Post Conjunction: Santa Maria to Cape York, The Journey to 'Spirit Point' Options

[MERovingian]

Oh My God, Oh My God, Oh My God!!

Since I read "Red Mars" in 1995, I have been dreaming of such vistas!
Spirit got the first one from the top of Husband hill, but this... this!!

It's like Oppy has landed yet again, for the umpteenth time!

[Stefan]

I couldn't help but include a certain rover of sweet disposition: Oppy at Spirit Point Crater and Endeavor beyond! (My apologies if the scale is off.)

Thank you for this. It is beautiful.

[Pertinax]

For dust perfectly mixed through the whole atmosphere, the opacity across the crater would be about twice the measured (zenith) value on any given sol. I wonder if visibility might get worse before it gets better, even as the dust settles. We'll be testing that, of course.

Thank you. I'm fairly sure I follow you on that point. A neat little meteorology experiment the crater Endeavour offers!


-- Pertinax

[jamescanvin]

So now I've had an evening in front of my computer rather than speculating from work, I have come to the same conclusion as Fred. Spirit Point is STILL below the horizon.

Here are my ID's of the horizon features on a reprojected HiRISE image. It also shows what is just over the ridge in the same direction. (Each column of pixels is a line of sight from Oppy's current position.)

[ElkGroveDan]

Wow. Thanks for that James.

[climber]

James, on your post, the big rock on the other side of Spirit (crater) point looks like Spirit (or Oppy) herself as seen from orbit.

[mhoward]

Sol 2670-2671 360x90 degree Navcam panorama. This might be my favorite Navcam panorama of the mission so far, for what it represents as well as for the mind-blowing view to the northeast. This version is centered on east. Just to the south of east is the line between Sol 2670 and 2671 images; it was difficult to reconcile the different lighting without destroying one or more images, so I chose not to destroy the images. And those undulations in the ground to the northeast are not distortions in the projection but are real, at least as far as I can tell. I've posted a hi-quality JPG so have at it.



And the QuickTime VR version (download the file first, it's 6.1MB)

[Phil Stooke]

Fantastic! And as is my wont, I've made a circular version of it:



Phil

[fredk]

I think, "gee, it would be cool to see those 2670-71 navcams stitched together", check out UMSF, and what do I see! Thanks - that's a pivotal mosaic for sure.

The dark flat feature in the new navcam image really seems oddly flat and featureless for CY, which makes me think it could alternatively be our first glimpse of the dark material that is filling the north-center bottom of Endeavour, lying higher than the margins and the south part

At the time I thought that was the flat, lower part of CY, but now I think it's clear you were right, marswiggle. In the 2670-71 navcams you can see how that flat feature trails off into the haze to the left, so it can't be as close as CY. And also the flat feature hasn't moved in relation to the far rim. So all we've seen of CY yet is the highest north end.

It's very cool that we're already seeing the bottom centre of Endeavour. As you pointed out, the south end is a lot deeper, and we're quite a ways from seeing the bottom there yet...

[mhoward]

That circular version works well, Phil. Thanks, Fred.

Here's my favorite part of the view, done as a perspective projection. I've saved it as a lossless PNG in case anyone wants to improve/mess with it.

[dilo]

Here's my favorite part of the view, done as a perspective projection. I've saved it as a lossless PNG in case anyone wants to improve/mess with it.

This is my version (lot of work ti improve distant mountains...)

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[chuckclark]

Fantastic! And as is my want, I've made a circular version of it:

Phil

Gee Phil, I appreciate the purity of that circular image, but I'm also wondering how it might look if you pasted in an aerial view of the rover onto that. It'd be artificial and all, but the orientating effect ought to be strong.

[Phil Stooke]

In this collaborative world of UMSF, that sounds like a job for Stu!

Phil

[Matt Lenda]

James, on your post, the big rock on the other side of Spirit (crater) point looks like Spirit (or Oppy) herself as seen from orbit.

Haha, I brought this up at a team meeting on Tuesday and nobody seemed to agree.

[mhoward]

This is my version (lot of work ti improve distant mountains...)

Very nice! Feel free to change the credit line to NASA/JPL/M.Howard/M.Di Lorenzo

(Also I messed up and left a bit of unretouched sky on the far right, which bugs me, but oh well.)