[X] My Assistant

[Stu]

Well, what does everyone think of our long-awaited first view..?

[Stu]

When Exploratorium updates it usually happens at 35 minutes after the hour.

OMG, you know in all these months and years of slaving over a hot keyboard looking at that site I've never actually noticed that! Honestly, not joking.

That image downloading software program sounds useful; you should set up a website or something...

(just haven't got around to downloading the software yet, you know what it's like... besides, part of me - a cruel, masochistic part - enjoys the thrill of the hunt, experiencing that "yes!!" moment when you see a new untouched line at the bottom of the Exploratorium page written in come-get-me blue... )

P.S. How's this interview for a blast from the past"... if only we knew then what we know now, eh?

[Reckless]

Withdrawal symptoms after Oppys demise why should we have withdrawal symptoms then, it will be only like two days before MSL arrives wont it
Roy F

[Bill Harris]

Tall vertical cliffs strongly indicate that a large volume of debris has just disappeared from the scene as the cliffs formed.

A portion of the material of the crater was pulverized, vaporized and tossed on onto the plain surrounding the crater; we drove over it on the way in. The weathered and soughed-off material from the rim is present as the "talus pile" fron the bluffs down to the crater floor. Now that we are here we can make close guesstimates of thicknesses and can figure some volumes. Sooner or later we'll understand the erosional-depositional processes here.

The puzzler for me is understanding crater exhumation.

--Bill

[Nirgal]

... besides, part of me - a cruel, masochistic part - enjoys the thrill of the hunt, experiencing that "yes!!" moment when you see a new untouched line at the bottom of the Exploratorium page written in come-get-me blue... )

[climber]

Perhaps the racetrack patterns induced by heating effects in craters are counter to Mars' rotation in the mornings, thereby less likely to cause dust devils, but become synced with Mar's coriolis effect to end up with reinforced rotation patterns and free-standing dust devils in the afternoons?
-the other Doug

Spirit is clearly in Southern Hemisphere while xxxxx Opportunity is very close to the equator. So, vortex could be clockwise for one and counter clockwise for the other so may be DD happen during the morning at Meridianii. Does it make sense to you?

[climber]

climber jokingly mentioned what looked like caves on the far side of Victoria.

I was NOT joking

[ElkGroveDan]

Spirit is clearly in Southern Hemisphere while Spirit

?????

[fredk]

The Coriolis effect gets weaker closer to the equator (and is exactly zero on the equator). Plus it's extremely weak on small scales, so I'm quite certain it would have no effect on something as local as a dust devil.

The urban myth about sinks draining in different senses in different hemispheres is just that, a myth. Any force strong enough to affect drains would be noticable just driving or even walking around!

[climber]

?????

Corrected in the post!
Dan, I thought you knew the other one name was Spirit
BTW, thanks

[dot.dk]

The JPL version of the pancam of Victoria has been posted!

http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/press/op.../20060922a.html

[dot.dk]

And I think SOL 948 will be a REAL driving sol!!

CODE

948 p0665.03 0   0   0   0   0   0    navcam_5x1_az_108_3_bpp
948 p1151.04 0   0   0   0   0   0    front_hazcam_idd_unstow_doc
948 p1154.01 0   0   0   0   0   0    front_hazcam_idd_unstow_doc
948 p1201.05 0   0   0   0   0   0    front_haz_penultimate_1_bpp_crit17
948 p1213.00 0   0   0   0   0   0    front_haz_ultimate_3bpp
948 p1275.01 0   0   0   0   0   0    front_hazcam_0.5bpp_pri_41
948 p1275.01 0   0   0   0   0   0    front_hazcam_0.5bpp_pri_41
948 p1301.04 0   0   0   0   0   0    rear_haz_penultimate_1bpp_pri17
948 p1313.02 0   0   0   0   0   0    rear_haz_ultimate_3bpp_pri15
948 p1375.01 0   0   0   0   0   0    rear_hazcam_0.5bpp_pri_41
948 p1375.01 0   0   0   0   0   0    rear_hazcam_0.5bpp_pri_41
948 p1585.00 0   0   0   0   0   0    navcam_cloud_4x1_dwnsmp_RVRAz_calstart
948 p1965.03 0   0   0   0   0   0    navcam_5x1_az_288_1_bpp

[fredk]

The JPL version of the pancam of Victoria has been posted!

Beautiful! No more clipped blacks and whites! Now all we need is some nice sharp L7's!

[Decepticon]

Does anyone know if we will see Victoria this weekend or on Monday?

I planning my weekend and wondering if I need my laptop up north.

[fredk]

Here's the new jpl pan, shrunk to 33% horizontally:

I don't recall anyone pointing this out yet, but notice how the thickness of the layer (evaporite?) above the very thin layer (indicated by black arrows in my pan) varies along the rim, with the thickest evaporite on the right side. We know the south to east part of the rim is considerably lower than the near rim. Perhaps this means that the very thin layer is (more or less) horizontal, and the rim is higher in places because the evaporite is thicker there.

If this is correct, then we'll have much easier access to the deepest layers on the south and east parts of the rim.

[Bill Harris]

I'm thinking that the dark horizontal bed is the pre-impact ground surface and the variable evaporite above it is the pulverized ejecta from Victoria.

We do need to map the lithologies at the several Capes around the rim. Inputting this data into a fence diagram and 3-D modeling software will alow us to visualize the subsurface structure here.

--Bill