[X] My Assistant

[fredk]

Judging from the new navcams and pancams (new hazcams aren't down yet, though) there's been a drive:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...0M1.JPG?sol2420
It looks like we've made it to the remnant of exposed bedrock around 100 metres east. A bit of dejavu, huh?

[mhoward]

Yes, metadata says due east, a respectable distance to be determined.

[CosmicRocker]

It's been a long time since we've seen a large panorama taken with the L7 filter. We have sharp L7-R1 stereo pairs of Intrepid Crater and the beautiful eastern skyline. Before we get too far away from Intrepid I wanted to post an anaglyph panorama of this lovely scene from sol 2417. I've removed as much vignetting as possible. It is an especially nice view if you have multiple monitors or an extra wide monitor.

[nprev]

Great stuff, all, and esp. like your anaglyph, CR; thanks!

There are indeed some intriguing rocks in there...but I hope we don't go in even a little bit, frankly. Those dunes look like the could be pretty deep to me, and the crater slopes are uncomfortably steep.

[climber]

There are indeed some intriguing rocks in there...but I hope we don't go in even a little bit, frankly. Those dunes look like the could be pretty deep to me, and the crater slopes are uncomfortably steep.

And there is also a "rock" in the distance right in front of us after last night drive visible in fredk attachment.

[Tesheiner]

... after last night drive ...

The data were downlinked last night but the drive was executed during sol 2420 i.e. two days ago (see this post).
I'm updating the route map right now...

[Stu]

Just for fun, based on messing about with skilfully simulating the view using Starry Night, but probably not too far out...

Sunrise Over Endeavour this morning...




(hope you don't mind me using crop of your gorgeous panorama, James)

[Gonzz]

That's gorgeous!

[mhoward]

Sol 2420

[Guest_Oersted_*]

Just for fun, based on messing about with skilfully simulating the view using Starry Night, but probably not too far out...

Inspirational! ....Isn't it, JPL? *Nudge nudge, wink wink*

[marsophile]

Since the discussion here:

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=159419

the dark blue "stain" has enlarged considerably, as seen in this navcam image from Sol 2412.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...4IP0673L0M1.JPG

It seems to be advancing (and occasionally retreating) along clearly defined frontiers. This does not fit well with the explanations proposed earlier, which should result in a more dispersed profile.

In sharpened pancam images that correct defocus blur, posted by Hortonheardawho on his website, the "stain" looks like it might be a layer of dark material on top of the light-colored dust that we see everywhere else on the rover deck.

This suggests the interesting possibility that it involves a phase change in the light-colored dust. Perhaps that is related to the formation of duricrust, which I believe is not well-understood.

[djellison]

It's simply below the resolving power of Pancam or Navcam to make any meaningful interpretation. There are a thousand things that could cause something to happen. FWIW, my initial gut reaction remains to this day - it looks like clean patch free of dust, not a surficial feature and the word 'stain' has never sat well, imho. However, there are many complex and interesting components and materials involved in building the rover, and some of them we know to be behaving unexpectedly ( such as the delamination of the sundial base ). I would like to see what people do with PDS calibrated data, rather than trying to 'deblur' jpgs - which really is a way to generate feature that simply don't exist.

Short answer - we're never going to know.

[nprev]

I think that chemical reactions on the surface of Mars (what few that may exist) must happen VERY slowly by terrestrial standards, particularly those that require the interaction of water in any phase. We've seen several iron-nickel meteorites that have clearly been in place for hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of years, and show no signs of corrosion, merely windborne dust build-up.

It therefore doesn't seem reasonable to assume that any sort of detectable chemical alteration has occurred on the MERs during their exceedingly short tenure on Mars, both for that reason and by virtue of the fact that their component materials are much more resistant to such reactions than the meteorites.

[marsophile]

A clarification: the pancam depth of field is from 1.5 m to infinitiy, so the sundial at 80 cm is slightly out of focus. Thus, a deconvolution algorithm can be used to sharpen the focus.

[djellison]

It can be used to TRY and sharpen the focus, but you are playing a very tenuous game to try and pull out anything meaningful that you identify in those deconvolved images that isn't apparent in the orig. images.