Looks like it's time for a new thread! On to Santa Maria!
Phil
Done.
The 2405 hazcams are down: it looks like we've made it to the flat patch:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2010-10-30/1F341693990EFFAU%23%23P1205R0M1.JPG?sol2405
As others have pointed out, this isn't the end of the ripples, but it does give us our first taste of the tarmac surface ahead.
Nav/Pancam are expected to be shot and downlinked tomorrow and I expect to see very flat surroundings, at least if I take the HiRISE view as a reference.
Holy smokes! Flatness!
Very exciting! And these are the images from yestersol (2404) - as Tesh says, 2405's Navcam/Pancam still to come.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marscat/5129053586/sizes/o/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marscat/5129052308/sizes/o/in/photostream/
And the reason why they are expected tomorrow and not today can be clearly seen on mhoward's mosaic. The rover's autonomous attitude knowledge has drifted a lot so it's time to recalculate it again. The mosaics will be shot after that.
Here is the full resolution HiRISE image from here to Santa Maria with my ripple map colour overlay showing all the features we have to encounter. It looks like the very flattest bit (greenest on my map) is just ahead. Lots of the parking lot intact has very small ripples, craters, Anatolia like features, more bedrock, etc. Doesn't look like we'll get bored!
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php/b2405_ripple_map
Click image for size options.
James
I think you're right, Fred - this may be the optimum shot... until... wow, just wait until we get to that distant rise and finally look down into Endeavour! OK, let's all shout "super-res" and see if anyone hears us.
Phil
Updated my blog with some pics showing how the ground beneath Oppy's wheels has changed dramatically...
http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/10/31/oppy-on-the-flats
(and thanks to fredk for letting me use his brilliant pics, too)
Great articles, as usual, Stu.
Just a correction to the second picture, that one with the distances to all little craters up to the "Waypoint": it's about 270m (and not 1.7km) to that crater.
Just for fun, a pic showing the relative sizes of Santa Maria and Victoria Crater...
Nice comparison Stu. So Santa Maria is kind of Duck Bay sized, that helps me visualise it a lot, thanks.
The new navcams and pancams are down. Here's a stereo view showing a number of the craters ahead on the plains. In order of distance, the closest is what I labelled D (the "doublet"), then C, then A (the "waypoint"), and finally much farther away is G. Immediately past D is the ultra-flat stretch.
Sol 2406
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marscat/5132246296/sizes/o/in/photostream/
Nice graphic, Stu. How would you feel about tossing Endurance in there for comparison?
Interesting comparison, it looks like santa maria crater is large enough/old enough for the 'capes' and 'bays' formations to form. If that were the case for santa maria then it would indicate that the original crater was smaller than the size we see now.
It would be really interesting to see all the craters above the size of say eagle crater size in Oppys vicinity/on meridiani planum, against each other, a bit like Emily's asteroid montage. It would even be neat to keep the positional relationship to see morphological differences in cratering relating to changes in the plains in which they are punched.
if there is a size correlations with bay formation/depth that would be interesting to see. It might also give some clues as to the erosion rate as larger craters would be expected to be older.
Here it is!
I put famous craters in one picture, grabbed from Google Earth (also grabbed the strange color of endurance). It roughly the same scale, but not really exact.
The point inside the eagle crater is the lander. The rovers are about the same size (3-4 pixels).
I put also the next waypoints to the picture: Santa Maria and Cape York. Interesting: Cape York could fit into Victoria!
Santa Maria crater is a little smaller than endurance, but Bonneville, visited by Spirit, is larger.
The Home Plate, well visited by Spirit, is just as big as Santa Maria.
Thanks MoreInput!
Funny, I thought Cape York was much much bigger...
Another really fascinating monthly report by A.J.S. Ryal (with help from Stu and Tesh amongst others) has just been released on The Planetary Society website for October, 2010.
Others will be able to post a link and give a far better synopsis than I but it really does provide a lot of detailed information for the MER fan and scientist alike!
Basically, the excitement level with both rovers is growing - Spirit in anticipation of her regaining contact, Opportunity with Santa Maria and the continuation of the journey to Endeavour.
Thanks again to all those who keep us so well informed and up to date with these missions.
Neil
Here's our first navcam view of the new terrain:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2010-11-01/1N341870521EFFAV00P2880L0M1.JPG?sol2407
Special Agent Stooke reporting from Cape Canaveral - this new terrain looks just like the old familiar terrain outside Eagle crater. Presumably the small ripples will provide enough detail for the auto-image-matching software. Looking forward to some lengthy drives.
Phil
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=6717&view=findpost&p=165936
Here's a question for the impact geology experts out there. When we're looking at the rim of Endeavor (like Cape York in MoreInput's great montage on the prior page), are we looking at an uplifted geological section or an inverted geological section? Or perhaps a little of both?
Here's a comment twitted by Scott about the upcoming drive (on sol 2408 I presume):
Today's focus: drive-by shootings. Driving by several craters, imaging them as we pass. Probably gonna image three or four craters today.
http://twitter.com/marsroverdriver/status/29514510710 on the planned drive:
I had cobbled this togeher before MoreInput's excellent comparisons were posted, but thought some of you might like to see these three places side-by-side...
Santa Maria, Victoria and Cape York...
It's hard to say for sure, but I'd think we're seeing more the curvature of the surface as it drops into Endeavour than the curvature of Mars. Judging from the contour maps we've seen (low resolution), it looks like the surface doesn't continue flat up to the rim, instead it curves more gradually downwards. And so Cape York seems to be somewhat below the level of the plains.
In this 2409 navcam view:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2010-11-03/1N342050865EFFAVC9P0673R0M1.JPG?sol2409
we seem to be sitting very close to the "doublet" crater. We can only see a part of one of the pair on the far right. I believe that's C and B on the left of the frame.
This is about as flat as it gets:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2010-11-03/1F342050592EFFAVC6P1205R0M1.JPG?sol2409
The way the ground must curve on the way to Cape York (as you say, Fred) we'll get some nice views of it during the final approach.
Phil
Interesting detail on the far rim of "Waypoint Crater" (no official name yet..?)
Another drive on 2412. Here's a stereo view peering into crater A/"waypoint crater":
I agree, Fred. Hope you all like the view of this martian "Big Country", this great wide open plain, because This Is It for a long time now. Oppy is on the corner of "No" and "Where", and the next non-ripply thing we see will be Santa Maria, which is still about 1.5km away...
( You'll all be crying out for some meteorites to look at soon, just for a change of scenery, haha! )
"Waypoint Crater" compared to Santa Maria...
A "new" view of Santa Maria, made from HiRISE image http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_013954_1780
Sol 2412, 90 degree field of view
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marscat/5151670779/sizes/o/in/set-72157625201472287/
40 degree field of view
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marscat/5152338054/sizes/o/in/set-72157625201472287/
Thanks for the context images!
Man, I can't believe how blasé this little rover has become about craters...
Don't think we'll tarry too long at this crater, so in advance of Oppy heading east I've made a pic of Santa Maria with some labels, which I hope we can use in our discussions as we look forward to Oppy's arrival at that fascinating-looking crater. No names, just labels for features.
http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/a-closer-look-at-santa-maria
And, as always, just for fun - not claiming 100000% scientific accuracy - here's a pic showing Endurance (top), Santa Maria (middle) and Victoria roughly to scale...
Looks like we have a proper name for "Waypoint crater"...
"Nearly 100m over the weekend. Today, the last 50m to Intrepid Crater, so we can image it. After that, I think we're Santa Maria-bound." (Tweeted by Scott Maxwell)
Hello Intrepid:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2010-11-09/1N342582401EFFAW00P1977R0M1.JPG?sol2415
I'm not bored seeing yet another crater. I'm really looking forward getting to Santa Maria, hopefully before... Santa Claus!
We're "only" miss another 15 "100m's drives".
Off topic posts moved to the Kitchen Junk Drawer thread.
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=6771
Sol 2415
100 degree FOV:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marscat/5161865653/sizes/l/in/set-72157625201472287/
60 degree FOV:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marscat/5161864459/sizes/l/in/set-72157625201472287/
Intrepid looks really shallow.
Always strikes me how often these small craters in Meridiani don't look like craters to me from Oppy's viewpoint. They often look like very conventional small eroded depressions & associated knolls that I wouldn't notice twice in many places on Earth.
One wonders.
Some historical background to Intrepid crater...
http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/christening-a-martian-crater
Nah, sinkholes don't have raised rims.
John
I think if you look back at Apollo images of craters seen at the surface, except for the fresher ones they also look eroded, shallow, irregular etc. (having been pitted by small impacts and showered with ejecta from nearby impacts). These are craters, no question, partly filled with wind-blown material or with rims distorted by superposed drifts.
Phil
They are doing a Phobos transit observation today - oops, no, looks like it was yesterday.
Phil
Images of Paramore double crater (taken on sol 2409) just in on Exploratorium. I made this panorama (my first!).
Very nice job! It inspired me to make a version of it and then do a vertical stretch - the previous ones were looking more towards the west, this one looks south.
Phil
Oh, I don't doubt for a nanosecond that Intrepid & the other small features are craters, Phil. Their appearance does make me wonder how many small-scale unidentified impact features there are on the Earth, though. With our aggressive erosional processes it'd be all but impossible to identify such things consistently, but it's interesting to think about.
Yesterday's Phobos transit (during my pre-lunch telecon, after Opportunity's UHF pass) was the second and last of the season. Preliminary indication is the images will be quite good when they finally make it down (possible annular shot AM 2410, good grazing sequence PM 2415).
Is this Golden Hind or Yankee Clipper? 1N342132857EFFAVH9P1876L0M and following images, sol 2410.
http://www.planetary.org/image/1N342132857EFFAVH9P1876L0M1ff_pan_sol2410.jpg
Oh, wait, I realized where I could figure that out. It's Golden Hind. They took pics of Yankee Clipper but they're not on the ground yet.
The terrain is giving me some amazing 2004 era deja vu.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2004-04-08/1N134592007EFF1000P1803L0M1.JPG
Deja vu or not I'll happily take it! It's smooth, safe, and speedy!
I hear you though, one could almost expect to see the lander in either GH or Intrepid .
-- Pertinax
Thanks for your good words about my first panorama. Usually, you guys are too quick, and when I check the new posts, the job is already done. I hope I can once in a while add my modest contribution to this fantastic adventure.
Oh, don't worry about being" scooped"! It's not a race to see who can post the latest image first; I think everyone here just wants to contribute to the 'whole' by posting their take on a particular scene. My images aren't - as is well known by now - as accurate scientifically as those posted by others; I go for a more artistic, more aesthetically-pleasing take on things.
Room for everyone, and no winner's medal for being first. Just enjoy walking alongside Oppy as she approaches, gazes at and then passes each new wonder on the road to Endeavour*...
* Hmmm. Good name for a blog, that...
Promised notch in the Sun:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/2010-11-11/1P342122431ESFAVC9P2734R8M1.JPG?sol2410
Couple quick ones: 90 degree FOV from Paramore with the next two craterlets, Golden Hind and Yankee Clipper, visible on the left towards the horizon.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marscat/5167424203/sizes/l/in/set-72157625201472287/
Little look back at Yankee Clipper while looking for dust devils (so says the image tag anyway):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marscat/5168024600/sizes/l/in/set-72157625201472287/
Huh. That's kind of different; the transit is much more clearly seen in the secondary reflection. Thank you, Hungry.
Sure looks to me like Oppy drove right across a crater http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2010-11-11/1N342221114EFFAVQCP1564L0M1.JPG
Floyd - yes, it did, and you can see it in the route map here:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/tm-opportunity/images/MERB_Sol2412_1.jpg
- the stop before last on this map, looking back.
Phil
Oh, neat, I never would have spotted that if it weren't mentioned here!
Just another look at the Phobos transit.
Rather than try and pick it out of the glare, there was a reflection (for want of a better word) off to the upper left on the image.
I pulled that out and after hideously tweaking it, enlarging it etc, created this animated gif.
Thanks, Astro0; I spent a few minutes trying to do that and gave up.
Yes, it's oft inferred or assumed that amateur is the opposite of professional, when it's not. The driving difference, is a salary.
Another transit was imaged...
02415 17:32:23 p2735.01. 1 0 0 28 4 28 28 pancam_phobos_transit_L78R28
Here's an animation I made from the thumbnails on the tracking site...
While not Astro0, I hope neither mind my jumping in ....
It is an internal reflection off either one of the three lens elements, the sapphire protective 'cover', or the back of the neutral density filter. If I had to guess which I'd say it's a reflection off the front sapphire cover and again off the inside of the ND filter. Little more than a hand-waving guess though from taking a handful of pictures over the years through welding filters with similar kinds of reflections in some shots !
That help at all?
-- Pertinax
Ah.
No.
After what happened to the last Beagle sent into space by a Brit, I thought it best not to.
That little crater was extremely shallow, so it presented far less of an obstacle than the zillion drifts that have been crossed in the last 2 years.
Phil
Panorama of Intrepid.
Dear All I'm new here, although I've been reading news and information posted on this forum for a long time. It is a great source of information for me
I do not wanna be boring with these panoramas but ...below are my two latest navcam colorized compositions of craters which Opportunity has visited lately. I tried to make colors to look similar to Eagle crater surroundings:
Yankee Clipper
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55907406@N08/5169245293/sizes/l/in/photostream/
Intrepid
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55907406@N08/5169701219/sizes/l/in/photostream/
First of all, Kris, welcome! Good to have you here!
Secondly...
WOW! They're beautiful!!! Especially love the Intrepid pic, that's really nice.
Looking forward to seeing more of your work!
My go at the latest panorama: http://twitpic.com/368p42/full
Now this 3D view is pretty special, I think...
http://twitpic.com/369217
Intrepid in the foreground, and Endeavour on the horizn - for the first time, I think, actually looking "distant and solid" in 3D...
Adding to Stu's post above, here's another view of Intrepid in headache-inducing anaglyph vision
From Opportunity update: "Total odometry is 24,946.12 meters (24.95 kilometers, 15.50 miles)."
Opportunity is now just 1 mile short from surpassing Apollo 16 Lunar Rover travel distance record of 16.50 miles (26.55 km).
Coincidentally we are little less than 1 mile from Santa Maria (approx. 1.5 km in straight line) according to Scott Maxwell http://twitter.com/marsroverdriver/statuses/3156618007019520.
(On the other hand: Apollo 16 Lunar Rover traveled only about 2.8 miles (4.5 km) from landing site)
no walk back limit for the MERs, or coms limit like there was for sojourner.
Nav Cam panorama featuring Intrepid Crater Sol 2412 on 05-Nov-2010.
Hazcam fun mucking around on a Saturday avo - which is now all gone!!! Sol 2415 on 08-Nov-2010 looking back at the tracks into the 'desert'
Quick Anaglyph of Intrepid Navs Sol 2145 08-Nov-2010 for Red-Green
I'm having a fun self indulgent day doing lots of experimenting with pics. Intrepid Crater is beautiful to look at so I thought in addition to Pan Cams I would share this b/w rough stitch of Nav Cams from 2145 on 08-Nov-2010
..........which I am starting work on as a full pic but may not finish for ages as I am going to be v busy the next couple of weeks.
Any sign of Phyllosilicates?
IIRC, we've still got several km to go before we encounter those. The next few months are likely to be similar to driving across western Texas...kinda long & monotonous.
My own interpretation of Intrepid Crater... A lovely place indeed on Mars. Enjoy !
Yes, will be interesting to see if she gets out to 37km.
Well, it was an Apollo record... an Apollo 16 record... (looking for other qualifiers as I type)... Of course, having a driver actually on the rover is kind of cheating.
Phil
Updated my blog with some new pics, if anyone wants a look...
http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/11/14/interesting-intrepid
Some very interesting dark rocks inside the crater...
A colourised version of #129. Doubtless other UMSF members can make a better stab at it
Judging from the excellent animations that Nick and others have shown us, I wonder how long the powers that be will choose to spend here?
If they feel this crater has anything new for them to investigate there are a number of very interesting and it would appear reasonably accessible sites for them to look at.
Just wets the appetite for what Santa Maria and Endeavour may have in store for us doesn't it?
Neil
Judging from Maxell's http://twitter.com/marsroverdriver/status/3156474360500224, we won't be staying at Intrepid:
Another (colorized) interpretation of Intrepid Crater... I just love the hills range in the background. Enjoy !
Some pics taken at sunset casting loooong shadows would have been just great also (just an idea to our excellent Pancam team)
I love it too! excellent work, vikingmars.
It was mentioned that we could encounter different rock types as early as Santa MARIA!! I'm assuming they must have some data from orbit to have mentioned that possibility!
Wow... who would have thought that humble little Intrepid would have given us all such a photogenic viewpoint! The hills just look incredible from here...
Not really. Whenever he talks about driving it means drive planning.
Opportunity should have already left the vicinity of Intrepid by this time but the images are still on the queue.
The hills are to the east.
The sun sets in the west.
Nice catch on the sol 765 view! I'd looked over the preceding sols data a few times back in 2006 and again just a few months ago. I'd never stretched them though. Again, nice!
I'm with you on the wish for both the low sun angle pans. I think one of the best and dramatic panoramas taken by either rover was Spirit's low sun angle pan at http://pancam.astro.cornell.edu/pancam_instrument/lowridge_new.html.
I played with the sunset images with the following result:
merb2411ss_interp_sm.avi ( 330.54K )
: 439
[also posted at at Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQVMWqN-JlE]
Images used are from the L7 filter. Interpolated video converts the original images taken every 75 seconds to sequence with a frame every two seconds at 30 fps, resulting in one second of video equaling one minute on mars -- that is if I didn't do something stupid!
I have the full sized version if anyone wants.
-- Pertinax
My version of the Intrepid Crater mosaic.
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php/b2417
James
We had exactly that back when there was plenty of time and power and little to do, late into the hiatus at the Olympia outcrop during the IDD trouble.
Judging from the new navcams and pancams (new hazcams aren't down yet, though) there's been a drive:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2010-11-15/1N343032148EFFAWNRP0663R0M1.JPG?sol2420
It looks like we've made it to the remnant of exposed bedrock around 100 metres east. A bit of dejavu, huh?
Yes, metadata says due east, a respectable distance to be determined.
It's been a long time since we've seen a large panorama taken with the L7 filter. We have sharp L7-R1 stereo pairs of Intrepid Crater and the beautiful eastern skyline. Before we get too far away from Intrepid I wanted to post an anaglyph panorama of this lovely scene from sol 2417. I've removed as much vignetting as possible. It is an especially nice view if you have multiple monitors or an extra wide monitor.
Great stuff, all, and esp. like your anaglyph, CR; thanks!
There are indeed some intriguing rocks in there...but I hope we don't go in even a little bit, frankly. Those dunes look like the could be pretty deep to me, and the crater slopes are uncomfortably steep.
Just for fun, based on messing about with skilfully simulating the view using Starry Night, but probably not too far out...
Sunrise Over Endeavour this morning...
That's gorgeous!
Sol 2420
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marscat/5182470352/sizes/l/in/set-72157625201472287/
Since the discussion here:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=6535&view=findpost&p=159419
the dark blue "stain" has enlarged considerably, as seen in this navcam image from Sol 2412.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2010-11-06/1N342315769EFFAV4IP0673L0M1.JPG
It seems to be advancing (and occasionally retreating) along clearly defined frontiers. This does not fit well with the explanations proposed earlier, which should result in a more dispersed profile.
In sharpened pancam images that correct defocus blur, posted by Hortonheardawho on his website, the "stain" looks like it might be a layer of dark material on top of the light-colored dust that we see everywhere else on the rover deck.
This suggests the interesting possibility that it involves a phase change in the light-colored dust. Perhaps that is related to the formation of duricrust, which I believe is not well-understood.
It's simply below the resolving power of Pancam or Navcam to make any meaningful interpretation. There are a thousand things that could cause something to happen. FWIW, my initial gut reaction remains to this day - it looks like clean patch free of dust, not a surficial feature and the word 'stain' has never sat well, imho. However, there are many complex and interesting components and materials involved in building the rover, and some of them we know to be behaving unexpectedly ( such as the delamination of the sundial base ). I would like to see what people do with PDS calibrated data, rather than trying to 'deblur' jpgs - which really is a way to generate feature that simply don't exist.
Short answer - we're never going to know.
I think that chemical reactions on the surface of Mars (what few that may exist) must happen VERY slowly by terrestrial standards, particularly those that require the interaction of water in any phase. We've seen several iron-nickel meteorites that have clearly been in place for hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of years, and show no signs of corrosion, merely windborne dust build-up.
It therefore doesn't seem reasonable to assume that any sort of detectable chemical alteration has occurred on the MERs during their exceedingly short tenure on Mars, both for that reason and by virtue of the fact that their component materials are much more resistant to such reactions than the meteorites.
A clarification: the pancam depth of field is from 1.5 m to infinitiy, so the sundial at 80 cm is slightly out of focus. Thus, a deconvolution algorithm can be used to sharpen the focus.
It can be used to TRY and sharpen the focus, but you are playing a very tenuous game to try and pull out anything meaningful that you identify in those deconvolved images that isn't apparent in the orig. images.
Had one of those 'woah' moments just now. Looked at the 1.4km distance to Santa Maria while thinking "Oh, that's not so far now. Shouldn't take more than a few weeks."
Then I remembered that 1400m distance is over twice the mission success criterion.
Nice Intrepid Crater 'look back' view with the tracks leading up from the distance.
Some future alien explorers might deduce that Oppy dodged that one!
'Road to Endeavour' blog updated: http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/11/17/25km-and-counting
I like that image too, and I have no quarrel with the notion of artistic license. In fact I think artists should have the license/freedom to do almost anything so this is not a complaint. But in my mind's eye Martian sunsets are conceived as always being cold blue affairs, more like a failing fluorescent lamp than a comforting camp fire. (The alliteration is accidental, I promise.)
The simplest explanation is that it's an area almost clear of dust. Comparing the spectrum with other almost clear areas of the panels is tricky, even if you used the calibrated data. Thin films of dust could affect the spectrum.
We'd need pretty good reasons to contemplate a new material not seen elsewhere.
ADMIN HAT ON...
I think I'd like to see discussion on the so-scalled "stain" to stop here for now.
There's no further information that anyone can draw upon and any so-scalled "analysis" by the armchair explorers among us is working from less than the full spread of information that will one day be available through various sources. If it's something worth investigating then the mission team will definitely let us know.
There is plenty of "discussion and speculation" going on in other forums, so I believe it can continue there.
At the moment it's cluttering up the "On to Santa Maria!" thread and does not deserve a thread of its own.
Remember that you can always just PM each other if you want to discuss it further.
For now, like Opportunity, let's move on!
From http://twitter.com/marsroverdriver/status/5011615598514176:
I know I'm gonna sound stupid for asking this, but are the hazcams all right? I assume Scott means that they just didn't get the images down, but it's scarily-phrased.
Remember, Nick, this is Twitter. No room for detail. I think we can be quite confident that he meant "lack of Hazcam images in the downlinked data." And geez, do we need another warning about overinterpreting Scott's tweets?
The answer is http://twitter.com/marsroverdriver/status/4944123979108352:
Yeah, thought so, and sorry for even floating the concept. I must be twitchy today or something.
I wasn't sure if this should go here, or in the route map thread, so please move if necessary.
Here's a CTX DEM (20 m/px) of Oppy's driving area, made using the fantastic USGS scripts (thanks!) and the old SocetSet pulling-out-your-hair method. Actually, CTX DEMs seem (famous last words) to be working pretty well...there must be something wrong.
First up, a general elevation colour map with CTX image P01_001612_1780_XI_02S005 underneath. The red dot is Oppy on sol 2420, taken from Tesheiner's route map (thanks!).
Could you pull out a height profile, from - say, Victoria to the edge of Endeavour including the rim? and/or from our current location to the rim at Cape York. That sort of thing
Thanks for this! Can you provide an elevation scale for these images as well?
Whenever I see images like this http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2010-11-18/1N342135253EFFAVLNP1877L0M2.JPG, I can't help but think of images like this one....Endeavour Bound!!!
Land Ho!
Wait a minute. Those islands are off the stern. You're sailing the wrong direction Astro0!
It's amazing though, how a change of color in those ripples completely changes what the brain thinks it's seeing.
David
DFinfrock: You're sailing the wrong direction Astro0!
No, just a leisurely voyage tacking across the Meridiani 'sea'
It looks like the hazcam-less drive has taken place:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2010-11-18/1F343384891EFFAW7PP1205R0M1.JPG?sol2424
130m, according to the rover's mobility data.
As requested, but I'd avoid reading too much into the actual profiles and the spikes and troughs - there's a fair bit of noise in this DEM as the smooth terrain is great for driving but bad for pixel matching! It does however still give a nice impression of the overall topography.
The mean mileage per sol is consistantly increasing since late August but the more the sols the more the "need" to drive to keep it this way (at least 250m per week at the moment). So, I guess we're "safe" this week
Not a race but giving the feeling that we follow SS statement.
You can see (I think) in the red profile the same thing I had convinced myself from the MOLA data: That we are currently on a flattish section with a drop-off to Santa Maria a few hundred meters ahead. I think this is why we can't see Santa Maria yet.
I made a prediction to Stu by PM earlier this week regarding this: That I expected Santa Maria to pop into view quite suddenly and dramatically ~400m ahead, since then we have covered around half that distance. So keep your eyes pealed over the next few drives, I'm anticipating a HOAV moment very soon.
James
I've made some measurements to try to decide whether the double feature we've been seeing is Santa Maria or not. I compared the separations and positions (relative to the distant east rim of Endeavour) of both of the light "bumps" on sols 2409 and 2420. These measurements are entirely relative, ie I didn't use any absolute heading information. The only assumption is for the comparison of bump positions between 2409 and 2420: I assumed that the distant east rim of Endeavour was essentially infinitely far away, so there was no parallax between 2409 and 2420 of that east rim. That parallax should be extremely small. The left-right bump separation measurements are independent of this assumption.
Here are the angles measured from the pancams:
I like your slide show presentation Fred K. I think we should be there by Christmas and what a gift to us all to see Santa Maria by then.
Maybe Santa Clause will stop by and give the Rover a boost of Energy for the coming season.
I can remember the day she landed in Eagle Crater way back then or ages ago. I am amazed what this little golf cart rover has done.
May The Force Be With Her.
I do have a couple Question. Is the top of Santa Maria lower in elevation then the bottom of Victoria Crater and would the bedrock within Santa Maria
be older then anything we saw at Victoria? Is there any possibility that we might go into Santa Maria or just drive around and keep going???
I had another 'chat' with our favourite rover driver over on my blog, which some of you might find interesting as we head towards Santa Maria...
http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/a-chat-with-scott-maxwell
Thanks Scott! :-)
I've also been working on some "artistic impressions" of Endeavour, which I've put on my blog in a different post concering possible future art on Mars. I hope some of you like them.
http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/we-need-a-bierstadt-on-barsoom
I think having Thomas Kinkade on Mars would be a good thing.
Stu,
I hope you haven't forgotten the great dawn shot Spirit took looking back at Von Braun. mhoward had a fantastic http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=5999&view=findpost&p=145084, and some guy colorized it to make it look like something http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=5999&view=findpost&p=145085would have taken The team has taken quite a few shots at hours where the shadow of rocks and rovers are tens of meters long, and has taken color panoramas of from most every place there has been a HOV
I get the point fredk. I'd also said that if there is something of interest, Santa MAria would be a goog place to stay (and work) during superior conjunction due by end of January.
"I think Santa Maria will be a fascinating waypoint on the way to Endeavour — I just hope it doesn’t slow us down too much. But what are you gonna do, just skip it? If we didn’t have Endeavour beckoning us to the horizon, we’d be all over Santa Maria, so we might as well give it its due. I guess my personal hope is that Santa Maria gives the science team just enough to keep them busy analyzing data while we complete our trek to the big one!"
- Scott Maxwell
One reason to stop for a while at Santa Maria is to compare the composition of the salts (bedrock) from further North, to see if there is anything special to observe along those lines when we get to the walls of the big crater.
New panorama...
http://twitpic.com/393kq5/full
... and that has to be parts of the rim of Santa Maria poking over the top there, right..?
looks like it!I agree
If so, could someone point it out with a wee arrow?
That's definitely Santa Maria. The question is, when will the rest of the crater come into view? James talked about that recently. Looking at Stu's stereo view closely, it looks like most of the rim is blocked by a near horizon (lighter below, darker above). But to me it looks like that "near" horizon is still pretty far away. So it may take a while before we see the full rim.
On the other hand, the topography is so subtle at Meridiani that it's hard to know for sure. I'll bet that if I was there, I could jump up and see the whole rim!
Here's an average of the L2 and R2 frames from 2427 to reduce jpeg noise. We can see some of the rim to the right of the left "bump":
Nice one, Fred. Here's one of my trademarked vertical stretch jobs. A couple of little craters along the way are showing up, as well as similar-looking bright spots in the distance.
Phil
Thanks for that, Phil. That shows nicely the "near horizon" I mentioned, and a couple of the little craters we'll probably do drive-by imaging of on the way. But looking at the orbital view, there should be more little craters along the line of sight to Santa Maria. Since we can't see them, I'd now estimate the near horizon to be 400-500 metres away (as of 2427). So a good week or so of driving and Santa Maria may be fully revealed...
I think you're right. The near horizon seen from here must be around that outcrop area seen in your lines-of-sight image above. The cluster of craters just beyond it is hidden.
Phil
thanks for the oval-shaped arrow....
You're welcome
As we're now within sight of Santa Maria, time for a look at what's waiting for us when we get there...
Great work Stu.
Completely random thought: looks like "boulder #5" is about the size of Opportunity and judging from the shadow somewhat sundial shaped.
We shall soon see as it appears to be just in the right spot to be directly visible after Opportunity approach to the NW rim of Santa Maria.
I'm really looking forward to adding some names to those features as we get closer and then start rover-rummaging around the crater
And I've just noticed that today is Nov 23rd, that means another release of data from the PDS... this release should, if I've read it right, include calibrated pics of Concepcion and the beautiful "Chocolate Hills" rocks.
Image processors... start your engines!
It looks like a mini Victoria, nothing new....., drive right on by it !
Those blocks do look big, I'm thinking rover sized chocolate hills... can't wait to see...
Intrepid Crater from the other side:
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php/b2420
Re: Intrepid Crater
It is interesting that this small crater displays (in a modest fashion) the same erosional forms as Victoria -- "Capes and Bays".
Santa Maria might be likewise categorized.
It certainly looks comparable in size to something like Wopmay back up at Endurance.
I think the big guy inside the crater is actually bigger than Wopmay. As for the ones outside the crater, I think... think... a couple are just under rover sized, but time will tell.
These boulders might well be the first compositionally different rocks we've seen in years @ Meridiani...can't see them being made of the usual crumbly sulfates.
Wasn't 'Marquette Island' compositionally different as well? Can't remember what it was made of...
IIRC, Marquette was a meteorite. I omitted those, meant native martian rocks.
EDIT: Oops, I'm a dork. Yeah, you're right, OWW. Marquette was a deep crustal rock, mostly basalt, and that wasn't quite a year ago. Time flies...
Santa Maria on sol 2429, showing a bit more of the rim. Average of L2/R2 frames:
Ok, this is the best I can do, comparing Oppy to Santa Maria and surroundings...
http://twitpic.com/39posk
Well, we can now see Santa Maria and our current location on the zoomed in view of http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=22891 (on my screen resolution). The high point in our approach looks to be about 400 m ahead next to a cluster of 3 small craters and oucrop (50 m west of the 3km E grid line). I think that will be our best view until we are actually at Santa Maria looking in.
(Marquette Island was a secondary meteorite from elsewhere on Mars, and it was a Gabbro -- Coarse-grained Olivine + other stuff.)
The dune field on Santa Maria's northern slope is intriguing. I don't remember seeing inclined, "mesh" type dunes (esp. inside craters) on our travels...
Peeking inside Southern Cross crater, a particularly rocky crater, on sol 2404, pancam stereo:
The dunes near the north rim of Santa Maria do look a bit like the northeast corner of Spirit's El Dorado.
I don't think MI's been through an entry - it has no symptoms of being meteoritic (fusion crust etc ) and indeed its angular edges would almost preclude such an adventure would they not?
We simply do not know what has spalled or broken off of this rock.
That's true, but 'we don't know' is not evidence of anything. It is much more likely that this is a simple ejecta block. It's easy to invent additional possibilities, but it gets you nowhere in the absence of specific evidence.
Phil
Nice view from Endeavour crater.
Taken on Sol 2429 with the L2 pancam.
Jan van Driel
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=23079
Sorry, I got an error message.
Just one month, and we have Christmas. Here's a calendar to shorten the waiting time ...
Couldn't resist to open the door of the Advent calendar a week to early ...
'Tis the season; best advent calendar ever, thanks!!!
Haha, that's excellent!
Just for fun...
Ever wondererd how big Endeavour crater is compared to Gusev crater, landing site of Spirit..?
This big...
Thanks, Stu. And the Phobos shadow is a nice touch, too.
That shadow's real
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=480&view=findpost&p=167079
Great comparison, Stu, you compulsive science educator, you (and the shadow's nice too! )
I never thought otherwise, Stu!
On another topic, if you look at Tesheiner's route map, the latest drive (2428) took a bit of a jog to the south. Looking closely, there's an Anatolia-like feature between the 2427 and 2428 locations, and the jog took us around it. I'm a bit surprized they took this diversion, since the feature looks pretty harmless to me along a straight route. But obviously a short diversion is a small price to pay for reduction of any risk. There are several more such features ahead, so it'll be interesting to see how they make their way around them...
One possible route, Fred...
http://twitpic.com/3aegob
(handy for people who don't have / can't use Google Earth/Mars)
Actually most of the Anatolia-like features are in one specific area, and Oppy can skirt around that without too much trouble or time. It's pretty much a straight road to Santa Maria now, unless Oppy spots any beautiful shiny meteorites off to either side -
Oh, alright. Just me then...!
Very handy map Stu!
Thanks Fredk for the explanation. I was about to ask is this kind of trajectory was for technical reasons. It makes sense now.
A colourised look back at some of the 'pebbles' imaged on Sol 2419 (Nov 13th)...
Nice, though, a question: why does one have a "UMSF" watermark, and not the other?
Well spotted!
I've got a lot of Outreach talks coming up before Christmas, and am just trying something new for my presentations: I'm showing people I talk to that some images are 'official' NASA images, and others are ones I (and other people here) have "made" using the raws. I'm hoping it will show people just how much good work is being done by people in the space enthusiast community with the data NASA (and other agencies) releases so generously. Not blowing any trumpets, just making the point that anyone and everyone can use the raw data to participate in the exploration, you know? It'll either work or it won't. Worth a try.
Ah that makes sense. It's not too obvious so as to take away from the image. It's well done.
Just messing about... A hint of what we'll see before too long?
One of my favourite bits of Endeavour's rim is the north part (the first part of Endeavour we saw, some 4.5 years ago!). Here's an average of 4 pancam frames, the L7 and R1 frames on sols 2417 and 2424, and magnified 2x:
Have all of Endeavour's capes/major features been named? A search for annotated images doesn't show a name for this northerly one...
Nice image fredk! Stu's pointed out the similarity in size between Endeavour and Thira. I have long thought that the resemblence doesn't stop there - something he may have been hinting at also. Here's the corresponding part of Thira for comparison with your image: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0509/husbandhill_spirit_big.jpg&imgrefurl=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050907.html&usg=__tCwHzqY1Vvo6OcIy2M1DvkV1gVA=&h=983&w=3595&sz=321&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=7kAD9aVumLTRbM:&tbnh=71&tbnw=258&prev=/images%3Fq%3DThira%2Bcrater%2BMars%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-GB:official%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D825%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=352&vpy=195&dur=11344&hovh=117&hovw=430&tx=57&ty=143&ei=tFzxTNWuPMyIhQfLwcWcBA&oei=tFzxTNWuPMyIhQfLwcWcBA&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0
Some more bloggy thoughts on what we might see when we reach Santa Maria...
http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/11/28/what-might-we-see-at-santa-maria
This is an image of Santa Maria from HiRise (PSP_004289_1780) that I attempted to clean up a little bit
Very nice! This is what it might look like with a lower sun...
Phil
That's an excitingly messy looking crater! Oppy will have some fun here.
Stu, according to your ~wonderful~ blog, it appears unlikely Oppy will dive in to SM. Just a few photo ops, let her take a couple deep breaths and off we go. I cringe thinking about the risks involved, but what if she finds something special inside?
Well, she'll only find something wonderful inside if she actually went in, and I get the impression there's not much chance of that. All eyes are on Endeavour now, and the possibility of finding and studying phylosillicates there is just too much to risk by taking detours into craters, or stopping too long to look at meteorites or other rocks, along the way. I think they'll take a good look at Santa Maria, driving at least part of the way around it to image it from different angles, but they won't actually go in. If you look at the images being posted here, by various people, there's a LOT of dust piled up in that crater, and quite a few blocks on the slopes too. With Endeavour now so close - relatively speaking - I very much doubt they'll risk taking Oppy into SM. But, of course, all this is just my own personal opinion, based on recent blog interviews with Scott. If Oppy gets to SM and finds something too good to pass by there, well, you never know! But my money is on a pretty thorough photo shoot of the crater, a chance for Oppy to rest her wheels and the MER team to take a breather from driving, and then off we go.
Update: new images in... Santa Maria not *hugely* bigger...
http://twitpic.com/3ayz2n/full
Another crater on the road to Santa Maria is behind us.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/navcam/2010-11-28/1N344179766EFFAXR4P1935L0M5.JPG
Tesheiner,
indeed it was a long time but there was a reason.
First I was retired for 4 years and then working
again for 3 years and buying and moving to a
new house and now I am retired again.
So more time to do stitches.
Jan van Driel
I don't think there will be anything interesting enough inside the rim of Santa Maria to even consider sending the rover in. But that cluster of large rocks off the South rim is interesting. I can't wait for them to start showing up in the approach shots.
Here is the view from Endeavour Crater taken on Sol 2427 with
the L0 navcam.
Jan van Driel
and again ( because the link did not work, my mistake )
the pancamview from Sol 2429 taken with
the L2 pancam.
Jan van Driel
Good to see your mosaics again, Jan.
Here's the latest view of Santa Maria, averaged over the L2 and R2 pancam frames to reduce noise:
Sunset on Mars.
Taken with the L7 Pancam on Sol 2428
Jan van Driel
(Stu & Phil, I love your overhead shots of SM!)
Here is Santa Maria in the spirit of Phil-o-vision
source: 1P344180252EFFAXR4P2352R2M1
The panoramic view from Endeavour Crater and Santa Maria.
Taken with the L2 Pancam on Sol 2433.
Jan van Driel
Small impact feature on the way to Santa Maria, sol 2433. R2 pancams and L5/R2 anaglyph.
Some Santa Maria-related thoughts from Steve Squyres...
http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/steve-squyres-looks-forward-to-reaching-santa-maria
Always nice to hear from Steve
One funny thing. Your Wikipedia link says: The term is often incorrectly spelled as "principle investigator", which would refer to someone who investigates principles or precepts. The correct term is "principal investigator", where "principal" means 'primary' or 'leading'.
And you jumped into it with both feet
Oh, thanks... I'm sat here, full of cold, looking like a cross between Swamp Thing and The Creature From The Black Lagoon, with a throat full of razor blades and gunk pouring out of my nose like some kind of Ghostbusters special effect and you pick me up on my grammar...
Kick a guy when he's down, why dontcha...!
(But well spotted, I'll correct the post)
Panoramic view of small crater and Endeavour
in the background.
Taken on Sol 2433 with the L0 navcam.
Jan van Driel
For those who are not regularly following Scott Maxwell's blog on the MERs, http://marsandme.blogspot.com/2010/11/spirit-sol-678.html to yesterday's blog entry, basically dealing with the IDD stall 5 years ago while Opportunity was at Erebus crater.
Oh, it also has a nice paragraph at the end.
This may not be the proper place for my question, but I don't want to resurrect an old thread. I've been using the MER filename decoder on this Web page: http://www.greuti.ch/oppy/html/filenames_ltst.htm# mainly to determine the sol number of Opportunity's images. But now it doesn't seem to work. When I insert the filename and click on "Decode", I obtain "NaN" for the sol number, and also "NaN" appears in various other places. Are you guys using any other filename decoder?
Hmmm. Used that same site this morning and it worked perfectly...
Another nice view of the north rim hills, this time averaged over the 16 L6 frames from 2424, after magnifying 2x and registering:
Hecla Crater:
http://www.nivnac.co.uk/mer/index.php/b2344
Very nice!
We can see quite a bit more of Santa Maria as of 2436. Here's an average of L2/R2 to reduce noise:
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