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

[chuckclark]

I'm going to just jump right ahead of everyone pointing out how hard Cape York is to see . . .

Just a hunch, but I'm joining in with ElkGroveDan on this one.

[fredk]

I agree with Phil's diagram - thanks for making those, guys, I'm sure that helps a lot of people here.

About Stu's new bump: here's an average of the L2/R2 frames, 3x Philovision:

My thinking is that new bump is just some subtle topography very close to Approach Crater, rather than farther away as Stu suggested. The ground past AC curves downwards (convex up), so I doubt we'd see any features farther away yet. If you scan the horizon away from AC, you can see more "bumps" and "dips" - that local horizon is now so close that little ripples could stick up like sore thumbs.

[Phil Stooke]

"little ripples could stick up like sore thumbs"

That's 'cause they are frantically texting 'look out, there's a rover heading straight for us!"

Phil

[climber]

"sigh" I'm starting missing The Beacon "Sigh"

[MoreInput]

Maybe Cape York was just painted on the crater wall?

[NW71]

Are we nearly there yet?

Neil

[CosmicRocker]

I really think the difference between calling Cape York a shelf on the wall of Endeavour and a low, exposed portion of Endeavour's rim is important. I think the latter is the case. ...

Centworth_II: I wasn't trying to suggest that Cape York wasn't part of the Endeavour rim. It clearly is rim rock protruding through the Meridiani sediments. I was trying to use words to describe exactly the scenario that Phil posted. The sketch works better.

[Tesheiner]

Still not enough (public) data to determine thisol drive length but based on the local time of the hazcam shots (around 2pm) I would say they actually drove for 120m-150m and not 80m as previously reported.

Edited: 80m.

[pgrindrod]

I make it about 500 m to my predicted visibility line (depending on the exact path taken), so only another 3 or 4 big drives. I'd probably guess the errors in my line placement are at least something like plus or minus 100 m, just to hedge my bets.

The dark blue contours in the image below are every 5 m, and the faint blue lines are every 1 m. The view of the dropoff into the crater at the same time as Cape York becomes visible should also be pretty nice.

Either way, not long now!
Pete

[Tesheiner]

Sooo close now. I took a raw approximation of that visibility line (hope you don't mind) and plotted it on Google Mars together with the route till now.

[SFJCody]

Within spitting distance! Martian spitting distances are likely much longer than on Earth as the lower gravity and huge pressure differential between the air in your mouth/lungs and the atmosphere will aid in the transport of the saliva.

[fredk]

The dark blue contours in the image below are every 5 m, and the faint blue lines are every 1 m.

Thanks a lot for that, Pete. From that map, I estimate slopes into Endeavour of around 5 or 6 degrees in Botany Bay. The steepest parts of the inner/east side of CY are around 12 or 13 degrees. Those slopes are easily maneuverable by Oppy with six driving wheels.

Of course this depends on whether there's an overall tilt to your map, but given the very small slopes your map gives out in the plains, any such tilt should be very small.

Meanwhile, the horizon has dropped again after the sol 2654 drive:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...2M2.JPG?sol2654
The rate of drop should accelerate now...

[FatSplenda]

I'm going to just jump right ahead of everyone pointing out how hard Cape York is to see, and declare that we won't see Cape York until Opportunity is parked on its summit and extends the MI looking downward. Even then it will need to be a stack of 12 over-exposed images..

There. I should have been a Yorkshireman.

Indeed -- CY is only a few meters high, if that. (Maybe somebody knows the resolution of the elevation maps out there?)

[Stu]

Stretch of new horizon view...

[kenny]

That's a lovely map, Pete.

The contours imply that we can reach a point with a view of Cape York by staying at the same altitude was we currently occupy, and driving south-east -- i.e. no need to cross another 1 metre contour. Don't forget that the height of the camera mast helps us to see it earlier. So it's basically a flat drive, with no more "up".

It also shows, if accurate, that the summit of Cape York is about 11 metres lower than our current height.