Endeavour Crater, And again shall we conquer the Remoteness Options

[ustrax]

Opportunity is getting ready to embark on her most extraordinary journey, a true rover epic.
As information regarding how to win the distance are being collected here, and the emotional last views from Victoria Crater are being discussed here, I thought about creating a new thread that will surely become an obligatory stop as the tall peaks and other features of Endeavour start to rise in the horizon.
Here we will be able to discuss the location of features seen from the distance, references that will help us understanding better what we are seing and that will, fortunately, feed our spirit across the long sail across the Meridiani sandwaves.

Ultreya!


I give it a kick with this navcam image, comparing it with Astro0's original (beautiful...) image:

I'm sure James Canvin will correct me...



EDITED: I can't resist...I tried! I honestly tried, but it is stronger than me...so many features ahead and not a single name?!
Seriously, at Victoria we had features named after places visited by the vessel, and now for Endeavour? Assuming that Oppy will succeed on her quest will the mission keep the same policy, of naming places after Endeavour's tour? If so, there may be some names in common with Victoria...
While we are ready to leave the port once more I remembered that we could start naming, internally, (in order to have catchier landmark references... ) these features, as they loom in the horizon, after the ship's crew.
We could follow the order presented here.
Let me just edit the image up there...

[Stu]

That's really nice, Ant... love the way you've put the name "Endeavour" actually beyond the horizon, I would NEVER have thought of doing that!

On the poetry thing... I sometimes worry about posting mine (or lines from other poems) here, because I am very aware that not everyone "gets it", and some people probably think this isn't actually the place for waxing lyrical about space exploration when it's such a Hard Engineering subject. But I like to think there's room for everyone here: the engineer who takes delight in learning and talking about gear ratios, thresholds and performance limits, etc... the geologist who sees a subtle but serene beauty in the cracks in and planes of a dust-coated rock sitting exposed on the surface... the meteorologist who smiles with understanding when they see cotton wool clouds drifting like Scooby Doo ghosts across the pink martian sky... the dreamer who refuses to accept that something is 'clearly impossible' and pushes the rovers on with the sheer force of their passion... the poet, like me, who can't create scientifically useful driving maps but can, occasionally, string a few words together to illustrate the drama and excitement of this amazing, thrilling time, and help people look beyond the rovers' polished metal to glimpse the very human hearts beating within them...

I know, I know, there I go again. I know they're just robots, lifeless shapes of metal being driven by remote control from far across the solar system, mindless automatons with no feelings, no emotions of their own, and maybe it is silly to write poetry about them, but it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up every time I realise that we - mankind - dared to dream we could build such machines, then designed them, built them and flung them across the solar system to explore an alien world on our behalf, and are now seeing Mars through their eyes. I can't imagine how Paolo, Scott and Sharon feel as they sit down to actually drive Spirit and Oppy across Mars, but I do know that they won't just think of it as driving a robot; they're exploring, in the truest sense of the word, and, magically, we're looking over their shoulders as they go...

We might not reach Endeavour. But we might. We just might. But whatever happens, Oppy won't set off on her long drive alone; we'll all be walking alongside her, in spirit at least, keeping her company, trekking south across the great plain of Meridiani towards a new horizon and a new adventure. We'll all find something different to thrill and excite us along the way, making new pictures, writing new poems and creating new maps along the way. And in a hundred years time, when Oppy rests in the Museum of Exploration on Mars, and is seen every sol by hundreds of fascinated visitors, they'll look back on this time and envy us - us! - for accompanying her on her journey.

[RoverDriver]

...
On the poetry thing... I sometimes worry about posting mine (or lines from other poems) here, because I am very aware that not everyone "gets it",
...

Stu, speaking only for myself as usual, I'm one of the few who does not get it. Both because English is not my primary language, and also because I do not appreciate poetry in my native language either. I'm pretty sure that if I sit down with you I can quickly explain any of the technical details that now escape you, but you might spend years and fail to explain to me how to put together words so that they make you feel something.

Your poetry is more than welcome but unfortunately not "grocked" by your truly.

Paolo

[ustrax]

Paolo, I know that you are on the engineering side of the fence and that I am not Stu but...

Itaca

Quando ti metterai in viaggio per Itaca
devi augurarti che la strada sia lunga,
fertile in avventure e in esperienze.
I Lestrigoni e i Ciclopi
o la furia di Nettuno non temere,
non sara` questo il genere di incontri
se il pensiero resta alto e un sentimento
fermo guida il tuo spirito e il tuo corpo.
In Ciclopi e Lestrigoni, no certo,
ne' nell'irato Nettuno incapperai
se non li porti dentro
se l'anima non te li mette contro.

Devi augurarti che la strada sia lunga.
Che i mattini d'estate siano tanti
quando nei porti - finalmente e con che gioia -
toccherai terra tu per la prima volta:
negli empori fenici indugia e acquista
madreperle coralli ebano e ambre
tutta merce fina, anche profumi
penetranti d'ogni sorta; piu' profumi inebrianti che puoi,
va in molte città egizie
impara una quantità di cose dai dotti.

Sempre devi avere in mente Itaca -
raggiungerla sia il pensiero costante.
Soprattutto, non affrettare il viaggio;
fa che duri a lungo, per anni, e che da vecchio
metta piede sull'isola, tu, ricco
dei tesori accumulati per strada
senza aspettarti ricchezze da Itaca.
Itaca ti ha dato il bel viaggio,
senza di lei mai ti saresti messo
sulla strada: che cos'altro ti aspetti?

E se la trovi povera, non per questo Itaca ti avrà deluso.
Fatto ormai savio, con tutta la tua esperienza addosso
gia` tu avrai capito cio` che Itaca vuole significare.

Kavafis

I don't believe that, even for you, the journey towards Ithaca/Endeavour will reduce itself to find the path, cross the distance and get there, will it?...

[RoverDriver]

Paolo, I know that you are on the engineering side of the fence and that I am not Stu but...
....
I don't believe that, even for you, the journey towards Ithaca/Endeavour will reduce itself to find the path, cross the distance and get there, will it?...

Absolutely not. What I meant to say is that while I can appreciate a good picture, I typically cannot appreciate poetry, I only wish I could.

Paolo

[ustrax]

I can understand Paolo, I really can, but if you can just remember the time when there were no pictures...

How would you describe something as amazing as Mars, something that cannot be imprisioned in a picture, like the will to move onwards, to learn, to discover, to see the unseen and know the unknown, to surpass purgatories and face 12kms distant utopias? That is, in my humble point of view something impossible to achieve without one of Mankind's greatest conquests, to, through words, express the beauty and the core of it all.

We're too spoiled by tech...