Getting to 'Big Crater', A little premature speculation Options

[SFJCody]

Opportunity is not quite at Victoria yet, but on the horizon is a tantalising goal for the future- the big eroded crater to the south-east, the rim of which is already visible. This is the first 'large scale' topography of the mission so far. Wouldn't it be great if Opportunity could get to these hills and uncover their secrets?

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/sfjcody2/route_to_big.jpg

[djellison]

Oh we've got to stop this I'm getting excited about the sort of view we could have from there - and that's bad because I really can't imagine us getting there, realistically.

Doug

[Stephen]

Oh we've got to stop this I'm getting excited about the sort of view we could have from there - and that's bad because I really can't imagine us getting there, realistically.

Doug

On the other hand, way back at Sol 1, or even Sol 90, would any of us have anticipated, realistically, that Opportunity would get as far as Victoria? Even the etched terrain seemed a long way of back thenl

If and when Opportunity leaves the Victoria it and the MER team (not to mention us!) will need another goal, and right now "Big Crater" seems no more impossible now that Victoria Crater was as a destination all those Sols ago.

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Stephen

[djellison]

On the other hand, way back at Sol 1, or even Sol 90, would any of us have anticipated, realistically, that Opportunity would get as far as Victoria?

Once we had left Endurance - yes - realistically I thought that Victoria, if the terrain was navigable, was a genuine possibility.

However - looking SE from Victoria - I don't like the look of the terrain a great deal - there's no MOC NA imagery that I can see in that direction and we need that or HiRISE to judge what the navigability would be like.

Realistically - I think we could spend at least the next 300-500 sols exploring Victoria - THEN....let's see how the rover is doing.

Doug

[Stephen]

However - looking SE from Victoria - I don't like the look of the terrain a great deal - there's no MOC NA imagery that I can see in that direction and we need that or HiRISE to judge what the navigability would be like.

It's enough to make you wonder how terrestrial explorers of a non-mechanised kind ever managed to find their way around Earth before the advent of satellite imagery...

Having the MOC images has been nice (especially for Tesheiner's maps), but let's face it: they're a basically a luxury. They didn't stop Opportunity getting stuck at Purgatory and they were of limited use in determining--beforehand--what the actual nature of the etched terrain was like. They doubtless helped the Opportunity route planners attempt those long drives after Endurance, but the terrain itself soon spelt an end to those, imagery or no imagery. After that the rover and its planners more or less had to feel their way forward anyway. Only now that it has reached Victoria's annulus have the long drives resumed; and that has arguably had less to do with the orbital imagery than the flatness of the terrain evident to the rover's own eyes.

If the rover has the opportunity--pardon the pun --to strike out into the martian equivalent of Terra Incognita, why not? It will not be as if it will be venturing out there entirely blind. The rovers do have their own eyes, after all. If it--or at least its drivers--get a little lost and have to backtrack a little (or maybe a lot, depending on the terrain), so what? As everybody, from Steve Squyres down, keeps reminding us: the rovers are into extra time now. It's not as if they are trying to beat some kind of deadline (as they were back in their first 90 days). Opportunity in particular is on what Hollywood would probably term a "road trip"; and with those the journey and what you learn along the way can sometimes be at least as important as getting to the desired destination.

Realistically - I think we could spend at least the next 300-500 sols exploring Victoria - THEN....let's see how the rover is doing.

Of course. Victoria first.

But that said like others I'm beginning to have doubts about whether the rover will actually be able to get inside Victoria--short of rolling off a clifftop. And even then it may well find no bedrock to land on, just a slope of scree descending steeply to the dunefield on the crater floor.

Still, time will tell.

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Stephen

[ustrax]

If the rover has the opportunity--pardon the pun --to strike out into the martian equivalent of Terra Incognita, why not?

Great reading Stephen!
We are starting to dream of that crater beyond and I love the way that sounds...
As imipak wisely said...: "Mad, mad, mad... you're all completely mad. I love it!"