Wow! Opportunity got to Fram crater and the view is amazing:

Looks fresh?

akuo

Holy CRAP!!!

(this is my forum, and I can swear when i want to )

Doug

For reference - I believe Fram is approx 2/3rds the way to Endurance, but above the 'shortest route' from Eagle to Endurance

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2004/0...R1400021sub.gif

Doug

Tried making a mosaic of navcam pics, not very good, but you get the picture i think.

What a mess lol

As I've moaned in the past - navcam pans just dont tend to work somehow - I think it's the wide field of view ( 45 degrees ) that they have

Anyhoo - for what it's worth

http://mer.rlproject.com/fram.jpg

Doug

A great picture Fram crater may have as much expopsed bedrock as Eagle Crater. On another topic, I hope they get some images of Endurance crater, I think it's going to be spectacular.

Yeah - Endurance is wider than a full Navcam frame now - so it will take 3 pancam frames to image it in total

Doug

Doug, I've been playing with the navcams in panotools, and I think I may have found their 'magic numbers'.

a = 0.003709
b = 0.001866
c = 0.000091
focal 17.26216 mm x 2.517

It took doing many 'horizontal line' control points, but it finally ended up reasonably undistorted. Let me know how those work out for you.

Great job with the mosaic. It's an enticing exposure.
I imagine this is posing quite a dilemma for the folks at NASA. With the rover having a limited lifespan, how long do you tarry here when Endurance crater is clearly the bigger prize.

A sol or 3 I'd say. Mini TES it, a few full-spectral pancam frames, perhaps a rat and a Moss + APXS on something near the edge, but I wouldnt roll into it, and seing as it's 2 sols drive to Endurance - if it flags up something interesting on reflection, it's hardly a nightmare to drive back

Doug

I posted this in another group but thought that I would try it here.

On space.com "Silylene" posted a segment of a Pancam image of the far inner wall of Endurance that may (or may not) show regular layering. The jpg is about 1/2 way down on this page http://tinyurl.com/3bav2 .

I first saw the dark band toward the bottom that curves upward to the left and thought it might be a layer. But now I wonder if it might be a shadow from an overhanging ledge.

Here is a great view of layering and cross-bedding at Fram Crater taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera on sol 85:

Layering Yes, Cross-Bdedding NO!

Cross bedding in when leyers meet one another at an angle. In this image we see seperate rock fragments, each with parallel bedding. Although the angle of the beds is different in each fragment, this is due to them being loose frgments, not to original deposition.

Just being picky, but use the words properly - they have powerful implications.

Hmmmm, JPL no longer seem to be posting RAW images

There are 2 new pictures on the front of the JPL website that were taken recently though.

What about the rock in the upper left hand corner? It looks like there might be cross bedding there. On the end where it appears to be broken, the layering is not parallel to the layering on the rest of the rock.

Nothing at the Exploratorium OR on the raw images pages at JPL.

Evidently, as the Primary missins are both over in 2 days time - the extra funding for extended missions doesnt cover the wages for the hour or so per day it would take someone to keep the raw image folders full with the images ' as soon as we get them on the ground' as promised by Squires 2 years ago.

Doug

With the weekend approaching it will probably be early next week before were likely to see anything new.........

They've had 90 sols in which to perfect an automated system, and they havnt. That's very dissapointing

Doug

Whats frustrating is that there are 2 new and recent images on the main page of the website so they clearly have all the data.

They're just stopped posting it. i can see why - end of primary mission - no more funding for it. Hell - there will be no more updates to Maestro either.

Still doesnt mean I like it - and if I were a US taxpayer - I'd be asking questions

Doug

Did you see it ?

On the rock ?

A lot of berries on stems looking in all directions...

Isn't that curious ?

Raw images are back! and so are maestro datasets for that matter. I'm none too happy about their pulling back with the speed of the releases, but I surely am glad to see they've started up again...and in earnest.

here's a shot from Opportunity, Pilbara, pre rat:
Link To Full Size Image

"Isn't that curious ?"

Yes, very interesting. I think the leading theory is that the stalks on the berries were formed by wind erosion.