ustrax's route was amazingly prescient, so now I'm lost).

I made a quick guess here a while back. I don't have Ustrax's gift though.

The 'official' route hasn't been made public yet.

James

[BrianL]

I thought we would have had a revised TraxMap ™ by now.

[ustrax]

I thought we would have had a revised TraxMap ™ by now.

By your special request...

Paths converge once more...not in the direction I expected (no-more-spines please!) but the important thing is that...we're roving!

[Astro0]

Ustrax: "...not in the direction I expected..."

That got me thinking about taking the western route...


Just for laughs folks. I'm sure that Oppy doesn't think that there are "settlements over there".

[BrianL]

I meant really revised, Rui. What's your take on where the westward route will run?

[ustrax]

I meant really revised, Rui. What's your take on where the westward route will run?

Haven't tought about that Brian...here's the original image of my proposed route with a rough sketch of the westward route in orange...:

I still prefer the Eastward one...

[alan]

nice view

[Nirgal]

So, on this last leg to the Martian west, across mostly pavement, what were the Right Front wheel's currents like?

I would be interested in the answer to that question, too ...

[Stu]

You just beat me to it, Alan. You're right, fantastic view!

[BrianL]

<clink> <clink>

What are those hills and how far away are they? Have they always been visible and I just haven't been paying attention?

Edit: Wait a minute, what direction is that? If that's east, then obviously that's our goal. When I first looked at it, I thought these were some new shots in the direction we're heading.

[ustrax]

<clink> <clink>

Oh boy...this is going to be a long night...ahahah
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&id=18432
From my ignorant perspective (I am sure James will come up with the right answer...) we can see Cook near the center and elevation to its left (Molyneaux) , we can also see the twin peaks (Banks and Solander) on the North rim but what's new are all those hills to the left...
Are we seing the West/South part of the rim? Edgecombe and friends?

[fredk]

Thanks for the heads up, guys, these are great views!

The most prominent peaks on the far left in these images are on the near (west) rim of Endeavour. All the fainter peaks are the rim of Iazu crater behind Endeavour. We've had similar views before, but the air is looking clearer now. Compare the latest view:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...PGP2599L5M1.JPG

with the view from sol 1898:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...3AP2356L6M1.JPG

[ustrax]

Fred, if that's Iazu, let's wrap this Endeavour story fast...
How tall is that martian beast?...

[jamescanvin]

Fred's right that is Iazu again - great view.

As to the height, Google Earth says that the peaks are 200 - 300 m above the surrounding plain.
In that image the peaks are about 10 pixels high - at roughly 40km that makes what we can see the top 100m or so.

[Tesheiner]

Wow, what a view!
I saw that sequence (Iazu's pancam) in the plan but forgot to check it afterwards. The current view at the horizon is, imo, the most exciting since the beginning of this mission.

[ustrax]

James, sorry for asking but, that's not all Iazu, right? There are some features to the right of Cook that belong to Endeavour, or am I wrong?
I was taking this previous image as a reference:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/figures/PIA11837_fig1.jpg

[Stu]

Craig Covault - speaking live on SpaceflightNow's video coverage of the shuttle launch - has just been saying that MRO has found *clays* inside Endeavour crater... and as (paraphrasing here) clays don't form/last long in acidic water, this suggests that the water there was, for at least some time, less acidic than previously thought...

Anyone know anything about this..?

[fredk]

that's not all Iazu, right?

Right. See this post if you need convincing...

[dvandorn]

Stu, my understanding is that the "clays" that MRO has been discovering are the phylosilicates that have been discussed at length, especially in the site selection deliberations for MSL.

I'd have the think that any clays found within Endeavour would have to be remnants of earlier aqueous conditions than those which were involved in laying down the Meridiani sulfate sandstones. And considering there must be pieces of the crust underlying those sandstone deposits in the walls of Endeavour, I guess that's not terribly surprising.

Now we need to really hope and pray that Oppy can make it to some of the clay deposits and give them a careful examination. For one thing, clays are the most likely places to find fossilized life remnants, especially bacterial fossils. While Oppy is not all that well equipped to look for anything like that, it could very likely constrain the possibilities in a favorable manner.

Take *real* good care of Oppy for us, guys... now, more than ever, it seems the payoff if we get to Endeavour could be truly astounding.

-the other Doug

[CosmicRocker]

Yeah. When Endeavour became the goal, I perused the raw mineralogical maps available from MRO. I found a very small patch of possible phyllosilicates on the far, eastern side of the crater. It would be significant if newer imagery, or reprocessed imagery was indicating phyllosilicates to be more common.

[Tesheiner]

Today was another driving sol, where almost 70m were covered in a WNW heading.
I would expect a heading change to NW on the next two or three driving sols to avoid some "purgatoids" due west.


PS: Map update tomorrow, if time permits.

[CosmicRocker]

I realized that I should have better referenced the CRISM imagery I referred to in my previous post. The raw imagery I referred to is here. Apparently my recollection of the location was faulty. The small anomaly I described was not on the far, eastern side of the crater. It is closer to the center of the crater. It is on the far, eastern side of the image.

Of course, all the normal cautions apply to any interpretations of such non-calibrated imagery.

[climber]

I while ago somebody wrote, I think it was Phil, that we were heading to higher terrain due in a few kilometers (2?).
Does somebody know whether it's still the case or can we say the western route is just flat for a while?
You'll understand that I'm looking for a vintage high place to get a better view.

[ElkGroveDan]

You'll understand that I'm looking for a vintage high place to get a better view.

millésime? sur Mars?

[climber]

millésime? sur Mars?

...and we'll call it (Avril) Lavigne...

[Zeke4ther]

Ahhh....a touch of Canadian content...

[Phil Stooke]

Can't have too much of that.

Phil

[dot.dk]

Some good news in the latest update

http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/mission/status.html#opportunity

Opportunity began moving again with a 67-meter (220-foot) drive. The right-front wheel motor current showed some improvement from the actuator resting and extra mobility heating.

The rover performed another long drive on Sol 1946 (July 15, 2009), covering over 70 meters (230 feet). Again, the right front wheel currents showed continued improvement.

[ustrax]

Hey, are these marks left my Oppy's wheels? I don't remember seing this before:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...FFP2514R1M1.JPG

[Fran Ontanaya]

She has done that before. The bedrock isn't very rocky.

[Tesheiner]

Check the navcams taken during sol 1950: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...cam/2009-07-19/
There are a few mini-craters in sight. The one to the right (NW) was named "Alvin".

[Stu]

Not sure which crater this is... taken my eye off Oppy during all the LRO drooling, I'll be honest!... but interesting...



And some nice little rocks for Oppy to snuffle around in, too...

[Tesheiner]

That's Alvin. Here's a navcam mosaic made with those pictures to put it in context.


BTW, has anybody seen Cape St. Mary these last sols? Is it still visible?

[fredk]

I've been watching Cape St. Mary (Beacon) in the rear view mirror. Our last definite sighting was sol 1942 navcam, though it was getting a bit hard to make out. I've marked it in this crop:

There've been north-pointing navcams since, but I can't make CSM out unambiguously (determining the exact azimuth might help). The lighting is bad (low contrast between sky and ground), but it may be that we're losing it due to topography. We're certainly no farther from CSM than we were at the last sightings.

The last good view was sol 1938 pancam:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...PGP2286L1M1.JPG

edit: this pancam view is so good (at half resolution yet), that given favourable topography we should be able to see CSM for a very long time to come, even from Endeavour (at least from the higher peaks that were visible from Victoria).

[Tesheiner]

There was an "albedo pan" taken during sol 1949 but I don't know if it's already downlinked or not. We should try locating the cape in those pancams; the heading is... (checking in Google Mars) ... 16 degrees CW.

And speaking again about the mini-craters, the one to the left is "Dolphin".

[Stu]

Others will do better, I'm sure. I just fancied having a go

[Stu]

... and t'other one...

[dvandorn]

Hmmm... how much of what looks like good flat pavement-stone rock from MRO is actually this kind of pile-up of (relatively recently-emplaced, at least recently enough not to have eroded down to flat yet) jumbled sandstone?

Hopefully, not a lot...

-the other Doug

[glennwsmith]

Stu, very nice job on the small meteor craters. Can you imagine standing nearby when one of those babies hits?!? Any guess as to the size of the original meteorite? I'm thinking about 8 inches in diameter . . .

[Tesheiner]

I just checked the info from yestersol drive (1952) to find out that Opportunity moved 20m back on her own track.
Not only that but also the nav/pancam images taken after-drive to plan the next one were pointed back towards the position she were on sol 1947.

Perhaps this path was not a safe one?

In another topic: the 17km mark was crossed near the end of this drive.

[alan]

Going back for closer look at this perhaps?


From sol 1946, these images weren't downloaded until after she had driven on.

[Julius]

What should we call that!?looks quite big to me?

[Tesheiner]

It was named "Block Island".

01946::p2532::23::13::13::0::0::2::28::pancam_Block_Island_L234567Rall

[Floyd]

Tesheiner, would it be possible put a label for Block Island on your map (even if too small to actually see on the map image)? I'm confused as to which crater it is sitting in front of. It isn't Alvin?

[fredk]

"Block Island" is actually a ways south of the sol 1942 location:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P1962R0M1.JPG
(And it's roughly 25 cm tall.) So that would mean some significant backtracking if that were a target. I'm baffled by this reversal.

Edit: perhaps Oppy's gotten tired of seeing her destination in the rearview mirror:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...NMP1760R0M1.JPG
and she's revolted!

[BrianL]

Or this is a repeat of that programming glitch that made her go one way when she meant to go the other, although one would assume they got that issue sorted out.

I'm hopeful this is a sign that the Endeavour clays have become such a high-priority target that they have decided on the shorter, presumably quicker but riskier route to increase their chances of getting there before the overriding enemy that is time ultimately results in a critical system failure that will stop Oppy dead in her tracks. In other words, move from the philosophy that "south is the way to go, and IF we get to Endeavour, that's a bonus" to "we must reach Endeavour or die trying".

[Tesheiner]

No way that it would be another instance of the "glitch". The evidence is the "post-drive" mosaics because they are pointing WSW, same as the driving direction.

I would expect some news on the next status report in a few days, unless someone in the know posts some tidbits here.

[Julius]

So now we're sailing in the north atlantic along the northeastern US COAST...watch out for JAWS next!

[tim53]

Tesheiner, would it be possible put a label for Block Island on your map (even if too small to actually see on the map image)? I'm confused as to which crater it is sitting in front of. It isn't Alvin?

Block Island is visible in the HiRISE image, meaning it's fairly large, which is one reason we're going back. Other reason(s) I'll leave up to the reader! (more fun that way!)


-Tim.

[fredk]

I estimate Block Island is roughly 25 cm tall by 50 cm wide (orthogonal to our line of sight). That's assuming it's sitting at the same elevation as Oppy's wheels were, and also that the horizon was level with pancam. (Probably not horrible approximations on Meridiani!)

Could someone who has the full resolution HiRISE post a full res crop showing the area of Block Island? I estimate it's about 50 metres S or SSW from the sol 1942 location.

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Going back for closer look at this perhaps?

Looks like a Land Rover stuck in the Sahara..... kind of

[SFJCody]

Great news! This will take me more time to tweak my google earth map extension (it's proving trickier than i thought).

[Reckless]

Hi FredK
Here's a crop of the region I think you want.
I may be wrong, can't see the rock.
I can crop a different area if you wish.

Roy F

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[tim53]

Roy:

It's in there!

-Tim.

[HughFromAlice]

Would someone who can see where it is please circle it and repost the pic! Can't see it.

[tim53]

Would someone who can see where it is please circle it and repost the pic! Can't see it.

[djellison]

I can well understand why we're going to have a look. Not only does it look different to all the surrounding rock - it's also, I'd guess, the single largest rock not in a crater that Opportunity has ever seen.

[SFJCody]

Wow, that's a long drive back. Whatever it is that the rover team thinks this might be has got to be a lot more interesting than another iron meteorite!

[Tesheiner]

Thanks for pointing the rock Tim.
Added it to the latest KML file in the route map thread.

[Drkskywxlt]

Can someone summarize the reasons their taking the big west (almost northwest) turn? Is it more stable ground to drive on? Sorry if I missed this many pages back. Thanks!

[nprev]

Hmm. Well, as Doug pointed out, BI is an anomaly in its own right even on cursory examination. However, Tim is hinting that there are other less obvious reasons for the close-up exam.

It sure is dark, which to me indicates that might be a relatively recent, hefty meteorite. On the other hand, it might be an ejecta block from a fresh impact in the area...say, maybe from over near the recently-more-interesting region near Endeavour? Are you guys looking for clay early?

[ElkGroveDan]

Tim is hinting that there are other less obvious reasons for the close-up exam.

Was there perhaps a tantalizing mini-TES image taken? Does it even work on Opportunity anymore?

[fredk]

Does it even work on Opportunity anymore?

No.

[serpens]

No.

So the attempt to clear the dusty mirror by leaving it exposed has failed?

[serpens]

... Any guess as to the size of the original meteorite? I'm thinking about 8 inches in diameter . . .

Glenn, the size would depend on the meteor type and velocity. Was this a secondary? Was it at terminal velocity or faster? The link takes a lot of the effort out of 'what iffing' this question.
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/tekton/crater_c.html

[glennwsmith]

Serpens, thanks for the link to the crater diameter calculator -- it is fascinating! And I am perhaps not so far off! A 0.2 m diameter meteor of dense rock (not iron), traveling at 45 km/sec (the upper end of the range for Mars impacts), and striking "competent rock" will create a crater 3.49 m (appx. 12 feet) in diameter.

But Block Island is even more fascinating!!! Is anyone sure that's why we've turned around?

[tim53]

Doug has it. It's the biggest thing not associated with a crater that we've seen. And it's not outcrop.

-Tim.

[nprev]

Certainly reason enough. And there I was, spinning out into left field...

[glennwsmith]

Alan, my man! What led you to this felicitous observation? Just your own curiosity about that big black rock?

[alan]

Just thought 'hey that looks interesting' when MMB downloaded the images, that and 'too bad Oppy has already driven away'


I'm also wondering if it's located far enough south for Oppy to see some of the terrain to the south that's currently hidden from view.

[CosmicRocker]

Doug has it. It's the biggest thing not associated with a crater that we've seen. And it's not outcrop.
-Tim.

I thought there was a significantly larger "erratic" boulder observed near Erebus. Some here were surprised that that one was not more closely investigated at the time. I'm not suggesting that either was a glacial erratic, only that it was an erratic boulder on Mars.

[Burmese]

But what took the team so long to decide to turn around and go investigate BI? Someone maybe took a second look at the downloaded images a few days after their initial evaluation and raised a big flag? Would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall during that ops meeting....

[fredk]

Thanks for the maps, guys. I now measure the distance to BI to be 66 metres from the sol 1942 location. That gives a size for the rock of about 67 cm wide by 30 cm high.

The approximate size of BI would've been known before they moved away from the 1942 location - the navcams were down and the pancams were targeted. So I'm guessing that the spectral info from the BI pancam sequence was important in the decision to go back.

Do the oldtimers here remember another time that they turned back to study a target? There's been backtracking due to mobility problems, but I don't recall anything like this.

[fredk]

But what took the team so long to decide to turn around and go investigate BI?

To add to my post above, the BI pancam sequence only came down late Saturday. The sol 1950 drive was Sunday. So it would make sense that they didn't turn back till 1952 if the pancam sequence was the trigger.

[alan]

Do the oldtimers here remember another time that they turned back to study a target? There's been backtracking due to mobility problems, but I don't recall anything like this.

They turned Spirit back on sol 454 when the layering at Methuselah was spotted while Spirit was attempting to drive up Husband Hill. Spirit then spent an additional two month's there.

For several months, Spirit climbed a flank of Husband Hill, the tallest in the range. The slope closely matched the angle of underlying rock layers, which made the layering difficult to detect. Spirit reached an intermediate destination, dubbed "Larry's Lookout," then continued uphill and looked back. "That was the critical moment, when it all began falling into place," Squyres said. "Looking back downhill, you can see the layering, and it suddenly starts to makes sense."

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pr.../20050524a.html


Methuselah:
http://marswatch.astro.cornell.edu/pancam_...selah_new2.html

[centsworth_II]

I thought there was a significantly larger "erratic" boulder observed near Erebus....

Is this the one?

From hortonheardawho

[centsworth_II]

Do the oldtimers here remember another time that they turned back to study a target?

There was talk of heading back to Erebus after leaving Victoria. At the same time, the talk was of studying cobbles out on the plain. I wonder if some on the team wished they had taken a closer look at that "erratic boulder" which looked like the Mother of All Cobbles to me.

[fredk]

Is this the one?

Thanks for finding that. That was viewed from the Olympia site. You can see from this image that it's maybe more of a rubble pile than a boulder:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...KCP2283L7M1.JPG
I get around 40 by 17 cm size for it, so BI is a fair bit bigger.

[serpens]

Do the oldtimers here remember another time that they turned back to study a target?

I think the only other time was for Paso Robles. But that was a short hop.

[fredk]

So the attempt to clear the dusty mirror by leaving it exposed has failed?

That's right, so far:

The shroud of the Mini-TES continues to be left open on scheduled sols to allow the environment to clean putative dust contamination from the elevation mirror. No improvement in Mini-TES performance has been observed so far, but the rover has seen no wind events.

[fredk]

There are a few mini-craters in sight. The one to the right (NW) was named "Alvin".

Could it be Alvin was a target near the crater? Here they seem to refer to that crater as "Kaiko."

[CosmicRocker]

Is this the one? ...

Yeah, I guess it is; but it appeared several times larger in my memory.

[glennwsmith]

Drksywxlt, yes, the rovers have been sent on some seemingly roundabout routes to avoid bad ground, esp. since Oppy got stuck for several weeks in a sand dune. If there is one thing we have learned here at UMSF, it's that the rover team knows what it is doing.

[djellison]

I guess in the category of 'turn back to go somewhere' - the traverse of the northern rim of Victoria, only to enter at the very point we arrived must count But there was a very good reason for that.

[climber]

if there is one thing we have learned here at UMSF, it's that the rover team knows what it is doing.

Yep, and that... the rovers don't

[Tesheiner]

Could it be Alvin was a target near the crater? Here they seem to refer to that crater as "Kaiko."

Mmm, strange...
There were two pancam shots taken at that site, the first named Alvin pointing to the crater at the NW (right) and the second named Dolphin pointing to another one at the WSW (left). Here's an MMB snapshot with the images in context.


01950::p2385::20::9::0::0::9::1::19::pancam_Alvin_L257
01950::p2386::20::3::0::0::3::1::7::pancam_Dolphin_L257

So, perhaps it should be named Alvin/Kaiko; both are vessels used in deep sea exploration.

[Tesheiner]

Another interesting note in the latest status report: "As of Sol 1952 (July 21, 2009), Opportunity's solar array energy production was 493 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.462 and a dust factor of 0.559."

That's an almost 20% boost in energy production compared to the previous week (414 Whr).

[Phil Stooke]

The crater namers forgot that they had already used the name Alvin. Check out the very first post in the Opportunity Route Map thread many years ago... So they had to re-name the crater.

Phil

[Tesheiner]

Thanks for the info, Phil.

Time for another map update...

[Tesheiner]

Here's our target "Block Island" in sight some 20m to the south.
We might get there in one driving sol and in position for IDD work in two more.

[SFJCody]

Two foreign forms on a sand ribbed plain

One low entropy
The other high

One moves
The other still

One itinerant
The other resident

One seeks
The other found

The seeker approaches

[Stu]

Land - well, something interesting - ho..!

[BrianL]

At this distance and angle, my mind is turning that object into a tiny boat being tossed about in the waves.

[Guest_Bobby_*]

What are those Crab Fishermen from The Deadliest Catch doing here on Mars?

Are they trying to catch cobbles of crabs here?

[glennwsmith]

SFJCody, your poem is clever and elegant. It calls to mind this one:


Ozymandias
Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".


Hope I am not duplicating the work of someone else who has been inspired by the Meridiani landscape to post this poem . . . (and Stu -- haven't digested your longer poem yet -- but to whom does "The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed" refer to, ie, can you diagram that sentence?)

And a related analog is, of course, the Rosetta Stone -- which is black -- and Block Island may prove to be a geological Rosetta Stone.

[Guest_Enceladus75_*]

The latest traverse map looks puzzling. Does this mean the Oppy team have now abandoned going West and will resume a route to the South?

Or is there some other reason for the U turn?

[centsworth_II]

...Or is there some other reason for the U turn?

Go back to post 43 of this thread and read on from there.

Yes, the reason is to go back for a look at the rock, Block Island.