Heading south from Cape York, Opportunity's post-conjunction adventures / Sol 3291 - 3387 Options

[Phil Stooke]

Wowsers! Looks like we're down on the plains again:

http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MERB/im...MP0703L0M1.html

Phil

[Bill Harris]

Looks like she's folded her tent and is headed Southwardish.

And we never found out about Gibber_Earless...

--Bill

[Phil Stooke]

"There are some 20 post-Esperance named sites and of these 8-9 are the current crop. The problem is keeping up with things in the long run."

That's what I am trying to do, to record, maybe not all these names, but as many as is feasible, and locate them on maps. Earlier ones come out of the Analyst's Notebook, but I try to keep up with current ones as well. But it's a lot of work!

Phil

[Bill Harris]

It is a lot of work. Not only the identifying the named sites, but also locating them on polar reprojections of Nav- and PanCam panoramas (if available) and thence to HiRISE images and HiRISE-derived maps. As you well know. The BIG problem is not so much the named sites, but the multitude of "Foreground Quarter" and "Clast Survey"and "one-shot drive-by" images. Even innocuous images like FHazCam and RHazCam shots are useful for soil texture info.

It never ends. Thank goodness...

--Bill

[Bill Harris]

Here is a best guesstimate of where Oppy was on Sols-3342-3344-3346:

The graben-- fault block-- that she passed East of on exiting Nobbys Head bench may show up on the azimuth 270* partial Navcam pan.

--Bill

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Bill Harris]

Here is a 5x1 pano of that Sol-3346 Navcam sequence with a cropped and rotated portion of the above location image, showing the suspected graben/fault block. Note especially the unusual textures of the weathered rock in the "fault plane".

--Bill


Added: A 4x1 pano of the above sequence (left the fifth "northmost" panel off) showing the suspected fault (but not as well as I'd hoped).

--b

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Ant103]

Sol 3346 panoramics :

[Bill Harris]

Now these sites are going to be interesting:

Gibber Earless
http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MERB/im...3P2597R2M1.html

Signal Head
http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MERB/im...3P2391R2M1.html

Got stereo pairs, waiting for the color imagery.

--Bill

[Tesheiner]

Sol 3346 panoramics :

Love it! And the view will improve drive after drive.

[Phil Stooke]

This is a cleaned-up view of Solander Point (and Cape Tribulation peeking over its shoulder) - cleaned up by merging the two most recent pancam images to improve signal to noise (mostly JPEG artifacts). There should be plenty of interesting things to look at - I like the long continuous light-toned stratum at the top of the brighter area. (Hopefully it's not just a big dust drift!)

EDIT - see following post - Bill's right of course - looks like the Meridiani plains, AKA Burns Formation, slope upwards a bit where they are plastered onto the tip of the point. But we presumably have to go higher up to get the slopes we need plus the old Endeavour rim material.

Phil

[Bill Harris]

The bright area is the usual Meridiani Overlap/Bench that crops up at the foot of the hills and the continuous stratum may be simply outcrops superimposed along the line of sight. Here is a cropped and inverted ("North" is down) HiRISE image of the target area:

--Bill

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[ngunn]

It's very nice to have the view ahead and the view from overhead consecutively in the last two posts. Even better would be if someone could identify a few key points in both images to help the rest of us get our bearings. I have to admit I'm struggling a bit to find sure identifications when it comes to the details.

[Bill Harris]

Good idea. It's hard to tell "Who's on First or What's on Second" without a scorecard.

First: An annotated and clarified image from Arvidson, et al.
Second: Phil's "solander_cleaned" image and a HiRISE image, shamelessly annotated.

"HTH"

--Bill

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[vikingmars]

First: An annotated and clarified image from Arvidson, et al. Second: Phil's "solander_cleaned" image and a HiRISE image, shamelessly annotated. --Bill

What an interesting geological site ! I hope they will have some time left to climb a little, even up to Solander Point if they can...
The view from up there on the crater and surrounding plains should be gorgeous ! Maybe that the rim of Bopolu crater on the south-west will be also visible from this new vantage point

Bopolu Crater, as seen by Opportunity, Sol 2195

[mhoward]

Special treat today: at least part of the sol 3348 drive direction mosaic is in stereo color (L27R12).

Attached thumbnail(s)