Well, without getting too technical...

I don't have a <chink> <chink> <chink> clue!!! Have to ask one of our areology experts , I'm just a guy with clearly too much time on his hands at the end of a long work day, trying to make pretty pictures with lens flare on

... but if I was to foolishly venture an opinion, I think that this feature seems to be jutting out of the slope rather than lying on it, suggesting your latter possibility might be accurate. If that's true then wow, the wonders we might find over there...

But as I said, what do I <chink?> know?

Keep going Oppy, lots more to see just up ahead... atta girl...

The faint white ellipse gives our rough location as of sol 957:

(Thanks to Nico for the pan.)

I wonder whether they'll park at the large white tasty outcrop in front of us or continue closer to the tip of Verde. The view from here is certainly stunning, but much of Vicky is out of view so it wouldn't seem to be the best spot for a big pan. On the other hand we won't see much more of the far rim from the tip of Verde.

Great renderings Indian3000! And thanks for providing the separate left & right images, especially for the sol 952 vertical projection from last week.

Just in case the <ahem!> herpetomorphic pseudoquadripedal feature is not merely a trick of light and shadow, I would like to point out that CuCO3 has a distinct greenish tint...

Only the hydrated basic carbonate. - and that can be green or blue
/nitpicking mode off

Ah...truly stellar fact-checking, Aldebaran... ...I should have added the word "sometimes".

Seriously though, ever since the salty subsurface soil deposits became glaringly evident in Gusev I've wondered if we'd encounter some exposed transition metal ores, which would be strong evidence for widespread subsurface water at some point in the past (or present?) The upper regolith seems oddly un-mixed in some areas in comparison to Earth's, presumably because water on Earth is ubiquitous.

The HPF (my suggested euphemism for l*z*rd, lest the nutosphere run wild) may well the first such "fossil" ore outcrop found, but by no means the last; weathering of these materials on Mars must be far slower than on Earth due to the extreme dessication of the environment.

Finding an economically important mineral on Mars would certainly be an exciting discovery, but let's not forget that there is a reason these color images are called false-color. I know the colors seen on that feature are different than the blues and blue-greens that we commonly see in false-color from both rovers, but the blues and blue-greens normally become some shade of gray when the nearly-true color images become available.

Point well taken, CR; certainly we're still in the realm of purest speculation right now. However, that sure is a big part of the fun! Hope that they can do a good mini-TES scan of HPF from close range...

The heck of it is with respect to "economically important ores", as you termed them, is that they almost certainly have to be there...infinitely cool if we could find some, still blown away by the meteorite back near Endurance.

If they were as accessible as, say, Alaskan or Siberian resources we'd have ten launches a week. My kingdom for a technological revolution in space propulsion (in all domains!)

That's the thought that has fascinated me for a long time. We were all born on a planet where previous gatherers/collectors had already picked over the obvious stuff lying on the surface. Imagine being the first intelligent collector to explore another world.

A preview of the Duck Bay panorama.



Oops, wrong version - fixed.

James.

I hope they don't take Oppy too close to the edge! Look at those blue berries close to the edge at the bottom of this image:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...LJP2394R1M1.JPG

It could be like driving on marbles if there is a rock pavement beneath them. Either a slip all the way down or a difficult drive back up.

Aberdeenastro

FYI, 958 is planned as driving sol too.



> I hope they don't take Oppy too close to the edge!

Dunno if there is enough time before conjunction but "Beacon's Cape" looks better to take the big panorama and safer too.

Oh no... stop it... I now have an image in my mind of Oppy slipping and sliding and trying desperately to stay on her feet like that mini At-At in "Jedi" when it's trying to walk on logs... Get out of my head!!!

I'm sure she'll be fine, they'll take no risks with our brave gal.

Nice job - this is hand coloured, right?

I don't think so. It looks like James assembled this one from the tracking site thumbnails.

I'm glad to have that preview btw James. I look forward to the official release next Friday..

Nico