Leaving Victoria crater Options

[fredk]

I guess "to the cape" no longer applies, so a new thread is in order. From the new PS update:

...the rover experienced a spike in the electrical current to the motor for its left front wheel, an event ominously similar to what Spirit experienced just before it lost the use of its right front wheel for good back in March 2006... Not surprisingly, the team decided without much debate that it was time for Opportunity to rove on and out of Victoria. "We want to get out of the crater as quickly as possible," Callas said

The plan is to exit via the entry route.

Also some interesting news on the next destination from the same article:

After roving out of Victoria Crater, Opportunity will begin a study of the cobbles on the Meridiani plains. Then, it may head for another [as yet unnamed] crater about 2 kilometers (about 1.2 miles) to the north/northwest of Victoria, Callas offered, provided of course that all revolves well with its left front wheel.

[CosmicRocker]

I am so ready to get get back out on the plains in search of the cobble float! Giddyup. I have my list of favorites that were neglected back up the trail. This should be fun.

This image is part of a large set of apparently identical sub-frame images and so I assume that it is a super-res image. I would really appreciate it if someone was to process this image and other images of Capo Verde to bring out the details that interest MER geologists so much. ...

It appears that there were several superres sets taken in the area of the proposed contact. I think the raw image you provided a link to was one of the clearest examples. The set contained images from several filters, but the L6 filter was most numerous, and also the one most likely to provide the best resolution of these layers. I am attaching an attempt to coax some resolution from them. These are difficult for me, and the official version will be much better than my attempt with the raw jpegs, but I think I managed to improve the resolution of the bedrock somewhat. The talus below the cliff was degraded in this image, though.



It's curious that they suggested that highres and superres imagery helped identify the contact. It was pretty apparent in previous images and panoramas, and quite clear in the panorama from ant103 that you linked to. Perhaps those images were the highres ones they referred to.

But to be honest, I have to agree with shaka. I've searched dilligently for distinctive stratigraphy/mineralogy, too, and I haven't seen it in the depths of this crater. Finding one fossil Martian dune field overriding a predecessor is a pretty nifty observation for a rover...don't get me wrong. I don't want to marginalize it. This is one for the robotic rockhound textbooks. But, such a thing is to be expected, and is a relatively common occurence in terrestrial rocks. Let's also not forget that there is another story of the rocks being collected by the MER's geochemical instruments, the details of which we have less access to, and which it seems apparent to this observer, that there is a rich story unfolding.

As we all consider the news about the discovery of the base of a dune unit, don't forget the qualifiers published in that update.

And underneath that dune field?

"Another dune field," offered Hayes. "It might be either be a completely different dune field below it or it could be that the dune field we're looking at was part of a very, very large dune field. You can have dunes running on the back of other dunes, so it can either something like a 10-to-30-foot dune riding on back of a 100-foot dune field or it's another dune field from another time."

PaulM: I know what you are saying about the S-to-N and N-to-S laminations, but this Cape is only one small outcrop. I don't think we confidently know the morphology of these dunes/ripples. Are they barchans, linear, transverse, star, or one of the other varieties? The team may eventually tell us. Surely that is one of the reasons they decided to drive around part of Victoria, to observe the lateral stratigraphic variations in the capes and bays.

Oh yeah, and did I note that they appeared to be friable, as well?

[ustrax]

I'm happy...*

How could we ever reach Ithaca from inside that crater?...



* and back...