Cape York - The "Lakelands", Starting sol 2703 Options

[Tesheiner]

Bye bye, Tisdale. It's time to move on.
Next target? Philosilicates.

-----

Edited on Sep 16 2011.

This thread is dedicated to the exploration of Cape York, starting on sol 2703 when Opportunity left the "rocky garden" and started moving towards Chester Lake.

[jvandriel]

The Navcam L0 view on Sol 2703.

Jan van Driel

[Tesheiner]

As soon as we move to the east edge of CY, I think the view to Endeavour's far side and the north rim will improve significantly.

[mhoward]

Sol 2703-2704 Navcam panorama (updated)

[Tesheiner]

I just finished reading this month's MER Report (by Salley Rayl @ TPS); a great reading with a lot of goodies, as usual. I'm copying here a reference about our next waypoint:

Opportunity’s next immediate destination is an outcrop on the southern brow of Cape York, located, as Nelson described it, "roughly 30 meters (98.42 feet) north of Spirit Point or the area of the southern tip of Cape York, and roughly 45 to 50 meters (131.23 to 164.04 feet) east of Tisdale 2."

Another type of gif animation of Tisdale 2:

A really rough surface, isn't it? Easy to understand why they didn't use the RAT on it.

[fredk]

I just finished reading this month's MER Report

Some good quotes about the future in that update:

"Cape Tribulation has an extensive exposure mineralogically of smectite, which typically forms in presence of water sitting on basalt. But it's a couple kilometers to south and the rover would have to climb an 80-meter hill, and then drive down a 25 degree slope to get to it," Arvidson explained.

"The plan beyond is to really look at those hills to the south – that's real mountain climbing," said Hartman. "Cape York is much more manageable, more weathered, more eroded, and there are some indications phyllosilicates are here, so we're going to sniff around here and see if we can find them, but the longer-term plan is to attack Cape Tribulation. That's going to be a whole other kettle of fish for us.”

From Squyres:

“Having said that, Cape Tribulation is the obvious next place to go for after we've really done our job at Cape York. So we're going to do the best that we can here. Then we're going to see what kind of a rover we've got and we're going to do the best we can with it. Are we going to Cape Tribulation or not? Don't know. I hope so. It looks pretty cool."

[Stu]

Some goodies from today...



Drive direction?



Rather yummy-looking outcrop/ridge?



A(nother) beaten up breccia of a mongrel of a rock...

[mhoward]

Some goodies from today...

In order, labels are: "HBC" (whatever that means; maybe "B" is for Bedrock?), "Kirkland Lake", and "Marion".

In the second one I assume "Kirkland Lake" is the largest feature. We've seen it from the side. The triangularish rock on the left in that one must be "Trailbreaker", then, I guess. (As Tesheiner figured. Of course, keep in mind this is still partly guesswork.)

[Phil Stooke]

To any Canadian, HBC can only mean Hudson's Bay Company... though maybe to a MER driver it means something different... did Oppy lose a hubcap?

Phil

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

So what might these 3 plus billion year old clay deposits actually look like to Opportunity's cameras? Are they likely to be dramatically obvious or very subtle perhaps indistinguishable from their surroundings?

[mhoward]

This may help visualize where we are: Part 1 Part 2

[Tesheiner]

This may help visualize where we are: Part 1 Part 2

Definitely yes!
Looking at Tisdale 1 from this perspective I think it's almost clear it has the same "bright top" as Tisdale 2. There were some pancams of it planned to be taken thisol (2707) and I believe those shots should confirm it.

Would like to know the meaning of "HBC" too; I presume it is related to the bright patch of bedrock to the right of those three rocks. Actually, the rover moved to that area some hours ago. Map update in a minute.

[jamescanvin]

Here is the HBC mosaic:

[ugordan]

Nice!

[mhoward]

Sol 2707 Navcam left right anaglyph

Position view (approximate)

[Jam Butty]

'Kirkland Lake' from the south,
pancam flicker gif, sol 2706

[marsophile]

So what might these 3 plus billion year old clay deposits actually look like to Opportunity's cameras? Are they likely to be dramatically obvious ...?

I'm thinking that without the mini-tes, it might be difficult to distinguish them. Now the loss of the MTES starts to hurt.

[Stu]

Ooh, pretty view...

[fredk]

I love the crazy lustre of the bedrock in the latest pancams - Chester Lake perhaps?
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...7M1.JPG?sol2709
How much information does the lustre give the geologically minded here about the rock? Can't wait to see this in colour...

[vjkane]

I think it's going to awhile before the geologists get tired of this place

[NickF]

fredk's "Chester Lake" L2-5-7 pancams. Others can undoubtedly do better

[brellis]

I continue to be stunned and amazed, not only at the imagery coming from Oppy, but the gorgeous processing y'alls are doing. Thank you so many times!

[Stu]

"Chester Lake" looks very interesting. Ridges of harder, darker rock jutting up out of lighter rock... cracks... pits... it's got it all...



(sharpened and colour-enhanced to bring out subtle features on the rock)

Full size version: http://roadtoendeavour.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/v2.jpg

[ngunn]

Some of the shiny bits do look like knobbly inclusions of a harder material, but others look like flat quadrilaterals bounded by
the surface crack patterns, as if they could be places where thin flakes of weathered surface material have recently broken away. I wonder if any of the loose flakes lying around the vicinity can be matched up shape-wise to individual shiny patches on the rock?

[jamescanvin]

Chester Lake in 'false but trying' and 'stretched to within an inch' colours.




Fascinating...

[walfy]

Right side of Chester Lake:

[walfy]

Left side of Chester Lake:

[mhoward]

Sol 2710 Navcam panorama left right anaglyph

[mhoward]

Just for fun

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[ngunn]

Sol 2710 Navcam panorama

That's so much better than my paper version, thanks!

And while I'm at it huge thanks to everyone for all the wonderful rockscapes and Endeavour vistas on this thread.

[Phil Stooke]

A circular version of mhoward's nice new panorama.

Phil

[dilo]

Marvellous, guys! Starts to recall me Spirit Odyssey on Husband hill!

[jvandriel]

Another Navcam L0 view taken on Sol 2710.

Jan van Driel

[fredk]

Some comments on Chester Lake (and a false colour (?!) pancam view) here. "Paraphrased" from Squyres:

The new target should be IDD'd... it looks bright and Noachian itself... Need to build a nice story here and relate it to the Tisdales... We think there might be a coating, so we'll have to choose a target carefully and at least APXS it... Consider RAT'ing it to get into its guts...

It is something entirely new, or SOS ("Same Old Sulfates")? This is our first major Noachian target, so let's make it count.

I wonder what about it "looks Noachian"...

[Matt Lenda]

Some comments on Chester Lake (and a false colour (?!) pancam view) here. "Paraphrased" from Squyres:I wonder what about it "looks Noachian"...

Had me fooled, too. I asked myself that all day.

The EOSs and SOWG meetings are particularly cryptic these days; these guys talk and head and shoulders above my comprehension!

-m

[marsophile]

Maybe it is the orbital images of that locality that look Noachian rather than that specific rock.

[Phil Stooke]

The new target is Salisbury... my home town! - I mean the one in Wiltshire, not one of the Salisburys in the colonies.

Phil

[Stu]

Another magnifcent view...



Full size version here: http://twitpic.com/6iynsp/full

[serpens]

I wonder what about it "looks Noachian"...

It looks like an impact breccia, integral to the weathered rim of a crater that pre-dated the Meridiani sediment formation. Could it be anything other than a Noachian construct?

[Bill Harris]

True that, Serpens. The geomorph of this area is more complex and convoluted than we we assume or possibly can imagine. It's like standing on a small chunk of the Canadian Shield and figuring out depositional environments with a handlens and a Brunton.

Ah, the comparative simplicity of seven years on the playa may have spoilt us...

--Bill (almost giddy with anticipation over impending MI's and APXS)

[SteveM]

Could some of you tell a non-geologist what kinds of questions the new detail we're encountering might answer. What more will we learn about the history of Mars -- besides the overly mentioned issue of water.

Steve M

[Phil Stooke]

We don't know all the details, but it seems the sulfate and blueberry rocks of the plains we've just left were formed in a relatively brief period in the middle of Martian history. Water was there, and probably very salty and foul-tasting water! - not very pleasant for life. These rocks at Cape York are much older, and may have formed in very different conditions. What we hope to learn is, what were those conditions? Warm or cold? Reducing or oxidizing conditions? Acidic or alkaline? Lots of water or only a bit? Water in the ground, or melting out of overlying snow? So we would expect evidence of water, but it's the environmental conditions that are most important.

Phil

[Bill Harris]

That is it, exactly. When a rock like basalt weathers, in the presence of water, it breaks down into clay minerals (the phyllosilicates in the news) and various anions and cations ("minerals" dissolved in the water). The type of clays, and other weathering byproducts, is dependent on the ionic makeup of the water to begin with, as well as the temperature and whether the environment was oxidizing or reducing. By looking at the weathered zone on the hill, we can tell what the conditions were way back then.

--Bill

[Stu]

Thanks Bill and Phil, that's a really clear, really useful explanation of the significance of this place. Much appreciated.

[ngunn]

There is the complication of deciding whether any clays that may be found were formed by weathering of the basalts before the impact or after brecciation and deposition on the crater rim. It's not an easy puzzle.

[Jam Butty]

Stoughton and Ridout,
flicker gif pancam sol 2711...

[jvandriel]

Thanks Phil and Bill for that explanation and SteveM for the question.

Now I, as a non-geologist, understand what is going on on Mars
besides driving and taking pictures and measurements.

That is the purpose of this website, or not ?.

jan van Driel

[Fran Ontanaya]

Very poignant image taken yesterday...

That pancam caught a dark embedded pebble in the lower left.

[Floyd]

That pancam caught a dark embedded pebble in the lower left.

Can anyone place the background of this image. Where is it relative to Chester Lake? Is it in one of the pancam or navcam panoramas?

[Tesheiner]

It's above it. The latest navcam mosaic (from sol 2710) misses the peeble by just a few cm or so but the one taken at the previous site, before the final approach to Chester Lake, catches it. I highlighted the peeble and the whole area on this partly mosaic from sol 2707.

[mhoward]

Actually they took a left Navcam image at the same time as the color Pancam image, and it fits in with the Sol 2710 panorama.



Full 360 degree panorama with single color image:



QuickTime VR version (5 MB)

Edit: Improved the images a bit.

[SteveM]

Sorry I didn't get back earlier to thank Phil and Bill fore the helpful answers (doing some remodeling and those who've been there know what that does to free time).

Steve M

[Stu]

"Brett Lake'...



"Larder Lake"...



"Kinojevis"

[mhoward]

Time once again to play where are the rocks (Sol 2710-2714). See Stu's post for names; the bottom one with the NASA logo is "Salisbury 1".

[neo56]

"Brett Lake'...

"Larder Lake"...

"Kinojevis"

Beautiful pics Stu ! Have Opportunity reached the first phyllosilicates rocks ?

[Astro0]

As there were a lot of variations on the same image of Opportunity's IDD for 9/11, it was worth moving them all to their own thread.

NB: mhoward's panoramas which included the IDD shot were not moved as they incorporated the wider view of Oppy's current location.

[charborob]

Nice pair of rocks (names?).

The one in front makes me think of a block of slag (just an impression, not very scientific, I know).

[mhoward]

Nice pair of rocks (names?).

'Biscotasing' and 'Halliday'. Unknown which is which, but I would guess from left to right.

[Phil Stooke]

A composite of the current pan plus names. I am finding it hard to go back to sites from years ago and recover the names used at the time - even the PDS interface to names is clumsy and incomplete. I would like to encourage our merry band to continue to document names as we have been doing here.

Phil

[mhoward]

A composite of the current pan plus names.

Good idea. I might have a go at that myself, later; it's kind of a relaxing hobby. If only I could easily get subframe images onto my panorama.

[neo56]

Biscotasing and Halliday in color, on sol 2716.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[neo56]

And Larder Lake, on sol 2715.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[walfy]

Biscotasing rock super gif:

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

It looks like it might fall apart if you touched it.....and it kind of looks like a meatball

[Jam Butty]

Stoughton, sol 2716 L456


Interesting looking light-coloured rock embedded in that block of brecia.

[monty python]

According to Scott Maxwell's Twitter site, the IDD will brush and APXS - mossbauer the site with a grind on friday. But later says their is a lively debate on getting on with moving.

If they use the limmited resource of the grind, I bet a mossbauer is likely. And with the time that would take would a large super pan or super res shot take place in light of the not so hot tau?

Also the grinder doesn't have many grinds left. If it quits could you use a turning wheel with the rover in place like they did early in the mission to partly decrust rock -without hurting the wheel or contaminating the rock with wheel stuff?

Monty.

[Matt Lenda]

According to Scott Maxwell's Twitter site, the IDD will brush and APXS - mossbauer the site with a grind on friday. But later says their is a lively debate on getting on with moving.

If they use the limmited resource of the grind, I bet a mossbauer is likely. And with the time that would take would a large super pan or super res shot take place in light of the not so hot tau?

Tau seems to have been down the last few sols. A Pancam 10x1 is currently in the process of being taken over several sols, though I don't think it's a superres.

Also the grinder doesn't have many grinds left. If it quits could you use a turning wheel with the rover in place like they did early in the mission to partly decrust rock -without hurting the wheel or contaminating the rock with wheel stuff?

Monty.

I very much doubt we would risk that. We are extra cautious when it comes to using our wheels! Though the RAT seems to be in great health anyways, limited grinds notwithstanding.

-m

[NickF]

My interpretation of the 'Larder Lake' L2/5/7 pancam images, Sol 2715.

[Tesheiner]

Ok, just finished splitting the "Cape York" thread. This new one starts with the approach to Chester Lake (and the Lakelands) and should be the current one 'til they finish sniffing and exploring this area. All posts related to Tisdale, Odyssey and previous sites should be posted on the other proper threads.

[jvandriel]

Nice Pancam view on Sol 2715.

Jan van Driel

[jamescanvin]

That is the start of the Endeavour pan. Those 5 will be joined by 10 more tomorrowsol, and hopefully more next week. All in L257 colour.

[Bill Harris]

This is strange.

Over the last couple of weeks I've had serious problems trying to get the MI's to match up with the Pancams for location images. Today I think I found out why.

One of the oddities of the way MI's are presented is that the images are inverted compared to the "normal" Pancam (and other cameras) view. No problem, as standard procedure I invert the MI's after download so that they match the orientation of the Pancam images. Today I was attempting to match the latest MI's with the latest Pancams and I saw that the MI's are now being transferred in the same "correct" orientation as the Pancam images.

Has anyone else noticed this? I need to go back and check the past few week's MI's, and check also at Hortonheardawho's Flicker site (who frequently makes MI location charts).

--Bill

[djellison]

Remember - the MI could be oriented different way depending on where the IDD is placed. This isn't a post-production issue, so to speak.

[NickF]

Another part of the Endeavour L2/5/7 pan, sol 2715.

[brellis]

NickF -- that's quite a tilt in your sol 2715 post. Are we already looking at hills in the distance?

[Stu]

Back from battling Daleks in London to find...

[jvandriel]

The Panoramic L2 view of Endeavour Crater.
Taken on Sol 2715.

Jan van Driel

[brellis]

Beautiful Pan von Jan! Now I understand the tilted perspective in NickF's clip.

[NickF]

Beautiful Pan von Jan! Now I understand the tilted perspective in NickF's clip.

Indeed, the rover is on a c. 10 degree slope at the moment.
Here's the straightened version of my previous composite.

[fredk]

The numbers we've seen indicate tau has dropped a fair bit in the last month or so, but with these new pancams we can directly see how much the transparency has improved in the last few weeks. Compare these frames from 2679 and 2718 looking across to Iazu:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P2384L2M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...2M1.JPG?sol2718

[mhoward]

According to the database it's the "Endeavour 1" mosaic, parts 1 and 2. Once it's down, the L257 color version should be really something. The color parts we've seen are already amazing. Lot of work to put it all together, though.

[fredk]

Thanks for the stitches, guys - this is a stunning view. Lots of colour variation too - the L2's are showing very different details than the L7's.

Here's a long baseline anaglyph from sols 2679 and 2718. The lighting is pretty different between the frames, and the stereo effect is pretty extreme for Solander point, so this may be one for the hard-core anaglyphers out there. Some nice structure on the inner slope of Tribulation, though.

Here's a cross-eyed version for those using stereo photo maker or the like:

[Matt Lenda]

Heads up for a RAT hole sometime tonight!

-m

[eoincampbell]

Thanks to everyone for stitching the latest thrilling pan... what an amazing place this is...

[jvandriel]

If you want a new background on your computerscreen
here is the one.

Jan van Driel

[Juramike]

"Just wait for me in the car while I go run up that hill for a sec..."

[Bill Harris]

Nice preliminary RAT MI's this morning, and I was able to get things straightened out and produce a couple of IDD location images




http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r91/wil...L2M1--annot.jpg

Other images at the P'bucket site linked below.

--Bill

[Eutectic]

Post-RAT imagery.

[Zeke4ther]

Wow! That rock was awfully soft...look at all of the powder.

[elakdawalla]

I'm glad the old girl wasn't given anything too difficult to chew

[Greg Hullender]

Is there a nice summary somewhere of what instruments are still working and what sort of science Opportunity is still able to do? Obviously the pictures alone are still spectacular, but I'm wondering what else is still working.

--Greg

[djellison]

Pancam - Fine, and less dusty than it has been
MiniTES - Bust

IDD - Azimuth joint bust - can position instrument along a vertical plane, not full 3D space.
APXS - Fine
MI - Fine
RAT - Fine ( but obviously, teeth are consumed to near death )
Mossbauer - VERY VERY tired. We're > 10 half-lives into it - so integrations that would have taken 6 hrs could technically take > 6 months. A good integration now would involved several weeks.

[elakdawalla]

I can't help but think that if I were the MER team I'd aim for a likely looking rock in early November, do some documentation, put out the Moessbauer, and take a nice long Thanksgiving & Christmas holiday while it integrates!

[fredk]

From Lenda's blog:

Squyres put down a lien to get a super-resolution panorama of the entirety of Endeavour Crater, and it has taken the better part of a week to get it all done.

Super res?

[CosmicRocker]

That rock was incredibly soft. I wasn't expecting that. In retrospect, perhaps I should have expected it. The outcrop is worn down just as flat as the surrounding Meridiani sandstones, so why wouldn't we expect it to be soft?

[stevesliva]

MiniTES - Bust

Or dust. Depends on how you see it. They do gamely keep checking it.

[marsophile]

That rock was incredibly soft.

Does that mean it is not basaltic?

[djellison]

Or dust. Depends on how you see it. They do gamely keep checking it.

Check the documentation for the MER Analysts Notebook.

For example - Sol 2261-2267 MER B Downlink Report

Opportunity is healthy and all* subsystems are nominal as of the Sol 2267 UHF downlink. Energy is currently 296 Whr with Tau at 0.370 and a dust factor of 0.5820 as of Sol 2267.

*except the Mini-Thermal Emission Spectrometer (MTES) which has experienced a failure. Investigations into the Mini-TES failure are ongoing.

or
Sol 2281-2287 MER B Downlink Report

[Mini-TES, the miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer experienced an anomaly on Sol 2257 which is currently being investigated.]

later, you will just find

*with the exception of a known problem with Mini-TES as of the Sol 2308 downlink.

Or from the excellent : http://www.planetary.org/news/2011/0901_Ma...ver_Update.html

Last Sunday, the rover's Sol 2700, the team decided to have the rover conduct another set of diagnostics on the miniature thermal emission spectrometer (Mini-TES) that began acting up last year and hasn't been working since. "We’re all about trying to exhaust even remotely likely possibilities," noted Nelson. Opportunity followed her commands to exercise the back-up laser and back-up optical switch.

Or going back further in time
http://www.planetary.org/news/2011/0430_Ma...ate_Spirit.html

Last year, after being turned on, the Mini-TES failed to conduct a transferring kind of "handshake" with the PMA. "It timed out, and then said it wasn't talking to the flight software, and it was also not properly commanding the motors that would have changed the PMA azimuth, and we got a PMA fault," Nelson recounted. The ensuing diagnostics indicated the PMA azimuth motor is fine, and the issue is likely between the Mini-TES and the motor control board.

This month, the Mini-TES exhibited more anomalous behavior. Specifically, it failed to draw power. A functioning Mini-TES should draw 200-250 milliamperes up to about ¼ amp, according to Nelson. "We're not seeing that current draw," he said.

That would seem to suggest that the Mini-TES is simply not turning on, or that something somewhere between the instrument and motor control board has failed. Although the instrument investigation is continuing, the Mini-TES remains, Nelson said, "effectively out of commission."

It is, as I said.... bust.

[serpens]

..... The outcrop is worn down just as flat as the surrounding Meridiani sandstones, so why wouldn't we expect it to be soft?

Indeed. Remember Clovis rock - a Spirit RAT in 2004 - image below? Looks a bit softer than Opportunity's last grind. But this is a breccia, probably suevite and the weathering susceptibilities of the constituent elements are different to the Moh's scale resistance to abrasion.

http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/press/sp...o-A223R1_br.jpg

[jvandriel]

Mi cam Sol 2719.

Jan van Driel