On to Santa Maria! Options

[nprev]

Yeah, thought so, and sorry for even floating the concept. I must be twitchy today or something.

[pgrindrod]

I wasn't sure if this should go here, or in the route map thread, so please move if necessary.

Here's a CTX DEM (20 m/px) of Oppy's driving area, made using the fantastic USGS scripts (thanks!) and the old SocetSet pulling-out-your-hair method. Actually, CTX DEMs seem (famous last words) to be working pretty well...there must be something wrong.

First up, a general elevation colour map with CTX image P01_001612_1780_XI_02S005 underneath. The red dot is Oppy on sol 2420, taken from Tesheiner's route map (thanks!).


Next, a close-up view of Oppy and the rim of Endeavour, this time with a different colour stretch to highlight the elevation change on the next part of the route.


I'm more than happy to share this if anybody thinks they can do something with it.

Pete

[djellison]

Could you pull out a height profile, from - say, Victoria to the edge of Endeavour including the rim? and/or from our current location to the rim at Cape York. That sort of thing

[fredk]

Thanks for this! Can you provide an elevation scale for these images as well?

[Astro0]

Whenever I see images like this one, I can't help but think of images like this one....Endeavour Bound!!!

[DFinfrock]

Land Ho!

Wait a minute. Those islands are off the stern. You're sailing the wrong direction Astro0!

It's amazing though, how a change of color in those ripples completely changes what the brain thinks it's seeing.

David

[mhoward]

Wait a minute. Those islands are off the stern. Yo'ure sailing the wrong direction Astro0!

Off the port side, actually

[Astro0]

DFinfrock: You're sailing the wrong direction Astro0!

No, just a leisurely voyage tacking across the Meridiani 'sea'

[fredk]

It looks like the hazcam-less drive has taken place:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...0M1.JPG?sol2424

[Tesheiner]

130m, according to the rover's mobility data.

[pgrindrod]

As requested, but I'd avoid reading too much into the actual profiles and the spikes and troughs - there's a fair bit of noise in this DEM as the smooth terrain is great for driving but bad for pixel matching! It does however still give a nice impression of the overall topography.



Pete

[climber]

The mean mileage per sol is consistantly increasing since late August but the more the sols the more the "need" to drive to keep it this way (at least 250m per week at the moment). So, I guess we're "safe" this week
Not a race but giving the feeling that we follow SS statement.

[jamescanvin]

You can see (I think) in the red profile the same thing I had convinced myself from the MOLA data: That we are currently on a flattish section with a drop-off to Santa Maria a few hundred meters ahead. I think this is why we can't see Santa Maria yet.

I made a prediction to Stu by PM earlier this week regarding this: That I expected Santa Maria to pop into view quite suddenly and dramatically ~400m ahead, since then we have covered around half that distance. So keep your eyes pealed over the next few drives, I'm anticipating a HOAV moment very soon.

James

[fredk]

I've made some measurements to try to decide whether the double feature we've been seeing is Santa Maria or not. I compared the separations and positions (relative to the distant east rim of Endeavour) of both of the light "bumps" on sols 2409 and 2420. These measurements are entirely relative, ie I didn't use any absolute heading information. The only assumption is for the comparison of bump positions between 2409 and 2420: I assumed that the distant east rim of Endeavour was essentially infinitely far away, so there was no parallax between 2409 and 2420 of that east rim. That parallax should be extremely small. The left-right bump separation measurements are independent of this assumption.

Here are the angles measured from the pancams:

And here are the corresponding angles measured from Tesheiner's route map:

The corresponding angles are consistent with each other, if the two bumps are high points on the north and south rim of Santa Maria. The agreement of the four angles means that both the size and distance agree with Santa Maria. So I'm ready to declare that the two light bumps are Santa Maria.

[Guest_Bobby_*]

I like your slide show presentation Fred K. I think we should be there by Christmas and what a gift to us all to see Santa Maria by then.
Maybe Santa Clause will stop by and give the Rover a boost of Energy for the coming season.

I can remember the day she landed in Eagle Crater way back then or ages ago. I am amazed what this little golf cart rover has done.

May The Force Be With Her.

I do have a couple Question. Is the top of Santa Maria lower in elevation then the bottom of Victoria Crater and would the bedrock within Santa Maria
be older then anything we saw at Victoria? Is there any possibility that we might go into Santa Maria or just drive around and keep going???