Santa Maria! Options

[Poolio]

Is that an obscure Yes lyric? Wow. I haven't heard that in at least 25 years! Might have to break out the old vinyl when I get home tonight.

[Stu]

Latest panorama here...

http://twitpic.com/48psuf/full

Lovely view. (Oppy got pretty close to the edge there, didn't she...!)

This crater really did surprise us all with its dramatic appearance, didn't it? I mean, I know it looked "interesting" from the HiRISE images taken from orbit, but I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in thinking our stopover at Santa Maria has been one of the highlights of Oppy's trek.

[Stu]

...and a big 3D version...

http://twitpic.com/48qw84/full

Others will do better, I'm sure - it's not a perfectly-aligned mosaic by any stretch of the imagination! - but I like the view...

[jvandriel]

The Navcam View on Sol 2534 taken with
the L0 Navcam.

Jan van Driel

[fredk]

Others will do better, I'm sure

Stu, that mosaic of yours is no disgrace. Thanks for posting.

[ElkGroveDan]

(Oppy got pretty close to the edge there, didn't she...!)

Close to the edge, down by a river.
Down at the end, round by the corner.
Seasons will pass you by

(Poolio, while you've got the old vinyl out...)

EDIT: oooh, Fred, good one.

[brellis]

After all these years, I have two noobie questions:

If Meridiani Planum was once an ocean floor, did the interesting craters get made after the water was gone, or were they the last puddles?

What happens to the blueberries when a rover rolls over them?

[ElkGroveDan]

Eagle, Endurance, Victoria and Santa Maria are all more recent than any free-standing water that may have existed on Meridiani. Endeavour however was around during that time.

I don't believe there is any visual evidence from back-tracking images that berries were compromised by the weight of the rovers.

[AndyG]

While we're at it, can I suggest some Oppy thoughts to her sister rover?

Wait - take your time, see it through and hope sunshine shine on you?

Andy

[brellis]

The blueberries as so small, there may be nothing there there. Still, it'd be interesting to take a close look, eh?

There have been blueberries poking up from rock. Maybe we'll see some on the 'pavement' on the way to Endeavour.

[PaulM]

What happens to the blueberries when a rover rolls over them?

When a rover rolls over blueberies then I would expect them to be pushed into the sand.

This is because in Eagle crater when the Mossbauer Spectrometer was placed on the ground then the blueberries were pushed into the sand:

http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/m...22P2953M2M1.JPG

[centsworth_II]

When a rover rolls over blueberies then I would expect them to be pushed into the sand....

That's in sand, but what about on rock?

[Phil Stooke]

"If Meridiani Planum was once an ocean floor, did the interesting craters get made after the water was gone, or were they the last puddles?"

No, it was not an ocean floor. It was an area of thick sand dune deposits over a cratered area, and the sand became soaked in water, either percolating up from underground or from melting of a snow cover on top. There might have been many cycles of that. Just occasionally there might have been patches of water, just possibly exposed to the atmosphere if it was salty enough not to freeze, otherwise under a snow or ice cover. If there were oceans on Mars they never got up this high. Since then there has been about 2 billion years of erosion of those sandy rocks.

Phil

[eoincampbell]

I vaguely recall a discussion on images showing "scratches" on the bedrock where the wheels had been...
Can't remember the sols/area in question though, nor the thread...
Anyone remember if these were the result of ran-over-spherules ?

[Explorer1]

Didn't they say that there was a shallow, salty sea way back near the start of the mission? I remember those 'festoons' thought to be the product of wave actions; does some newer discovery contradict them?