Distant Vistas 2 - The view from Cape Tribulation Options

[Phil Stooke]

Iazu crater has been talked about as a future destination for a while, despite being ridiculously far away (you know, like Endeavour was when we were at Victoria).

So it's interesting to see this at LPSC:

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2015/pdf/2548.pdf

Nowhere does it say specifically that it's a future destination. But a co-author is Ray Arvidson. So maybe this will be the next goal. It would be several years away.

Phil

[craigmcg]

Thanks Phil for that reference. The image on the second page is spectacular.

There is something to be said for driving Opportunity until she fails just to see how far she can go for engineering reasons. I would never bet against her at this point.

Part of my question is really about the value of other parts of Endeavor vs. Marathon Valley. Is there any other destination in Endeavor that has major incremental value after Marathon?

[vikingmars]

.../... Part of my question is really about the value of other parts of Endeavor vs. Marathon Valley. Is there any other destination in Endeavor that has major incremental value after Marathon?

Good question Craigmcg.
Lots of interesting minerals were identified from orbit along the rim of Endeavour's (see the 3 illustrations herebelow).
So... My gess is that, after the study of Marathon Valley (that will take 1 Earth year at least), we will rove again, following the rim of Endeavour Crater...
And this treck will make us going closer and closer to Iazu crater.
When we reach Point Hicks (maybe in 2017, who knows ?) and if the rover is still in good health (with many, many technical "ifs"), then we could start our ~12-km traverse on the Meridfiani plain to reach the northmost point of Iazu ejecta that overlooks the Meridiani plains (see the 3rd ansd 4th illustrations : it looks like the Cotentin Peninsula in Normandy, a well-known place by our American, Canadian and British friends who fought the Battle of Normandy in World War II).
Marathon Valley is located midway between Victoria Crater and Iazu's cape. Well... there is still a loooong way to go before reaching Iazu crater !
But we have the big chance on our lives to be witnesses of all those exploration feats : maybe we'll see it up close and as we say, "Where there's life, there's hope" !

(... and as a tribute also to those who died to save our freedom)

[Explorer1]

On the other hand....
https://twitter.com/CaseyDreier/status/562330771935883264

On page PS-43 of the budget released today (173 in the PDF):

After a long, productive mission life, Opportunity has started to show signs of age, including recent problems with its flash memory. NASA plans to end Opportunity operations by FY 2016.

[James Sorenson]

Not again!

Picking on the little one is not nice!

[brellis]

Noooo!

[Explorer1]

Planetary Society's Casey Drier says this is actually routine; happened last year, but was fought over, so not a big worry yet.

If it ends up being a choice between Odyssey and Oppy, well....that's going to be a tough one.

[stevesliva]

... the mountain-shadow phenomenon that visitors to the top of Mauna Loa often can see?
http://darkerview.com/wordpress/?p=8766

One of these days I have to add a few things to the "Antisolar point" article at wikipedia, because this, along with "Glory" and Brocken spectre and sunbow and everything else that shows up needs some sort of master list.

[ngunn]

Another glimpse of Miyamoto from sol 3921:

It's actually visible at the far right of Jan's latest Pancam panorama. (Not everyone's priority I know, but it's a lonely mountain on Mars and somebody has to love it.) I'm hopeful that as we descend towards the next crater target we may at last get a pancam view of Bopolu to 'complete the set' of distant features visible from Cape Tribulation.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[vjkane]

If it ends up being a choice between Odyssey and Oppy, well....that's going to be a tough one.

I have this vague recollection that Odyssey is expected to run out of fuel sometime in the next couple of years. Does anyone here know for sure?

Same thing for LRO (which is also proposed for termination by September)?

MRO is projected to be funded (and presumably operating) through 2020, so it apparently has a good fuel supply.

[Phil Stooke]

LRO at least is good for 7 or 8 years - I know nothing about Odyssey.

Phil

[vikingmars]

Another glimpse of Miyamoto from sol 3921: It's actually visible at the far right of Jan's latest Pancam panorama. (Not everyone's priority I know, but it's a lonely mountain on Mars and somebody has to love it.) I'm hopeful that as we descend towards the next crater target we may at last get a pancam view of Bopolu to 'complete the set' of distant features visible from Cape Tribulation.

Thanks Ngunn.
When you process a little bit, here is the viewing interpretation to the hills at center :
- the small (and darker) hills in front of Myamoto's ejecta are 60 km away from us ;
- the main hills behind (that are barely visible in unprocessed data) are part of the far extensions of Myamoto's ejecta and are 85 km from us...

Dear Phil (our Cartographer-in-Chief), any more comments ?

[ngunn]

That's an amazingly clear version - a big thanks for posting it. What did you do? Stack a load of images? Whatever it was I think it would be worth trying on the Navcams too. Miyamoto is just perceptible in some of those, and of course they extend farther west to include Bopolu also.

For Bopolu I think we may soon be able to do long baseline 3D with the other 'eye' at Concepcion.

[vikingmars]

That's an amazingly clear version - a big thanks for posting it. What did you do? Stack a load of images? Whatever it was I think it would be worth trying on the Navcams too. Miyamoto is just perceptible in some of those, and of course they extend farther west to include Bopolu also.

Thanks a lot Ngunn. Have you seen Bopolu in recent images ? I thought it was not to be easily visible from our vantage point. I remember that it rose quickly above the horizon and popped out Sol 2178 to be best seen on Sol 2195. But when we started our trek towards the east, it disappeared very quickly also...

[ngunn]

I think so. Isn't that it on the left here, for example? http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...BXP1828R0M1.JPG