After Victoria..., .. what next? Options

[Stu]

I know we've had rather light-hearted discussions about this before, with most people agreeing that Oppy is likely to end her days inside or on the edge of Victoria Crater, simply because there's nothing else to investigate within reach, but has Steve S got it in his mind that Oppy will head off somewhere else after Victoria? This report could be read in a way that suggests that...

[tanjent]

Isn't the best roving plan for Oppy the one that maximizes the expected scientific value of the remainder of the mission? If so, then that isn't necessarily the same as the plan that maximizes the rover lifetime, or the chances of getting back up.

Spirit, in the course of its mission, has several times wandered across the borderline between one geological province and another. The bottomlands had one story to tell and then the hills had a different story, and Eldorado and the home plate environs also offered some new and non-obvious insights as the payoff for horizontal trekking. (Horizontal here means along the surface, although of course there were hills involved.)

But Opportunity landed by design on a big plain way larger than its roving radius, and I am sure I recall quotes from Steve and the other panelists during the early press briefings in which the mission at Meridiani was described as a search for holes - craters, that is - punched in the flat landscape to allow access to earlier strata. As we consider pulling the rover out of the largest of these holes before getting a closer look at the strata at the foot of the capes, just ask what are the hoped-for gains from further horizontal exploration outside the crater. The two-year hike down from Endurance to Victoria was undertaken because it promised access to deeper, older strata that were not accessible elsewhere. One of the reasons the journey took two years was because a lot of scientific investigation was performed along the way, and the strata accessible on the surface and in the shallower, more eroded craters are already quite well known to the science teams on that basis. (If I am wrong please correct me. This could change the arithmetic - but it ought to be more than "I'd like to have another look at that cross-bedding in Erebus" because one is balancing a second-or-third look against a "first look" at as-yet unseen strata.)

"Big Crater" seems way too far off for any reasonable hope of getting there. That being the case, before leaving Victoria someone better informed to really needs to explain to me why the risk-adjusted scientific payoffs now seem more fruitful outside the crater than at or near the pedestals of one or two of the capes. It's not clear how close we can hope to get, or exactly the odds on losing a wheel, or some other technical breakdown and not being able to climb out. But the capes are not too different from one another, so one campaign of a couple months' duration would likely suffice. I believe Burns Cliff was investigated in the local winter season. If it means running the same risks that were run back at Burns cliff, then I can't see leaving it undone. It's what we came to do - to look at the lowest, oldest rocks.

Peter

[ustrax]

"Big Crater" seems way too far off for any reasonable hope of getting there. That being the case, before leaving Victoria someone better informed to really needs to explain to me why the risk-adjusted scientific payoffs now seem more fruitful outside the crater than at or near the pedestals of one or two of the capes.

Well, I'm not better informed but here's my take at it...

"As you set out for Ithaca
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you' ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body."

Get us out of the hole Steve!!!
This rovers were made for roving!!!