From Cambridge Bay to the "parking lot" Options

[Mirek]

Great Stu. Comparing the sizes gives you the sense of how thin is Mars' atmosphere to allow creation of group of such small craters.

I wonder if the fact that parent body of that crater group broke up/exploded before impact would mean there is gonna be (or was in the past) a large number of meteorites on the ground.

[Burmese]

*glances at Scott's blog*

When was the last time Oppy drover over 100m?

[MoreInput]

... and just to give a sense of scale, here's "Oppy" (scale correct, it's cloned from the same HiRISE image) next to the craters...

Hey, it is just a marsian cat paw. It reminds me of the footsteps of a giant cat.
So we could name them "cat paw crater"?

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Hungry4info]

When was the last time Oppy drover over 100m?

I think the last time the rover drover over 100 m was on its way to Victoria.

[Poolio]

I think the last time the rover drover over 100 m was on its way to Victoria.

Actually, the last time she topped 100m was on sol 1954 while she was backtracking to Block Island. I have the very specific figure 107.48 recorded in my ongoing spreadsheet, but I don't know where that came from now. The official weekly update for that sol states simply that it was "over a 100 meter (328-foot) drive".

She also drove 137 meters on sol 1864 while blazing past Porcupine.

EDIT: Found it. The 107.48 came from A.J.S. Rayl's Planetary Society rover update for July 2009.

[algorimancer]

[attachment=22441:craters_plus_oppy.jpg]

I think those are mounds. Compare the lighting with that on the dunes. Of course, how the mounds came to be is another matter.

[BrianL]

If they were mounds, would they not be lit on the same side as the dunes?

[Phil Stooke]

That's a very common optical illusion with planetary images. But no, they actually are craters!

Phil

[ElkGroveDan]

I think those are mounds.

Save the image to your computer and then rotate it 90 and 180 degrees. Your mounds will become craters again.

[Mirek]

I actually tried to force my brain to see mounds and I couldn't, so the illusion works both ways.

My eyes hurt now...

[CosmicRocker]

What do you mean they aren't mounds?

[Guest_Bobby_*]

As we keep dropping in elevation. At our current position. Are we lower then the bottom of Victoria Crater yet and would any exposed bedrock we drive upon now be the layers that might be at the bottom of Victoria???

I would say our next stop for investigation will be the group of small craters we are heading for.

[CosmicRocker]

Bobby: As best as I can tell, the lowest point inside Victoria Crater is -1451 meters below the Mars datum. That's from the Google Mars model, which, as we have seen, has some problems with the real Mars. Opportunity's current location would appear to be somewhere around -1385 meters in the same model...quite a few meters above the lowest apparent point inside Victoria. Shortly after Oppy passes Santa Maria she'll be at an elevation near to the bottom of Victoria.

As for your bedrock layers question, that is more difficult to answer. It depends on whether those layers are perfectly flat, or if they are tilting in one direction or another.

[ngunn]

Shortly after Oppy passes Santa Maria she'll be at an elevation near to the bottom of Victoria.

I don't think that's right. This map shows a moderate slope of several hundred metres going down into the crater from the relatively level parking lot: http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&id=20806

[CosmicRocker]

Sorry, ngunn. I don't understand your point. According to the Victoria Crater DEM, the lowest point inside the crater is about -1450 meters. On the map you cite, the -1450 contour crosses the future route path about 1 kilometer SE of Santa Maria. At that point Opportunity will be at the same elevation as the bottom of Victoria Crater. If the bedrock layers are actually horizontal across this region, then Oppy may be driving on the same layers of rock as would be found at the bottom of Victoria.