[X] My Assistant

[peter59]

Tomorrow the third consecutive day of drive. We're getting closer to Santa Maria at a tremendous rate.

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[Phil Stooke]

That inner wall of Santa Maria is beginning to look like Burns Cliff in Endurance. Nice to see some details now.

Phil

[fredk]

Looking at the new pics in stereo, it's clear that the near side of Santa Maria is still obscured by a near horizon. When we finally get a clear view, it's going to be stunning.

[fredk]

Speaking of details, Phil, here's probably about the best we can do now. Average of L2 and R2, both frames slightly rotated to reduce the finest noise:

[mhoward]

Now we're talkin'. Sol 2442

[fredk]

Looking at James' orbital/pancam matchup, and squinting at the latest view, I think what we're seeing is almost all near rim, except a couple of bright bits of the far (inside) rim peeking through where I've circled in black:

[marswiggle]

And this 3x stretched anaglyph (cropped and specifically adjusted) seems to support fredk's analysis. A big boulder can be seen just below/before the notch* in the near rim through which we can see parts of the far side.

*That must have come from my subconscious. Fortunately, there will not be too many sols this time for a tug-of-war between near and far rimmers.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[BrianL]

Sniff. A notch in the near rim. I'm... I'm getting all emotional. The memories...

[peter59]

Two new images added to the navcam directory (2010-12-07), easily overlooked.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...QDP1962R0M1.JPG
Beautiful view of the Voskhod crater.

[Stu]

Made some new panoramas etc, but they're all BIG images, so rather than posting them here and clogging things up, I hope you'll go over to my blog to look at them there.

http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/...ching-base-camp

[Tesheiner]

"Approaching Base Camp..."; that's an appropriate title.

[climber]

"Approaching Base Camp..."; that's an appropriate title.

Sorry, I don't agree on this one! If we stay there and take full resolution pans of Endeavour, I could agree, but Base Camp means definitively something else, believe me

[Stu]

You're much more of an expert on this than I am, Climber; just went with the name because there's essentially nothing else between Santa Maria and Endeavour as far as major features/points of interest is concerned. Not meant to be a 1000% accurate comparison, just a nickname.

[centsworth_II]

I think the 'Last Chance' analogy was a good one. Last scenic overlook before Endeavour as well.

[climber]

I know what you mean Stu and I'm very much on your side regarding artistic vs scientific pictures. Anyway, a Base Camp is a place you come "down" to very often while attempting to get to your goal. I hope and believe we're not going to come back to Santa Maria.