MSL "Drive, drive, drive" toward Glenelg, The scientists (mostly) get the keys - sols 38-56 Options

[Guest_Oersted_*]

The animated GIF anaglyph version of the Sol 54 turret deployment...

Thanks so much for this, lovely! - And, that's the first animated anaglyph I ever see... It is truly beautiful and "brings you there".

[Ant103]

Sol 55 Mastcam 100. Totally agreed when Phil said it's hard to decide where to look at

[jamescanvin]

My version of the sol 54 MR mosaic, full resolution. Edit: Added Zoomify version



Am I right in thinking that this is Glenelg? The three units being the foreground, background and the wedge of bedrock (high TI unit) coming in from the left. The actual triple point being a bit right/up from centre?

[jmknapp]

I wonder if Leo Enright knows that over a hundred ChemCam observations have been taken and that the team is keeping them close to the vest.

As far as I recall, the word chemcam was not mentioned during the recent press conference. That's pretty close!

[EdTruthan]

Sol 55 Mastcam 100. Totally agreed when Phil said it's hard to decide where to look at

Holy cow, there's some absolutely stunning geology going on all over this one, especially the slabs of up tilted rock from the extensively exposed formation in the center. And those two "sea lions" Phil mentioned a few posts back at far left center... What the heck are those? Wow!

Here's my full res version with some white balancing and level adjustment added to differentiate the varying geology a bit:

[craigmcg]

Holy cow, there's some absolutely stunning geology going on all over this one

Some interesting driving too

[ngunn]

Added Zoomify version

Love the Zoomify! It should come as standard for these big pans from Curiosity. (Also your colours are still my benchmark for the way Mars really looks.) Zoomify should also work for anaglyphs, no?

[belleraphon1]

Guess I do not have to wonder anymore whether team will rove to Glenelg to do soil scoop . WOW... what an interesting site!

As for science result releases (impatience of some in the media) ... I council patience little grasshoppers (I count myself a little grasshopper still, even after 59 years on this pale blue dot). Have eagerly awaited mission results from Mariner 4 to Curiosity. The science will come. Good science takes deliberation and time. And just think what we have awaiting us!!!! Once the pipeline opens we have years of wonder ahead of us.

Yum!!!

Craig

[belleraphon1]

Plus... we can NOW do our own quarterbacking in this wondererful community forum. What Fun!

Craig

[Julius]

New pictures of rock and sand just been posted on ps blog.To my inexperienced eyes, if I come across this rock here on Earth, I would say its a metal of some sort!! So smooth and shiny with fine sand on it!

[Guest_fthurber_*]

Wow; a geologist's paradise. Those stack-of-plates rocks are incredible but there are other (thickly) layered rocks on the right and odd silky rocks in the foreground. There are all sorts of animal shapes in addition to the two sea lions. In closer than the sea lions and slightly to right of them is what looks like a row of stegosaurus plates. I checked with my local expert (my 15 year old son) and he agrees that it is a stegosaurus skeleton. Other formations look like rows of alligator scutes. In addition there are rocks that look like sandstone and other (of course) that look like vesicular basalt.

This has to be the richest geological site that has ever visited by a Mars lander / rover.

[mhoward]

Context for the sol 54 M-100 mosaic. Lots of area left to cover!



And a rough anaglyph view. Navcam is used for the left channel, which is obviously not ideal, but it works to some extent.

[Ondaweb]

On Earth, that would sure look like an old river bed to me.

[PDP8E]

These images are fantastic; thank you to all the JPL/NASA/MSSS/UMSF image makers!

If the 'hottah' location is an ancient remnant of of stream (in the context of the alluvial fan from Peace Vallis) then Glenelg may be part of the main delta and ancient river bed (Glenelg seems lower than than the flat-top rise Curiosity landed on). However it turns out, there are many interesting days and discoveries ahead! (Hey Mount Sharp, we may be here a little while... )

I wish Good Luck to all the JPL teams: the hundreds of hard core engineers and the hundreds of multidisciplinary scientists on this historic journey.

[James Sorenson]

My take of the Sol-54 Mastcam-100 pan.