Going To Mogollon..., ...and points South Options

[Bill Harris]

It was already said that those structures seen on previous hazcam pics (well, in all sort of cameras and filters...) were delicate.

[attachment=3535:attachment] (138k)
But what about these ones? It looks like the smallest touch could broke them.

[attachment=3536:attachment] (138k)
PS: It's time to open a new thread, don't you think so?

Good idea. That topic was "tired" and had the cord showing.

Delicate, to be sure. One thing I've noticed is that the "ledge-forming" rocks are a layer and extend to the right and left of where we camped out. I wonder if that feature is related to the bluff at Mogollon Rim?

We need to check out the "mobile dust" at that site and see if there has been more movement during the stopover.
--Bill

[Tesheiner]

Not only that, but the rover would have to make the whole way around the crater to it's southern size (northern looking wall) AND find a path into the crater.

[Toma B]

Not only that, but the rover would have to make the whole way around the crater to it's southern size (northern looking wall) AND find a path into the crater.

Oh, but we aren't going to Victoria just yet as Jim Bell says...
There are some more places around that they want to see, and maybe then they will decide that there are some more places nearby, after that there will be some more IDD to be done here, after that there will be some things that we have never seen before...
Opportunity will never reach Victoria Crater at this pace...PLEASE make up your mind and start DRIVING!!!

[Marcel]

B)-->

Opportunity will never reach Victoria Crater at this pace...PLEASE make up your mind and start DRIVING!!!

[/quote]

I can understand the frustration. I'd love to see the place as well: the possibility to reach it is there, and this will diminish every day that long drives south are postponed and mechanics and electronics are aging.

But (and it's said before often): This mission is not about pretty pictures, it's about science. About understanding what we see. Try to reconstruct what happened on this part of the surface. Relate morphology with rock/soil composition (while the cobalt source still radiates within workable levels, before it's out of operation), look for geologic context. And: do it as thoroughly as possible. This, combined with the knowledge that the quality of the scientific results is highly dependent on the quantity (that is: statistically reliable) AND te quality of the data (that is: complete, without forgetting to record just about everything that's within the capability of the instruments). And this costs time. A lot of it. And this is why we're not in Victoria (yet). It's a balance between continuing the trek across the line southward and feeding hunger for new terrain, and relating it to the knowledge that returning to a spot to fill a gap in the data is probably not going to be an option.

In other words: it's choosing between knowing some things for sure (like the prime target: pinning down water related processes), than a lot of things superficially.

[helvick]

Victoria is apparently somewhere between 2500 and 3000m away depending on the route taken.

To see how realistic a target it is I'm making some assumptions:
1. Driving consumes approximately 100watts between the drive motors and navigation processing\imaging.
2. 0.5 cm/sec is a realistic speed for driving aggresively but with some care (so as to avoid another Purgatory).
3. Dust accumulation will cause additional power loss at a rate of 0.18% per Sol (this should be a worst case situation).
4. Oppy doesn't get stuck.
5. We start driving soon.

Opportunity should have enough power available over the next 94 sols (when power will drop just below 400 whr) to drive about 3300m.

To achieve that she would have to start soon and initially average around 50-60m per Sol. By the time she reaches Victoria she would be driving for about 18m per Sol.

I haven't factored in things like restricted Sols but there is a 10-30% margin in the above numbers depending on route and my calculations target reaching Victoria when power is still approx 400whr per Sol so she still has enough juice to do some real work\find a nice sunny ledge to park on for winter.