Cape York, Landfall! Options

[centsworth_II]

This armchair geologist is at a total loss. The only preconception I had of Cape York that may hold true is that the large blocks of Odyssey ejecta may yet turn out to be basaltic boulders. That and a scattering of blueberries indicating that concretion forming sulfate layers once covered Cape York. But have the sulfate layers been entirely eroded away? I can't wait to see what the MI and APXS will reveal!

The only thing I know for sure: When Opportunity moves to the edge of Odyssey, she will be sitting on the rim of a crater... on the rim of a crater!

[Stu]

When Opportunity moves to the edge of Odyssey, she will be sitting on the rim of a crater... on the rim of a crater!

...and when HiRISE takes its first pic of Oppy after landfall, it should look something like this...

http://twitpic.com/64ehoa/full

[centsworth_II]

...should look something like this...

How tiny she is!
Looking at the size scale of Oppy to Odyssey to CY to Endeavour, is like comparing a viral particle to a bacterium to a skin cell to a finger tip!

[Stu]

That scale size demonstration is **brilliant**! Love things like that.

[SteveM]

Mini TES hasn't been used for a long time. The last I heard it was severely crippled by a dusty mirror, but theoretically functional.

Any chance it could be used to follow up on the CRISM phyllosilicate signatures? I imagine picking the signal out of the noise of the dust would be a real challenge.

SteveM

[Explorer1]

It's still covered, according to Emily's latest post.
It's doubtful they can clean it after so long.

[rschare]

So, what instruments can they still use to determine the mineralogy of things now that we are here? Other than a close up picture. Are phyllosilicate's iron bearing so the Mossbauer can be used?

[SteveM]

If Emily says "Mini TES ... is hopelessly contaminated" I'll take the situation as truly hopeless.

[climber]

So, what instruments can they still use to determine the mineralogy of things now that we are here? Other than a close up picture. Are phyllosilicate's iron bearing so the Mossbauer can be used?

Have a look at the end of Emily's blog here: http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00003137/

[kenny]

Full right Navcam panorama for 2681-2682

Thanks for this wonderful pano, mhoward.

Looking around and comparing it with Tesh's map, I am especially struck by the appearance of Sutherland Point beyond the dark bay to the Right of the rover mast. You can see some subtle undulating topography in it which is so slight, compared with the prominent ridge appearance in the HiRISE map. Another example of how we were fooled by the orbital photos into thinking these crater rim features were much, much taller than they really are. How they can appear so prominent from above, yet be so negligible from gound level, is still pretty mystifying...

[Guest_Bobby_*]

WOW is the best word to Describe what I'm seeing and good job everyone.

I have a few Questions?

1. I would like to know where the official Rim of Endevour Starts and when did we cross that point? Are there any overhead
shots showing the rim as a circular pattern? There probably is an image somewhere in UMSF and I missed it.

2. With the current degrading of certain science tools on Oppy. Does it take roughly 2 weeks to examine any rock now?

Thanks
Bobby

[Eutectic]

1. (snip) Are there any overhead shots showing the rim as a circular pattern?

NASA posts a good context image here:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/newsroom/pr.../20110608a.html

2. With the current degrading of certain science tools on Oppy. Does it take roughly 2 weeks to examine any rock now?

The curium-244 used in the APXS has a half-life of 18.1 years, so integration times for it should not yet have doubled, everything else being equal. The Mossbauer, on the other hand, uses cobalt-57, which has a half life of 271.8 days. Since the date of launch eight years ago, that's 10.75 half-lives, reducing the source intensity by more than 1,722 times if my arithmetic is right, which I hope it's not. A measurement that took six hours might now take more than a terrestrial year, so they may be running it just long enough to get the bare minimum of a result above the background.

[Tesheiner]

Is it possible this fissure formed when Opportunity ran over the adjacent piece of rock and displaced it? We've seen similar things before.

Also, as Gibraltar was (I think) a pre-Cape York target, shouldn't it be in the "Post Conjunction..." thread? I understand why that thread was closed to encourage people to move to the new thread, but now that goal has been accomplished, shouldn't it be re-opened for posting of continued discussion of data from the long trek?

John

Completely right, John. Moved some posts and re-opened the thread.
Cape York related posts, here.
Gibraltar or earlier things, on the Post Conjunction thread, please.

[Tesheiner]

Today's drive moved the rover about 15m towards the SE to a point somewhere on the S or SW corner of Odyssey. I will update the map once the pictures are available.

[walfy]

A little more of the crater's floor in view tonight, from the navcam.