The Top of Vera Rubin Ridge Part 1, Site 66-67, sol 1812-1943, 11 Sep 2017-23 Jan 2018 Options

[charborob]

Sol 1866 Lmastcam:

[Art Martin]

What an amazing view of the path ahead. Does anyone know the height of some of those large mesas at the base of Mt. Sharp? So hard to get a feel of scale in these photos. I remember early in the mission the first high res shots of that area there was a boulder down at the base of one of them and it was supposedly taller than the rover and it looked tiny in comparison to the hill beside it.

[RoverDriver]

What an amazing view of the path ahead. Does anyone know the height of some of those large mesas at the base of Mt. Sharp? So hard to get a feel of scale in these photos. I remember early in the mission the first high res shots of that area there was a boulder down at the base of one of them and it was supposedly taller than the rover and it looked tiny in comparison to the hill beside it.

This should give you a rough idea:
https://hirise-pds.lpl.arizona.edu/PDS/EXTR...1750_U01.ca.jpg

Paolo

[Sean]

If you have a Daydream or GearVR phone [ or phone supporting VR ] or HMD you can visit this area in person. The mesas are frickin' huge.

Sketchfab

[jvandriel]

The Navcam L view on Sol 1869.

Jan van Driel

[Floyd]

The rim is so clear now--dust must be very low!

[Phil Stooke]

Yes, it's great to see the rim again so clearly.

Here is Jan's panorama from sol 1869 in circular form. We are in a recess in this small topographic step on the ridge, probably ready to climb it now. Let's hope that drill can be used on the ridge before we have to move on.

Phil

[Floyd]

Any chance this is a walk around to understand the overall diversity of rock types, and when done, possibly go back down the hill to an older layer to start drill sampling?

[Phil Stooke]

I really can't see a return to the lower surface north of the ridge. That geologic unit had been drilled further north, and examined at almost every stop by ChemCam and APXS along the way.

Phil

[Floyd]

I was thinking older and younger layers of Vera Rubin Ridge, not all the way back down.

[PaulH51]

Question for the group: I used to get the approximate elevation of Curiosity from the JPL traverse maps posted here, but JPL have not updated the maps since sol 1830. I'm guessing I could obtain elevation from NAIF or maybe from the JSON files. Not sure how easy that would be, but likely beyond my skill-set. So I'm hoping there could be another source for that data without having to await the PDS....

In the meantime here's a (very rough & ready) Curiosity Sol 1871 L-NavCam partial pan assembled in MS ICE, the stitch is poor, but the scenery is lovely.

[jvandriel]

The Navcam L view on Sol 1871.

Jan van Driel

[HSchirmer]

I really can't see a return to the lower surface north of the ridge.
That geologic unit had been drilled further north, and examined at almost every stop by ChemCam and APXS along the way.

Phil

But, if you don't drill actual bedrock, how would you know it's the same geologic unit?

[neo56]

I made an animation with the 25 MAHLI dust level checks of REMS UV sensors that Paul selected.
The distribution of dust changes between sols 1498 and 1552: while dust was evenly distributed on the ring-shaped magnets before sol 1498, it then forms accumulations, as if the fine fraction of dust had been blown away by a wind event. We also observe this dust accumulation on the left side of the REMS device.



Higher resolution version of the animation here.

[Phil Stooke]

"But, if you don't drill actual bedrock, how would you know it's the same geologic unit?"


All the ChemCam and APXS data, plus geological interpretation of HiRISE and rover images. The rover updates at JPL have made clear the interpretation being followed by the rover team. This ridge is a new unit. To go back to the earlier question, which I misinterpreted, certainly there might be a return to lower units on the top of the ridge if variations in ChemCam and APXS (plus Mastcam multispectral) suggest it's useful, otherwise one drill site may be enough.

Anyhoo, here is Jan's 1871 panorama in circular form.

Phil