[X] My Assistant

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3889263.stm

Looks like they "might" be planning a drive to the South and the "Etched terrain" eventaully.

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

It was announced at the last press conference that they are likely to try such a drive eventually -- but it seems almost certain that they will not do so before the winter season. The current plan, once they come out of the crater (asuming they do), is to poke around at various interesting scientific sites on the nearby surrounding plain -- which they had originally planned to do before entering Endurance -- and then quite possibly re-enter Endurance at least briefly rather than driving south.

Those "interesting science sites on the plain", by the way, include both the lander's heat shield and some of the small "cobble-sized" rocks which are scattered over the plain but which the rover did not stop to study during its initial drive over the plain to Endurance. (My guess is that they will turn out to be basalt ejecta from other regions, like the "Bounce Rock" that's already been analyzed.) Personally, I'd like them to take a closer look at one of the sinuous ditches that wind across the plain, like "Anatolia" which they cursorily examined before.