Bye Bye Vostok Options

[djellison]

Looking at the Exploratorium - it appears we've left Vostok on a very long drive - I guess a few days of spectrometer integrations is data-thin giving time to dump out the flash memory ready to pack it up full with Autonav again

I believe a 10 or 11 x 3 L257 Pan was taken at Vostok on Sol 400 so should be some pretty pictures soon I'd put cash on it being downsampled to 256 x 256 like the Triplet imagery however.

Anyhow - here's to the next leg of the big-treck (raises a glass of Diet Coke as a toast)

Doug

[TheChemist]

I'll drink to that [raises his ice-cold frappe]

The question is, do we go south towards Victoria, or southwest to meet the etched terrain earlier ? We'll see soon

This post has been edited by TheChemist: Mar 15 2005, 11:00 AM

[Nix]

I'll go for the diet coke too. Cheers! personally I hope this will be a straight route to Victoria. There's plenty of etched terrain around.

[djellison]

I'd like to see us visit that large super-vostok feature in the Etched Terrain - but to be honest, despite some peoples concerns - I see no reason to expect the etched terrain to be anything other than more verbose and widespread versions of Vostok - possibly the dark parts in MOC images being drifts of the darker soil that lives under the blue berries - similar that that which we saw in one of the Triplet craters.

I've not seen any results of DEM generation from MOC stereo pairs to generate 3d models of the etched area - but MOLA shows it as flat to within a degree or two on a 250m scale.

Doug

[dot.dk]

Is that the first sign of the etched terrain wee see in the horizon?

http://qt.exploratorium.edu:16080/mars/opp...49P2386R1M1.JPG

[OWW]

The question is, do we go south towards Victoria, or southwest to meet the etched terrain earlier ? We'll see soon

Well, according to this map stolen from R.Arvidson's pdf "MER main scientific results" on http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/in...fobjectid=36537,
Oppy will graze the etched terrain to the southwest first and then head south to the 'weird crater' in the main etched terrain.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[djellison]

The next MSSS MOC release isnt too far away is it? I'm looking forward to grabbing all the meridiani images and doing a better route-to-victoria map

FWIW - my strategy would be a drive straight south toward the pair of eagle sized craters that are just before the beginning of the major etching - I'll call them the 'Gate Post' Craters for now (NE Gate Post and SW Gate Post) - I dont see much point in heading off track ot look at other Vostok-like features. That they stopped for such a short time at Vostok suggests it's nothign we havnt seen before. (they are at the end of the 2nd leg on that map previously linked)

Also - a route to the Gate Posts from a slight NW direction would appear to give a slight lull thru the more rolling terrain whilst giving an Opportunity (damn pun not intended ) to observe the etched terrain from afar.

I would then tackle the Western route around the large erroded crater (call it Albert crater - Victoria's husband ) then pick my way SE to an area of exposed rock directly north of Victoria just after the Etched Terrain ebs out - simply because it looks a little out of place there -

Pah - I'm dreaming again..dreaming of being a rover driver

Anyone had that walking-on-mars-and-find-an-MER-still-working type dream.

Doug

[TheChemist]

Anyone had that walking-on-mars-and-find-an-MER-still-working type dream. 

Not yet
But walking the dog in the evening I often see muddy truck tracks in the fields, and automatically look around to find the rover
Plus I stare at the half-clouded sky in dark evenings and think : "This looks like Titan's surface"
Should I worry ?

[ToSeek]

Head southwest to get to the etched terrain as soon as possible. And I want to see a 200-meter drive along the way.

On the other hand, I'm still wondering what that black spot is NE of Vostok. But they don't seem to think it's worth investigating.

[MizarKey]

On the other hand, I'm still wondering what that black spot is NE of Vostok. But they don't seem to think it's worth investigating.

The similarity in appearance to the heatshield impact site in the overhead shot does intrigue...possibly another meteorite? Doesn't seem like we'll be seeing it though.

[aldo12xu]

Obsessed, how do you save images from a PDF file? I've been wanting to do that for some time but could never figure it out.

Notice the six units they have outlined? I wonder the difference is between units B & C and D & E.

[TheChemist]

You just need the full Acrobat for that, Aldo. Use the graphics select tool on the left menu.

If you 're cunning, (as Doug would say ) you can do a screen capture with any image processing software, but with less satisfactory results on the resolution side.

[Pando]

Here:

http://mer.rlproject.com/index.php?act=ST&...findpost&p=3467

[OWW]

You just need the full Acrobat for that, Aldo. Use the graphics select tool on the left menu.

If you 're cunning, (as Doug would say ) you can do a screen capture with any image processing software, but with less satisfactory results on the resolution side.

I used the 'cunning plan' in this case...
You can solve the resolution problem by being REAL cunning. Just stitch a couple of smaller feats of cunningness into one cunning masterpiece!

Yours truly, Baldrick.

[djellison]

If you 're cunning, (as Doug would say ) you can do a screen capture with any image processing software, but with less satisfactory results on the resolution side.

Ahh - even more cunning, set your screen res to something silly ( 2000 x something ) THEN screen grab it

Doug