[X] My Assistant

[Explorer1]

It will certainly be impressive, but the sheer size may actually take away from the view!

Think of the really well known features of Mars, you can't possibly see all of Olympus Mons from any one point (except the crater), you'd just have a slightly sloping surface all around you.
Same with Valles Marineris, except at the ends, it's just a big cliff stretching out of view, the other side is so far as to be below the horizon.

How often did Spirit see the rim of Gusev? It depends entirely on the opacity of the atmosphere too.
Or for an Earth example, you never see the whole ocean, just an beach. The scale is incomprehensible on the surface.

I'm welcome to be proven wrong when it comes to Endeavor of course!

[Stu]

I honestly don't care what the view is like when we get there, as long as we get there! For me, it's the views of the farside hills that are going to be exciting; I'm a sucker for that Ansell Adams mountain range stuff, and I think we'll get some stunning pics of the far slope, especially when the low sun casts shadows inside and across that big crater there (which STILL hasn't got a name... bizarre... but not a priority, I know)

[Astro0]

Stu, I've been holding onto this news for a long time...they were keeping it all a big surprise for you, and I'm not supposed to tell you or anyone else but since you keep pushing and pushing, and no one else is listening, they're going to call that crater: "Atkinson" Congratulations!!! Now start writing an "Ode to Stu's Faraway Crater"

[Stu]

I've submitted a few suggestions, keeping to the "Ships of Exploration" theme of course, so it'll be interesting to see what they eventually go with.

It's not important, I know, they have a lot higher priorities, I'm just getting frustrated being asked in my talks "What's that crater called?" and not having an answer.

[climber]

Re Arrival Date.
I thought only Doug moved to JPL. They must have contracted Ustrax also... since he is the only one to KNOW this

[HughFromAlice]

Bit late (due to travelling) but here's the Nav Cam view from Sol 2375 (29 Sept 10) - love the challenge of Nav Cams!! If anyone wants to check out the full res 3mg version then you can download it from http://picasaweb.google.com/10220631534056...768508164336818

[Phil Stooke]

Nice! Playing around with it, I came up with these:





Phil

[ustrax]

Re Arrival Date.
I thought only Doug moved to JPL. They must have contracted Ustrax also... since he is the only one to KNOW this

Not working with Doug...My commuting is longer, takes me out of the Solar System...
http://www.facebook.com/#!/NASAsKeplerMission

And yes, obviously the arrival date is well kept in a safe in a swiss bank along with the meaning of life and the recipe for my chocolate cake...
@Stu...what do you mean no abyss? How deep is T-H-A-T thing? And, just curious here...what names have you suggested for the far wall crater?

[Stu]

Not exactly a 'ship of exploration' I know, but "Mayflower" - the ship that transported the Pligrims to the US in 1620. She dropped anchor off the coast of Cape Cod in Nov 1620 (so if they announced the crater's name in November it would be a nice way of marking the 390th anniversary...)

...or...

"Half Moon" - the ship that "discovered" the future site of New York in September 1609, captained by Henry Hudson.

...or - ahem - my personal favourite...

"Golden Hind" - after Sir Francis Drake's ship, which circumnavigated the globe between 1577 and 1580.

They'll go with something else entirely, I'm sure!

But we really do need to find another meteorite so it can be called "Craggy Island"...

[ustrax]

They'll go with something else entirely, I'm sure!

Do you think they will go with a differente theme other than Cook's journey for a name inside Endeavour? I would call it...Elizabeth

[Stu]

Well, the convention on crater naming is to give them names after ships, but no-one has been able to track down the names of any of the rowing boats on the Endeavour, so I don't know what other link to Cook's voyage they can use. But it'll be something fitting, I'm sure; they haven't let us down yet.

[fredk]

Whatever the view from the rim of Endeavour is like, it won't hit us nearly as quickly as at Victoria - the view will be revealed much more gradually. And when we arrive at Cape York, we'll be only around 25 or 30% closer to the far rim than we are now, so the view won't be dramatically more detailed. But of course we'll be able to see the inner part of the far rim which we can't see at all now.

[Stu]

Good points, Fred. I still have high hopes for farside views tho, especially as we'll be able to see lower down the slopes.

Nice time to look back at the journey so far...

[ElkGroveDan]

And although I can't wait to see it, I'm also wondering just how 'marvelous' the view will be across and into the crater once we get there. I mean, it's not a pit, or an abyss ( © ustrax ), is it? The hills on t'other side will look amazing, for sure, but we won't get the same impression of depth as we did at Victoria, will we? It'll be a mega wide-angle view, won't it?

The size of Endeavour is roughly similar to the central part of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles ~13 miles from rim to rim. (overlay image below)

Now the Vally has some spectacular views from the "rims" and on a clear day from the floor of the Valley the mountains do look spectacular (maybe Doug will take a gigapan for us from Van Nuys on a clear day.) However, those mountains above Los Angeles are anywhere from 700 to 4000 feet higher than the center of the San Fernando Valley, whereas Endeavor's rim is gong to be nowhere near that high. So there will likely be some nice views, but nothing breathtaking.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[ElkGroveDan]

There's a reason I chose that location. I grew up atop that lumpy intrusion at about 11:00 (when I was known as GHD).