Traversing the Clay-Bearing Unit Along the Base of VRR, Site 73-79, sol 2297-2695, 22 Jan 2019-3 Mar 2020 Options

[jvandriel]

The MAHLI view on Sol 2339.

Jan van Driel

[PaulH51]

Midnight Planets is indicating a drive on sol 2347 to Site 75/0000. However the front HazCams appear to indicate the rover remained at the same location.

Edit: Just realised this sequence was likely commanded as they switched to the other computer, so not an aborted drive.

[PaulH51]

My version of 'Fife' using the focus merged versions that were downlinked later:
Stitched and rotated in MS ICE, otherwise unprocessed.

[PaulH51]

Hard to be sure, but there appears (to my ageing eyes) that there could be some cross bedding in this bayer encoded R-MastCam from sol 2339

[PaulH51]

Looks like the MAHLI imaged a DRT site on sol 2349, I think it may be the site brushed back on 2339 before the reset. The MAHLI shows was looks like surface scratches from using the DRT(center of the brushed area). If these are scratches, it could bode well for easier drilling / sampling in this area.

[jccwrt]

Cross-bedding is a possibility there. I remember seeing some crossbeds of similar dip in the rocks coming off VRR so I would not be surprised if they are present in much of the clay unit.

[jvandriel]

The Mastcam L view on Sol 2339.

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

and the Mastcam R view on Sol 2339.

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

Nice view on Sol 2347.

Jan van Driel

[jvandriel]

The Navcam L view on Sol 2352.

Jan van Driel

[jccwrt]

Looking at a couple of posters last night, looks like the Clay-Bearing Unit might be named as "Glen Torridon". Not sure if it's still considered a subunit of the Murray formation, or if it's being split out into a new formation.

[PaulH51]

There seems to be a little activity in a planned DD search using the NavCam early on sol 2353, the brief activity can just be observed in the unprocessed frames, just to the left of center, maybe a gust wind raised some surface dust. The proper processing could reveal more detail

There are also several darker frames in the very large set of bayer encoded L-MastCam sequence on sol 2350, which was the sol they imaged the Deimos transit. Clearly they can not be the sky darkening because of the eclipse so maybe they captured a vortex or vortex's passing close to the rover? The entire sequence has yet to the downlinked, but there are over 100 already down. Sadly I can't create a GIF with so many images, but here are 10 frames assembled into a simple GIF from the beginning of the sequence, where you can observe one of the events. Note I set the blink rate at a quarter of a second

[PaulH51]

Drive direction (unprocessed) L-MastCam, sol 2352: Taking us further North into the clay deposits of Glen Torridon

[Phil Stooke]

Here are two circular projections of Jan's latest panoramas. I will use them to update the map when I can get to it, maybe not for a few days.

Phil

Sol 2347:



Sol 2352:

[fredk]

There are also several darker frames in the very large set of bayer encoded L-MastCam sequence on sol 2350

The darker frames' filenames end in "...C00_DXXX", versus "...K00_DXXX" for the rest, so there must be something different about the exposure or stretching on those.