Exploring Murray Ridge, Sol 3600 - 3743 (March 11, 2014 - August 5, 2014) Options

[PaulM]

...
From Crumpler's latest post.

This anouncement in Crumpler's post is very interesting:

"After we take a look at the local outcrops up here on the ridge crest, and maybe drive to the local summit for a good view of the crater, we will start driving south along the west side of the rim."

Given the uneven terrain on the Western side of the rim this means for the next few Years Oppy will always be within a few 100m of a North facing slope, which I think is a good decision

[dilo]

...for the next few Years Oppy will always be within a few 100m of a North facing slope, which I think is a good decision

In fact, they shows 3 possible paths in this region, while "next long-term target is about 600 m south along the west side of the crater rim"; however, the 10-26 sol drive time seems optimistic to me (unless they refers only to full, long drive sols!)

[fredk]

But the path in question (path "A") stays away from the rough ridge of Solander and would probably be easy driving like out on the plains (and much easier than our climb up Solander so far). So that drive time sounds realistic, considering how fast we drove from Nobby's Head to Solander.

Of course in practice the limiting factor for the drive time will be the science stops.

[charborob]

Sol 3625 pancam filter 2 pan:

[vikingmars]

Sol 3625 pancam filter 2 pan:

Thanks a lot Charborob.
The view on the plains on the other side of the crater starts to be terrific ! I hope they will image it with the "L7" filter soon to gain more details far away. Thanks again

[James Sorenson]

I'm working on processing the color images for the deck pan, but here is an L4 mosaic of what I got sofar.

[charborob]

Thanks a lot Charborob.
The view on the plains on the other side of the crater starts to be terrific ! I hope they will image it with the "L7" filter soon to gain more details far away. Thanks again

Here is the left filter 7 pan on sol 3625 (the last image on the right is incomplete; I had to adjust the curves to make it more or less match the others). Are there really more details visible?

[Ant103]

Same view, in colors. Very good sighting there !

[serpens]

An interesting update from A. J. S Rayl.

http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-top...cook-haven.html

[craigmcg]

Is there a map of "the bench" referred to in the above article?

[vikingmars]

Are there really more details visible?

Thanks a lot Charborob ! Yes indeed : some craters on the far horizon are readily much more visible (as horizontal dark markings)

[centsworth_II]

Is there a map of "the bench" referred to in the above article?

I've indicated the bench in this image from Larry Crumpler's April 3 Planetary Society Blog. It is well defined at the north end where Opportunity arrived at Solander Point, but seems to be less well defined to the South. This could be due to some extent to lighting.

[jvandriel]

The Pancam L7 view on Sol 3625.

Jan van Driel

[James Sorenson]

Almost finished with processing the color images that will be added to this but here is the L4 deckpan sofar.

[James Sorenson]