Post Conjunction: Santa Maria to Cape York, The Journey to 'Spirit Point' Options

[ElkGroveDan]

Starting a new topic to include Eduardo's Google overlay for the rest of the journey to Cape York:

http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/gmars_ma...41_1775_RED.kml

Follow the link above and it should load right in to your Google Mars features.

I took a low crow's flight along the final 6km this morning. Below in green is what I think the final route will look like. Also an interesting feature along the way that appears to be a cluster of rocks, possibly Santa Maria ejecta, or large meteorite fragments. Note how the dune has evolved around the three (or more) objects. Object is at -2.199395°, -5.396676° -- roughly 3km down range from Santa Maria.

EDIT: bad link replaced, wider context image added for three rocks.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Phil Stooke]

Regarding the destination on Endeavour's rim... at LPSC two different posters showed the same graphic, of routes at the south end of Cape York which might offer access to the Noachian materials in the Cape itself. One climbed onto the top of the Cape near the south end, one skirted the Cape's south end to examine older rocks at the southeast corner. That graphic is not shown in the abstract accompanying one of the posters:

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2011/pdf/2199.pdf

But it is clear they expect interesting materials at Cape York and Botany Bay. No need to head south right away.

Phil