[X] My Assistant

[Nix]

Nasa announced earlier that Opportunity will head for Vostok Crater, due South.
I assembled this colored mosaic to get a better idea of what lies ahead. Reaching the crater Victoria in the south should not be a problem, I only hope the rocky terrain north of the crater will allow Opportunity to travel in more or less a straight line. There sure are plenty of interesting sites to explore in this area!

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[David]

Are all of these sites still within Opportunity's original landing ellipse, or will Opportunity leave the ellipse if it gets as far as Victoria?

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/01/24/

Victoria Crater and some of the Etched Terrain are well outside the landing ellipse.

[Pando]

Victoria is outside of the landing ellipse. The landing ellipse cuts through the middle of the etched terrain.

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/0...llipsefinal.jpg

edit: Thanks Sunspot I was sitting at the edit screen too long

[MizarKey]

Given the relative flatness of Meridiani, I hope they decide to take Oppy to one of the hill like protrusions toward the east end of the ellipse in Pando's post. Might take a bit to get there, but it would be a nice change of scenery.

Eric P / MizarKey

[djellison]

Victoria crater seems like the best 'cool thing' for 100's of sols of driving in any direction to me. it's likely to have 50 - 100 metre depth - 10m cliffs at the edge - and seemingly routes in, and would be a fitting end-of-mission location

Doug

[Pando]

I hope they decide to take Oppy to one of the hill like protrusions toward the east end of the ellipse

I'm not sure what hills you are referring to, but there seems to be two eroded *craters* at the end (or slightly below) the right end of the landing ellipse. The Victoria Crater appears to be relatively young compared to these though, and is therefore a much more interesting science target.

Also, notice a huge (and I mean Huge) crater-like structure at the lower right corner of that image, with barely one quarter of it visible. It's so huge that it would be unrecognizable at ground level...

[David]

Also, notice a huge (and I mean Huge) crater-like structure at the lower right corner of that image, with barely one quarter of it visible. It's so huge that it would be unrecognizable at ground level...

That Huge Crater is, incidentally, the only feature in the whole area to show up on my by now quite antiquated (1979) paper maps of Mars -- where it appears as a tiny, nameless dimple. Thanks for reminding me just how huge Mars actually is, and how little of we really know, up close, after all these years

[MizarKey]

I hope they decide to take Oppy to one of the hill like protrusions toward the east end of the ellipse

I'm not sure what hills you are referring to, but there seems to be two eroded *craters* at the end (or slightly below) the right end of the landing ellipse. The Victoria Crater appears to be relatively young compared to these though, and is therefore a much more interesting science target.

Also, notice a huge (and I mean Huge) crater-like structure at the lower right corner of that image, with barely one quarter of it visible. It's so huge that it would be unrecognizable at ground level...

I was wondering if those were craters or hills...

And Doug, shhhhush, stop mentioning 'end of mission'...Oppy will go on forever!

Eric P / MizarKey

[YesRushGen]

...Oppy will go on forever!

Eric P / MizarKey

Indeed!

Hey guys, I know what I'm about to suggest is complete and absolute crazy talk, but check out this map of all Mars Landing sites (failed and sucessful) http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/astro/marsprobemap.html

Wouldn't it be neat if Oppy could travel to the site of the failed Mars 6 lander? It's in the same general vicinity, probably several hundred km away. (Not sure of the map's scale) At the very least, if Oppy survives after Victoria, it would be a direction to drive.

If they plowed ahead at 100m/sol, that's 10 sols for 1km or 1000sols for 100km. Like I said, absolute crazy talk.

[David]

Wouldn't it be neat if Oppy could travel to the site of the failed Mars 6 lander? It's in the same general vicinity, probably several hundred km away. (Not sure of the map's scale) At the very least, if Oppy survives after Victoria, it would be a direction to drive.
If they plowed ahead at 100m/sol, that's 10 sols for 1km or 1000sols for 100km. Like I said, absolute crazy talk.

The distance is on the order of 1500 km, so at the speed you suggest it would take oh, about 40 years to get there. Also the intermediate terrain is rough and heavily cratered, and looks particularly nasty close to the (assumed) Mars 6 crash site. Moreover we would need to figure out exactly where the Mars 6 actually was, but I suppose 40 years is enough to determine that.

[tedstryk]

It would be more interesting to see the Mars-3 lander and figure out exactly what did happen to it after a half minute of transmitting. As for Mars-6, it has the distinction of being the first to send back data from inside the Martian atmosphere (basically a temperature and pressure profile). Also, spurious signals from it led people to believe the Martian atmosphere contained a boat load of Argon.

[dot.dk]

Looks like work on the meteorite is finished.
Are we go for Vostok now??

[akuo]

Looks like work on the meteorite is finished.
Are we go for Vostok now??

The main part of the heatshield is close behind Oppy again. I wonder if there are still some investigations to be done here.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...EEP1311R0M1.JPG

[dot.dk]

We need an updated future SOL plan from Pando

[lyford]

Come on, Oppy, Smile for the thermal blanket - cheese!

I vote "self portrait" in the reflective covering - please!!!!!