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

[Stephen]

....sort of like the cartoon of an alien, crawling across desert sands, away from ?his? crashed flying saucer, and saying: "Ammonia! Ammonia!"

You mean this one?

======
Stephen

[edstrick]

Almost certainly the same one... though my memory is sort of the mirror image.. crawling off to the right...but that memory is many many years old.

Grin!

[AndyG]

You mean this one?

======
Stephen

EXCELLENT! I knew the drawing from the description - it was in a compilation of classic New Yorker cartoons that accompanied me through my childhood - but I hadn't seen it for about thirty years. Until Today.

Marvellous, and many thanks Stephen,

Andy

[lyford]

You mean this one?

I bow to your mad google skills - I gave up after a few minutes of false hits.
I saw this cartoon as a kid IIRC in the TimeLife book series on Life I think...

[ToSeek]

What did they have to do with HESSI? (which was nearly trashed by an inhouse test accident at JPL.)

Oops, wrong accident! I was thinking of the NOAA-N Prime accident, where the satellite fell over, causing millions in damage, because LM personnel did not follow proper procedures.

[Guest_Myran_*]

I tend to agree with edstrick that the image might have been flipped. Then again, the signature are not so I guess tere been two versions of it by the same cartoonist. (And I go smack myself with a brick so I stay on topic from now on)

[imipak]

"A UK-led team is challenging cherished ideas on Greek mythology by proposing an alternative site for Ithaca."

Heh, Auntie Beeb had me going for a moment there...

I can't see that Oppy would be sent off on a probably fruitless quest for Ithaca/BC, as the value of a motionless rover with broken wheels but working cameras would surely be considerably higher perched on the rim (or inside) VC than stranded out on the plains somewhere between VC and BC. The variable relief would be likely to lead to more useful data on seasonal changes in wind, tau, dust accumulation/removal and so on. Oppy at VC would still be able to do 'fairly remote' sensing of conditions on the plains, but would also have a feature within which to look for microclimates or other localised phenomena.

[MarkL]

And since Victoria seems to be eroding, Opportunity can witness the process in action from a high promontory, while watching the seasons pass for several years. I'll bet a couple of chunks will calve off the walls at some point over the next few years. Would certainly be more interesting than watching sand blow across a featureless, flat plain.

[ustrax]

And since Victoria seems to be eroding, Opportunity can witness the process in action from a high promontory, while watching the seasons pass for several years. I'll bet a couple of chunks will calve off the walls at some point over the next few years. Would certainly be more interesting than watching sand blow across a featureless, flat plain.

The nature of Opportunity is to rove, untill the end.

[imipak]

The nature of Opportunity is to rove, untill the end.

Does a Mars Exploration Rover have the Ustrax nature?

[RNeuhaus]

MER was born luckly with wheels so she is very lucky to be able to rover to the end toward the Ithaca crossing any permissible road.

Rodolfo

[ustrax]

Does a Mars Exploration Rover have the Ustrax nature?

“On the day you say yourself "Enough!" , you are already dead.
You shall always endure, you shall always go onward, you shall always walk.
Don't stop on the way, do not withdraw, don't leave the way.
That one that does not advance, stays behind”

Saint Augustine
(Translated by me, can someone please find a correct english version?...)

[ustrax]

Wouldn't it be great to multiply Victoria's "WOWs" 20 times?
We would need a XXL swear box...

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b14/ustr...ca_vic_comp.jpg

[Guest_Edward Schmitz_*]

The realy interesting thing about big crater, to me, is that it appears to predate the evaporite layers that opportunity has been investigating. The sediments seem to drap over the crater and the original rim is poking through in some spots. If we could investigate those peaks, we might see unaltered rock that pre-date the evaporite layers.

That would be exciting...

ed

[Stephen]

The realy interesting thing about big crater, to me, is that it appears to predate the evaporite layers that opportunity has been investigating.

Of course, nobody will know what interesting things are over there unless and until Opportunity actually goes.

======
Stephen