Distant Vistas 2 - The view from Cape Tribulation Options

[James Sorenson]

Still some work left to be done on this segment, but here is a screenshot of the pan sofar.

[vikingmars]

Still some work left to be done on this segment, but here is a screenshot of the pan sofar.

WOW ! Thanks a lot James to share this excellent work of yours with us

[SFJCody]

Hmm, do I want the tau to improve over the next few sols so that we can see distant hills more clearly, or do I want it to stay the same so that all the pieces of the summit panorama will be taken under similar lighting conditions?

[vikingmars]

Good question SFJCody !
On my side, I vote for the Tau improvement to see more details in the far distance, because I can play with the contrast (i.e. reduce it) in my image processing

[serpens]

Well Spirit held the mountain climbing height record for a good while, but Opportunity has eclipsed that too.

[ngunn]

I'm interested in knowing the elevation we are at here. It's difficult to get actual figures. Larry Crumpler's excellent contour maps have no numbers on them (or am I wrong?). We were quite high around Concepcion crater. How high are we now relative to that point? It seems to me we descended a long way before climbing this hill.

[serpens]

Emily did a blog entry on MOLA tracks back in August 2010 and Conception is recorded as having an elevation of -1372m relative to Mars datum. Cape Tribulation has an elevation of -1380m so at the top of the mound near Conception Opportunity was a smidgeon higher than she is now. But relative to the approach to Cape Tribulation Opportunity climbed around 135 metres. Spirit climbed around 107 metres above the landing site but only some 82 metres above the base of Husband Hill.

[ngunn]

Cape Tribulation has an elevation of -1380m so at the top of the mound near Conception Opportunity was a smidgeon higher than she is now.

Thanks serpens, that's very helpful for making sense of what we see on the far horizon. I was surprised to find the opposite stated in A.J.S. Rayl's article. (I know - a bit of a nitpick as there's only a few metres involved.)

[SFJCody]

I imagine this is the highest elevation she'll ever drive to.

Unless of course they manage to get down to the northern rim of Iazu.

A marathon is all very well, but achieving 100X the mission success drive goal would be something else!

[serpens]

.....(I know - a bit of a nitpick as there's only a few metres involved.)

Larry Crumpler's field report of 12 December had the summit as -1380. But his latest has it marked as -1390. As you say only a few metres, and either a typo or it is possible that in the first instance the elevation against Cape Tribulation actually referred to the elevation of the rover at that time, below the peak.

[ngunn]

If -1380 was the rover elevation, not the summit, in Crumpler's previous post then maybe the summit is at -1370, not -1390 (easy to go 10m the wrong way when counting backwards). That would make Rayl's statement correct, by a margin of 2m! It's silly really but now I've started to query it I would like to find out for sure.

[James Sorenson]

Another segment, another screenshot preview. This is the false color view.

[fredk]

Gasp!
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...2M1.JPG?sol3900
No Phil-o-vision required!

[Phil Stooke]

Wowsers! Finally I'm superfluous and can go back to my real love, knitting.

Very faintly visible above the ejecta of Iazu (right of centre) is a more distant ridge. It must be part of the rim of the un-named crater south of Iazu.

Phil

[ngunn]

Good spot Phil. (I was looking at that very same area and couldn't figure it out.) Although these images will undoubtedly contribute to the complete panorama they also look like drive direction shots so presumably someone is already planning the next move.

While we're still on the top can I reiterate an earlier question: What is the elevation of this summit relative to Mars datum? Is it -1370, -1380 or -1390 metres . . or something else? Recent blog posts by Larry Crumpler and A.J.S. Rayl seem to give conflicting information. Somebody here must know definitively.