[X] My Assistant

[climber]

We'll not know all the possible places to rove down into Victoria before having a complete view from different angles. Anyway, we can already see that the far rim slopes look very sandy and can only hope the near rim behave better. It's not only a matter of % of the slopes but also about drivability i.e. hard surface instead of sand. Most of the discussions with the pictures we have today are about going/not going inside. I thought we need a thread for this and also think that we can post here all the studies and teh video that have been done when Oppy was about to enter Endurance.
As a start, and to challenge the idea, I (re)post what I think could be a ramp to enter the crater. It's situated in the bleu F1 Bay in James' map. The reason is that the ramp look rocky as compared to all the other ramps visible on the far rim. There's also a lot of rocks to study instead of going nowhere.

[djellison]

I think a partial circumnavigation ( even if it includes toe-dipping excursions ) is vital to get as good a view as we can ( from both Pancam AND Mini-TES ) of the whole crater interior.

If we were to drive straight in from where we are now - we'd have no idea what we were driving in to, as we've not seen it in the way we can see the far side now. It is possible and perhaps even likely that the drive into Victoria crater is a one off...each metre driven into the crater might very well be the last chance to study that metre of layering. So it would be madness in my opinion, to not study the crater as fully as possible from the outside, before identifying the best location to study it from the inside.

And yes, the rover might die tomorrow - but realistically, I think Opportunity is going to be around for a little while yet - consider the hell that Spirit has and is going through - Opportunity has had it very very easy.

Doug

[centsworth_II]

I think a partial circumnavigation ( even if it includes toe-dipping excursions ) is vital to get as good a view as we can...

Remember that the entry into Endurance began as a "toe-dipping excursion". The plan, after testing the footing, was to drive down the stack of exposed layers and then back out. There was no plan to drive across loose material to other parts of the crater when Opportunity first started down. They may well do some toe-dipping without knowing ahead of time which "dip" may turn into a long-term exploration.

[sranderson]

There will certainly be an abundance of caution, including imaging of several slopes, and possibly some work on nearby rim-level outcrops, but the main goal at Victoria is to fully investigate deeper layers. Other investigations are secondary. Initial work toward that goal can be done remotely, but within a short time there will be diminishing returns, and you just have to put RAT to rock. A wander around part of the rim, with possible dips below is consistent with what was done successfully at Endurance -- and is the most likely approach to result in good science return. The big question is how bad are the slopes. If they consistently look risky, a longer rim presence is indicated. If we happen to find one that is deemed safe, down we go. That looks fairly unlikely though.

Scott

[djellison]

Tbut the main goal at Victoria is to fully investigate deeper layers.

I quite agree - which is why we have to look at the entire crater to identify the best place to do it, from a navigability, sun slope, and exposure accesability perspective. I would be amazed if we ploughed straight in at Duck bay without seing it from something like 90-120 degrees around the crater first. And in actul fact, I don't think we WILL go in at Duck bay - I think the safest place for entry is on the SE side. The slopes are less, the outcrop is more exposed, the slope would be good for winter, and UHF comms should be a little better.

The same treatment as with Endurance is the very least I would expect.

Doug