And Oppy has left the buildin'! Is back on the sand, headed southerly and I think I spy with my little eye Mogollon in the distance! http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...23P0686L0M1.JPG

Who's got a needle and thread?

Nice

I see the drive number in the filenames is broken again though...

Good morning (it's morning now in France...)

I've just made this approximate true color image of a part of Mogollon rim, taken on Sol 748 :

Here is the forward-looking navcam panorama taken after yestersol (753) drive.

Click to view attachment (234k)

And this is, imho, the aproximate position after drive.

Click to view attachment (275k)
(Navcam mosaic taken on sol 742)

I'll wait for the back-looking navcam pics to confirm that and then I guess a polar pan (Phil?) would be helpful in order to plot the actual position on the route map.

Edited: Initial estimation was wrong. Changed the image with a new one.

wonderful view pver the south west of Erebus !

in the mean time I finished another color panorama of the Payson Cliff

I hope you dont mind but i've created a polar from the pan you colourized.

Click to view attachment

Fantastic image Nirgal.
I really love your "Alien Landscapes" series.
I think they should produce a coffee table book from these.

It would be great if we could collect all of these poster/book style images in one place.
I think that 'aldo' at marsgeo was going to do something about that?
Hey 'aldo', are you still out there?

Cheers
Astro0

Imo, this is the best shot (*) taken at/around Erebus.

Click to view attachment
(navcam pano taken on sol 753)

(*) I mean the shot taken by the rover, not my panorama!

Phil, could you please make a polar of this?

So long, Payson.

Here is the pan in polar, i'm sure Phil will do a better job than I.
Click to view attachment

Anything to oblige, my dear chap... oh darn, Paxdan beat me to it.

So I'll post two versions! The second is derived from the first by using the Spherize filter in Photoshop.

This is a great view, a really nice shot out over Erebus. I bet those dunes are causing some concern, though - that's why I said earlier that spending the winter on Victoria's northern rim was unrealistic. It's going to be a lot of small drives.

Phil

Click to view attachment


Click to view attachment

Thanks paxdan & Phil, your help is appreciated!

I've just updated the route map.
Additionally, I tried to put some real headings on the sol 753 navcam panorama, based on Phil's polar projection, in order to better locate Victoria (seen or not). Results on its own thread.

Oh yes, Tesheiner. It's a fantastic view over Mogollon Rim. Wow!!

Thanks Paxdan and Phil!

Sticking to the "... and points South" part of this thread's title, here is the sol 753 pancam mosaic with some annotations, in which I tried to correlate some outcrops seen on this pano with what is seen on MOC imagery.

Click to view attachment (610k)

At some point of the rim, the rover will have to say "adiós" to Erebus and take the long (and tricky, imho) way to Victoria. Which will be this point? B? C? D?

I would say C is a good start point -- there are some reference/waypoint outcrops further south -- but there is not a straight path from B to C.

I've been mulling over the same issues recently but haven't gotten around to annotating the MOC image. I am in agreement with what you have noted and that the the road away from Erebus will indeed be a sticky wicket.

The problem is that Oppy is getting into a field of orographic dunes (caused by disruption of the wind by the crater rim) and this feature has been to the west of Erebus since we arrived at Olympia. There is not a clear path between points B and C along the rim. Oppy might be able to skirt the dunes by driving on the rim bedrock and rubble/talus but there is a major dune just northwest of point C that may be the major barrier. Otherwise, point C is a good jumping-off point.

The road Southward may involve heading West from this "Payson promontory" to the smaller ripple fields and south-trending linear troughs; this is reminiscent of the good-going when we took that NW detour around the North Erebus Dnnefield. Once Oppy gets away from the rim-dune area of Erebus the path should be clearly one of using bedrock stepping stones and avoiding sandpiles.

I am in favor of taking a few more Sols to look at the slope/bluff at point B to see how it compares with the previously studied exposures.

I'll think about it and work up an annotated MOC map soon, but you're on the right track.

--Bill

Mogollon station! Next stop Mogollon station, Track B! Transfer here for Victoria Express.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P0696R0M1.JPG

Edit: Wow! Now that's what I call a thumbnail and-a-half!

1024 x 1024 'thumbnail' removed - Doug

A complete 360 degree panoramic view on Sol 751.

Taken with the L0 navcam.

Look at the wheeltracks.

jvandriel

And the 360 degree panoramic view on Sol 753 and Sol 754.

Taken with the L0 navcam.

Again look at the wheeltracks. It seems that there is a bump during driving.

Maybe the arm causes the unbalance.

jvandriel

Jan,

I don't think it's the arm.
It looks like the familiar and regular hazard detection stops.
The rovers never drive continuously, they stop every 20 seconds or so to check if an elephant has jumped in its way.

Groeten uit Bilthoven!

A mosaic of the bedrock on Sol 753.

Taken with the L7 pancam.

jvandriel

There is an easy ramp IF they want to go down and inspect this outcrop and then go further SE.
Let's what happens and if we actually take the "Victoria Express" at this station (it may be on the next one).

Click to view attachment (101k)
(Navcam L0, Sol 755)

A look into the drive direction.

Taken with the L2 pancam on Sol 753.

jvandriel

I think that Oppy will take the easy off ramp down to the outcrop. This exposure is more of a jumble of rocks than a neatly layered one and also, from jvandriel's Sol 753 Pancam mosaic, the blueberries seem to be back in the bedrock. This is a have-to-peek spot.

I think that Oppy will head due West after this site to that field of smaller ripples and then head southward to Victoria hopscotching bedrock windows. Hopefully, the going will be as good as it was during the North Erebus Detour.

--Bill

Yeah, even the first mosaic where you can see a round crater-like structure. Definitely Erebus must be a crater or so

In looking those panorama, we see clearly the old of Erebus, formed before Endurance. The ellipse of the crater is under some sand and ripples dunes, contrary to Endurance who is perfectly clean. So, it's the first time we see so better the crater form (but, many sol ago, dunes hide many parts and elements of the crater, this could be the reason why we cannot see it, personnaly).

Here is a 3x vertical exaggeration showing the bowl of Erebus, adapted from this pano.

Just to the left of center is the series of bedrock exposures on the north Erebus rim with the "North Erebus Dune Field" left of that. The left background rim is bordered by the Olympia locale. The Payson outcrop is on the left side of the crater and the "Payson Promontory" is in the foreground. On the right side is the Mogollon Rim outcrop and to the right of center in the background is the Vermillion Cliffs exposure.

And that is Ebebus in a nutshell. I'm looking forward to seeing a lookback/lookahead panorama of Erebus and Victoria from the highpoint of the topo rise that Oppy is headed toward.

--Bill

I expect to get the hang of these format buttons any year now, Doug.
Actually, I was about to paste the URL like you did, when I thought, "Lets see if this Insert Image button works." So is there a technique for just inserting a thumbnail like the other guys do? (One that even a child can do?)
P.S. Like that red type - very spiffy and attention grabbing!

New clouds at Meridian:

Very impressive mosaic, Michael.
I was already working on these pictures, here below is a gallery of selected images from Sol756, processed in order to see low contrast/high frequence details:
Click to view attachment

This is a fantasy color elaboration, where channels correspond to different sharpening levels: Click to view attachment

If I correctly recall, appearance of clouds is a seasonal effect that should affect also MER solar panels cleaning...

A 360 degree panoramic view of Erebus crater.

Taken witth the L0 navcam on Sol 755.

jvandriel

Oppy seems to have driven down the ramp on sol 757.


See here: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...C3P1312L0M1.JPG

BTW, the planned seqs. indicate no post-drive nav/pancams for sol 757 but movement again and panoramas on sol 758.

That seems to be the current driving plan. These two Mogollon Rim outcrops are just too valuable to pass by.

http://origin.mars5.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/s...tml#opportunity

--Bill

... and this is the approx. new position as seen from sol 755 pancam.

Click to view attachment

Of course we'll need to check them out, but I bet they'll turn out to not be "too valuable to check out". We really need to get out of this less than impressive place...

Funny how blasé one gets, if we think back to the reaction everybody had at the Eagle crater outcrop!

A "roadcut" exposure like this, on the Plain of the Flat, is valuable because it is a window to subsurface conditions. At a minimum Oppy will do Pancam imaging, but maybe not bring out the handlens and scratchplate.

--Bill

Now that was an interesting move!
On sol 757, driving down to the outcrop indicated on my quoted post, ending the day with a pancam mosaic (pancam_hokan_pm_L7R1).
On the morning of sol 758, repeat the same pancam mosaic (pancam_hokan_am_L257R1) and about noon drive back up the slope to about the same place as of sol 756.

Click to view attachment (143k)
(Sol 758 post-drive navcam pano)

Edited: This is a crop of sol 757 evening pancam mosaic. Have we seen that kind of layering before?
Click to view attachment (494k)
Some original images: http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportu...C3P2364R1M1.JPG and http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportu...C3P2364R1M1.JPG

Wow, it's very impressive! The sky rendering is very good, that's a good work. Congratulation

A little item to entertain...
On a thread somewhere we were talking about music for Oppy's travels and the sounds the MERs make.
There was also a suggestion of a panorama-movie too.

Never one to pass up a challenge, there's a rough first go at a little movie of Opportunity at Payson Passage (the half-pipe) on my webpage. File: 1.4mb WMV MyMERSFX
Enjoy
Astro0
PS: There's also two new views of Opportunity visiting its heatshield.

It was here:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...637&#entry44637

Utterly overwhelming, spine tingling vision.

I am close to tears!

Thankyou Astro0

Nick

The last drive-direction pancam images (from sol 758) are basically looking South to the dunes sea.

Click to view attachment (140k)
(The rightmost frame is still missing)

I have the good feeling that the journey to Victoria crater will start on sol 760!

PS: Once they start driving by the dunes, polar and/or vertical projections will be a *must* in order to have a reliable route map.
Dilo, what about your POV-Ray issues?

Thanks. Let me just add, since I didn't comment on it at the time, that it's not meant to be a great work of art or anything; the main point for me was that it shows the images in their correct position. When I saw those cloud images, I really wanted to know if they were a mosaic and, if so, where they were relative to the local scenery. Turns out the answers are "yes" and "south" respectively. I'm sure somebody else could do a much better job stitching the images together.

Why sol760? What's wrong with sol759? Today would be good day to start driving...
P.S.
Thanks for the regularly posted maps Tesheiner!!!

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