And also Oppy has the bad steering motor on a front wheel and I'd imagine that she steers better with the good wheels in the front.

The Girls are getting old and creaky; I can relate to that.

--Bill

Is Oppy actually driving South yet?

Difficult to get bearings and orientate from the picture. Is that Purgatory is off on the left?

If so then Oppy drove 'North' as she goes off to the right, then back again and drove East for a bit and is the process of making another turn.

The drive sequence through Sol 517 is on the MER website. in summary:



Looks like the MER people are filtering back from vacation

I love this image and I don't think anyone's posted it yet, so: Windblown Dust in L247 False Color

Maybe everybody's seen it on the fancy new Pancam page already.

P.S. It's so nice that Exploratorium is finally updating again...

Thanks, Doug. That's the path I was picturing from image browsing, and that was certainly a mosaic worthy of posting. I am still getting the impression that this area where Opportunity was stopped in it's southward progress is a higher bank of dunes.

I can't help but speculate. I'm not sure how best to put it into words, but it looks to me as if Opportunity had climbed onto a longer wavelength, higher amplitude dune, upon which are the smaller dunes. The climb seems to have started just prior to sol 439.

Perhaps these longer wavelength dune trains are fluffier than the intervening material because they collect the material that is being actively transported by the wind.

Then again, we had been expecting to see Opportunity climb in elevation as it approached the Etched Terrain and Victoria. Maybe this is just a transition zone where particulates are collecting at the edge of elevated rock layers that are exposed to the south. I pray we can make it a few hundred meters/yards to the south, since this appears to be a transition into something new.

This is true exploration. Is there anyone who's heart is not pounding?

Look at the shadow.

this is sooo true

this (together with JPL's internet "live" publishing) is the most "explorative feeling" space mission ever, including the moon landings and Voyager ...

Nirgal

P.S.:
And the best of all is yet to come: The Great Victoria Crater...
I bet: if we eventually reach it, then we will get the most spectacular images ever
from another planet ...

And YOU are going to colour them for us

Can't wait.

Any idea how long we'll have to wait until she gets there ? How much distance to the rim from here ?

Still a long way to go

Several km's - 3 perhaps

Doug

At 15 meters a day that would mean....arrival around februari 2006

-> back to 40+ meters/day when better terrain is reached

Victoria Crater by Christmas !

Yeah, but for the pancam multi-filter-images there will be nothing better than
the composites from Doug, Horton, Nico, Daniel (slinted) ...
(expect them in the forum way before JPL will be publishing their "Christmas"-Victoria-Panorama

In the mean time I'll do my best for the Navcam & Hazcam coloring....


Together, this forum really makes the best out of the all the raw data brought to us by JPL ...

And the really interesting area south of Victoria even far later, but I might be hoping for too much there.

A look back at the last few sols progress
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...F7P1601R0M1.JPG

It looks like that the rover's driver is driving very well. Before crossing any ripple, always climbs as perpendicular as possible to ripple in order to facility a better climbing up.

Rodolfo

A look back at the last few sols progress

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...F7P1601R0M1.JPG


How far past Purgatory Dune is that picture?

New update from Steve Squyres:

"We're making some real progress at Meridiani. Our little jog to the north revealed a good southward route on the eastern side of Purgatory Dune, so that's what we went for. Since then we've been making steady southward progress, and as of now we're almost 90 meters south of Purgatory."

http://athena.cornell.edu/news/mubss/

I think Purgatory is to the top left of the image. Steve said, we are about 90m south from there.

A panoramic view of Purgatory Dune and the way around it.
Taken with the L Navcam on sol 522.

jvandriel

I think it's time to break out the overhead maps again.

Post-drive L7/R1 (sol 526)

http://marswatch.astro.cornell.edu/merweb/...over=B&test=ops

haz cam subframes of the right front wheel on sol 525:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...unity_f525.html

....hope nothing else has gone wrong with it...

Lots more outcropping appearing

http://marswatch.astro.cornell.edu/oss/mer...8L2M1_stamp.jpg

And..is that a hint of Victoria?

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P0693L0M1.JPG


Doug

Some interesting lumps, too...

On the upper left of this image... is that outcrop or light-topped dunes?

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P2438L2M1.JPG

If its outcrop... might it be the onramp to the Erebus highway? Oppy will have to "change lanes" quite a few times to get over to it.

More interesting to me is the small filled crater ahead of oppy :-)

Yes!

Did we ever look closely at those dark, angular-seeming rocks that we've been seeing "recently"?

--Bill

I don't think there is any hint of Victoria yet. I think we are still seeing only local relief on a close horizon. At the distance of Victoria, haze would make relief look brighter against a dark nearby horizon, so I think we have yet to see really distant terrain here. It seems we are creeping across a very broad shallow rise, with a horizon that never seems to change but is actually a different row of little mounds each time. I think we will suddenly get to the top or edge and look out on a very different vista.

Phil

Land Ho !

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P2438L2M1.JPG

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P2438L2M1.JPG

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P2438L2M1.JPG

Not to put too much of an american-teen twist on it...

but that SOooooooo looks like white horses on a choppy sea

Doug

That's funny- I saw those same images and the exact same phrase, "Land Ho!", came to my mind- I was going to post a message with that title but Nirgal beat me to it. It does feel like we are finally approaching dry land...

Here's an MMB-generated panorama from Sol 526, including the possible mini-crater.

Aahhrrg, ye maties. There be rocks ahead!

Drop the Mainsail and prepare to drop anchor...

Sorry, couldn't help myself... Sometimes I feel as if we are pirates, stealing data from the universe. I'm encouaged to notice that the dunes seem less formidable here, as Steve previously pointed out. Hopefully the worst storms are behind us.
...

just when it started getting fun again ...
the driving-party seems to have stopped again

From the latest exploratorium images, Oppy hasn't moved at all for
the past two days:


http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P1311R0M1.JPG

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P1311R0M1.JPG

Hope everything's alright ...

Moved:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...02P1311R0M1.JPG

just a few centimeters, but it surely moved :-)

I think perhaps they may be re-aligning the rover for it's next drive?

They were probably spending extra time looking at the patches of rock poking thru and trying to make that 'SE to the highway Vs S direct to Erebus" decision.

Watches Steve flip a coin...

Still an endless desert...following safely thru the Blueberries valleys.

Rodolfo

don't think so: after two months stuck in purgatory and the limited
remaining lifetime for the long way ahead, I would be surprised if we simply wasted two or three
sols not being used to (at least try to) continue the drive to Erebus where the science waits.

Instead, I think the stopping could be related to "restricted sols" or similar technical reasons ...

BTW.:
new Jul-21 images up at explor still showing no progress ...

anopther possibility for the halt would be the study of possible changes in surface composition in the vicinity of Erebus which would make sense because it could help improving the new hazard-avoidance policies in the driving software ...

I think you can just about make out Endurance Crater in this image:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...02P1607R0M1.JPG

A couple of pixels high.

I am impressed of the uniformity of sand waves (crest). It is not so normal here in Earth.

Rodolfo

Opportunity looking ahead.
View taken with Pancam L2 on Sol 528.


jvandriel

Panoramic view of a windblown crater.
Taken with the L2 Pancam on Sol 528.

jvandriel

You can also clearly see the new driving technique. They stay between the dunes and do not cross them as they used to do. They follow the dune and if it runs out they "change lanes" as Steve Squyres puts it.

Like your panorama, jvandriel: it once again dramatically shows the "dynamic" surface of this vast "frozen sea of sand" !

wish we'll soon find our feet on firm ground again

As they say, "Land Ho!"

Even Steve Squyres is saying it! I guess it must just be that obvious.

I guess Steve's giving us a hint, to let us know he's been here...

I particularly like the wollowing two of Steve's statements:





Taking together that means: The dream of reaching the
Great Victoria Crater is getting more and more realistic

.... Hmmm ... with time my growing Obsession with Victoria is starting to get as serious as Ustrax's with Ultreya