New pics at the exploratorium, taken after moving on sol 809.

http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportu...cam/2006-05-04/

And this is a sol 808 navcam mosaic with what I think is the new position. The new site seems to be out of the pancam pics' fov.
Click to view attachment

Yea would say too she is just outside of the pancams. To the left of "and in front of" these dark cobbles: http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportu...2JP2402L2M1.JPG

I was thinking the beacon might actually be the small crater on the far side of Victoria's rim. (did someone else already mention this as a possibility?)

Yes and iirc the conclusion was that the headings doesn't fit quite well. The beacon should be to the right (looking from the current position) of that little crater.

I was thinking that, but now I'm thinking maybe not. We'll know in a few Sols, though-- the appearance of the "Beacon" will behave differently to Oppy going downhill if it is on the near or it is on the far rim. Time will tell.

--Bill

I've been somewhat absent from MER discussions lately, being caught up in another project, but I am trying to make a comeback. Things are really getting interesting on the Opportunity side, aren't they?

Bill: I just wanted to chime in and agree with you. I'm just catching up on the past several days of discussions on these "cobbles," and was planning to point out several of the things you already have. "The Stump" was significant in that it did appear to be a larger ejecta block weathering into the little "cobbles." I recall that SS told us that the cobbles were not meteoritic, but I didn't remember hearing that they were basaltic, though they certainly appear to be. I really think these are lag deposits that we are seeing with greater frequency as we approach VC.

If blocks and cobbles of ejecta would have rained down onto these eolian drifts when VC or some other crater was formed, they quite likely weathered in place creating local concentrations (which eventually became lag deposits) of the dark pieces. As the drifts/ripples moved when they were active, the weathered fragments would have accumulated on the bedrock substrate, and would only be exposed in the inter-drift troughs, or where they were still rolling out of locations embedded within old drifts. An ejecta hypothesis seems to be logical if there were randomly placed blocks that later weathered into fragments. We are seeing the weathered products of basaltic blocks and not weathered blocks of the Burns formation because basalt is relatively refractory while the sulfate cemented rocks mostly vaporized in the impact.

Finally, I also like your prediction that the upper ejecta blanket around VC will contain much of this stuff. It is quite dark, and even darker where wind vortices have blown away the ubiquitous light dust to form the dark streaks on the northern side.
Paxdan: I also think that the horizontal bands are visible because of recent erosion. I was thinking that those horizontal layers that have been exposed are cross sections of the slip faces that originally built up the drifts when they were active.
I think Doug missed this one. DDs have not been known to clean panels!

Welcome back, Tom. Just like Oppy, we're still chugging along here.

These dark cobbles are likely, simply and boringly lag deposits left over from Victoria's ejecta. Nothing mystical, but their importance to the geomorphology is that they are an important puzzle piece in the weathering processes here.

And let's face it, this sea of sand fairly boring since it is consistent. Were we on Earth and in Alabama, this area would be colored yellow on a geological map and be labeled "Qal".

Spirit is not chugging as well, but she is spitting out some awfully purty pictures. She'll remain sessile til Spring when power levels increase.

--Bill

Here is the complete 360 degree panoramic view

taken on Sol 790 with the L2 pancam.

jvandriel

It looks like a surrealistic painting, but

it's the view in the drive direction from Sol 808 on Mars.

Taken with the L2 pancam.

jvandriel


Edit.

The name of the panorama must be "Panorama Sol 808.jpg "

Why is it look like a surrealist painting?

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


Probably due to a longer exposure time? The previous pics were always rather dark.

Here is the panoramic view from Sol 807.

Taken with the R0 navcam.

jvandriel

and here is the view from Sol 808.

Taken with the R0 navcam.

jvandriel

Maybe boring as lag deposits, but are they interesting as an indicator that a basaltic layer may be seen in the wall of Victoria crater? I remember Steve Squyres anticipating a basaltc layer would be found in Endurance at some point. But I don't think one was ever seen.

How important would finding a basaltic layer in Victoria be? Could it provide an age reference if it could be associated with lava flow from an impact or volcano of known age?

Says who? (and I still need to clean the screen -expect panos under dusty conditions)

Jvandriel -That sol 807 is a very pretty scene if you ask me I'm going to check it out in stereo.

Nico

I hope she is not stuck, maybe they stopped ontop of the dune for a better look at Victoria, the navcams and pancams are not available yet.

http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportu...23P1214L0M1.JPG

Stuck?????

This is stuck LOL:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...DIP1214R0M1.JPG
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...DIP1314R0M1.JPG

Looks like a couple wheels are on somewhat solid ground, so I doubt she's stuck. Even at Purgatory, the moment she got a wheel on solid ground there was no problem anymore. Perhaps the slip got to be too great here, though. She may have to back up and go a different way. Strange, the drift doesn't look like all that much.

Oh, I just saw how huge victoria crater really is...

JPL site says they intended to investigate a dune over the w'end

Doug

Good, good. Let's take our time. We need to add about 10 or 15 more days to the trip....sol 902 is still a ways off.

>JPL site says they intended to investigate a dune over the w'end

Ah, but which one... with cobbles? with the phantom fissures? with the oil spots? with the bedding? There are so many to choose from at this locale.

My favorite is with the stepped microcrater:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...8MP2403R2M1.JPG

Looks more like 5-o'clock shadow, Psukie! This area of Meridiani needs a shave!

Wow.
At about a 10deg incline there.

Sol 811 was dedicated to the MI.
Here are the pics: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...ger/2006-05-06/

What am I looking at? The MI seems to be taking pictures of some place where the surface is all blueberries, but the hazcam is showing that the rover is in relatively soft sand. Are the blueberries the surface of the dune? Are the the surface of all the dunes we've been seeing?

This disappoint me too, but consider that last hazcam refers to Sol810 and also from Nav/PanCams we do not have Sol811 images... so for the moment wne do not know exactly where MI is looking!

This is the last fhaz image available; its from sol 810. Given that the rover hasn't moved after that, those MIs must be from an area on this fov. The exact point is still unknown but the ripple's texture seems to be uniform; and looking carefully, that texture is a bit "grainy".

I'm surprised too by the blueberries everywhere.

Could this pancam shot from sol 790 be our last clear view of Endurance crater? (Endurance is also visible in this corresponding navcam shot , but just barely.) I've searched the more recent shots to no avail.

In fact, it looks like we may now be passing "over the horizon" as viewed from Endurance. On a perfectly spherical Mars, the horizon distance from the rim of Endurance is something like 5 or 6 km. We're now just over 4 km south of Endurance, but of course it appears that there is a high point ("helluva view") that we are near now which would act as the apparent horizon from Endurance.

We likely won't even be able to see Endurance from the rim of Victoria. So farewell Endurance!

Actually, I'd say "passing over the horizon" is a powerful symbolic measure of how far we've roamed. Indeed the horizon distance for a spherical Mars from 2 metres height is something like 3.5 km. So we have actually roamed past the typical horizon distance from our point of view when we first emerged, blinking, from Eagle crater onto the startlingly flat plains of Meridiani. Onward, Oppy, towards a new horizon!

Interesting thought. It is in basically the right direction (azimuth 3 degrees), but I'm not positive that's really it. No telltale heat-shield glint to give it away. Could be, though!

That's a thought. Attached is a quick-and-dirty 10x Phil-o-Vision and Endurance doesn't seem to be visible _on the horizon_ which is where I'd expect it to be seen. The dark smudge, I think, is Erebus, and Endurace ought to be behind or slightly to the right of it.

I've been looking for Endurance on pancam images since Oppy left Erebus, but I've not seen it. That would be a fitting finale to that phase of the trek.

--Bill

Hmm, this dark smudge seems to be quite far away. Given that Endurance's rim is only few meters high and we constantly rose, I think Oppy was looking over Endurance and behind at that point.

I think that dark smudge is Endurance.

Phil

Bill, I have to disagree: I estimate from the orbital maps that Endurance should span about 130 pixels with pancam from our current location. That's about what the "dark smudge" occupies in the image I posted. Erebus is larger than Endurance and far closer, so it'd span a much greater angle. It's not surprising that Endurance appears below the horizon, since we're at a high point now as we look back to Endurance. [Edit: not fast enough with the post - Tman scooped me here!]

I've been keeping track of Endurance for some time. The last definite ID with heatshield glint was on sol 712 in this pancam shot. One further reduced pancam shot was made on sol 774. The appearance and size of Endurance in these two shots is consistent with the latest image from sol 790 that I posted.

Not only I think this is Endurance... the Sol 714 image highlighted by fredk show another bright, distant feature that could be the cover+parachute:
Click to view attachment
Sad to say, Sol790 image is probably the last one showing Endurance, because Oppy reached the top of the hills and far ripples are going to cover Northern horizon unless we go on top of western VC rim!
Goodbye, Endurance!

Thinking it over, I agree.

Bye-bye Endurance, hello Victoria

--Bill

Naive question from a non-geologist - aren't these spherules too large to have been deposited on the dunes by wind? Could the dunes have been deposited by liquid water and then sculpted by wind to their current shape?

Just to give a sense of time and scale...let's say the wind can move an average spherule 3mm per year - less than it's own size. Over 3.5 billion years of the current Martian geological period - that would equate to 10,500 km travelled

Puts it into a bit of perspective.

Doug

True - there's no reason to think these are too big to have been positioned by the wind given the possible time scales. My view on these is that they are strongly indicative of fairly gentle long term wind patterning.
since the larger surface grains seem to be the naturally sorted slightly larger scale sand particles that end up becoming the surface crust in any system where there is gradual semi random sorting. As the wind nudges the particles around they will begin to settle out with the heavier more resilient particles forming a surface barrier that locks the finer lighter particles and dust into the dune until there is a major disturbance.

Another driving week has started. Oppy moved again on sol 813 right to the next outcrop on the path to VC.

This is a polar projection of the 5x1 navcam mosaic taken after driving (source images here); it's fairly easy to correlate it to the feature seen on the route map.

Click to view attachment



A non-geologist opinion: Being those dunes made of a mix of spherules and finer sand, the wind would slowly spread away the sand leaving the spherules/blueberries as the topmost layer of the dune.

When we first saw the blueberry distribution on Eagle Crater and on the plain to Endurance, my first thought was a desert pavement, just as Helvick and Tesheiner describe. The weathered evaporite soil or regolith is a mixture of granule-, sand-, silt- and clay-sized particles; the wind removes the finer particles leaving the granule-sized (blueberries) which armor the surface and prevent continued aeolian erosion. As Oppy headed south from Endurance, we saw similar armoring or pavement even as the ripples developed. Intuitively, I feel that a similar process is occuring in this area, too. I'm not sure if the ripples came first or the pavement came first. I have a mental picture that the blueberries can roll with the wind, as Doug notes.

Oppy needs to do a series of MI images across a typical ripple (or several) to see what the particle size distribution is like across the ripple and possibly scruff a trench across a ripple to see what internal structures exist.

These ripples can't be water formed; they are too large and we haven't see anywhere for all the water to go.

--Bill

Here is the 360 degree panoramic view taken on Sol 809

with the L0 navcam.

jvandriel

and here is the view from Sol 810.

Taken with the L0 navcam.

jvandriel

Today is another driving sol for the rover, and hopefully the whole week.

Meanwhile, here is a wild guess for today's movement. Eastwards towards the last outcrop visible on the pancam mosaic (about 45m away). For tomorrow, on sol 815, south following the "valley".

Click to view attachment

Eastwards towards the last outcrop visible on the pancam mosaic (about 45m away). For tomorrow, on sol 815, south following the "valley".


I have the feeling that the'll go strait and rove by the pavments only by end of the week(s). Let see if I can be right for a change . It's amazing as we can easly make up VC on the picts now.

It seems as if the big dunes are over now... slowly easy roads for Oppy again...

Maybe, Tman. Maybe.

Sol 814 (tosol) planned post-drive navcam mosaic is centered at 180º (due south) and what does that mean? It means that the rover drivers' interest after tosol movement is in principle southwards not eastwards.

See here, climber.

"Me debes una cerveza".


Edited: This is today's (sol 814) pancam mosaic looking due south where there looks to be a clear and more or less straight path to the next outcrop field. I measured about 130m to the dark cobble field right at the center of the panorama so, yes, we should be there on firm rock again by the end of the week.

Click to view attachment

[quote name='Tesheiner' date='May 9 2006, 10:13 PM' post='53439']
See here, climber.

"Me debes una cerveza".


Claro que si por la cerveza. Is a San Miguel ok?
But now I'm SURE you're Teisinger not Tesheiner, tell us the truth Pete

Pete? 'Till one our ago my name was Eduardo.

I would love to be part of the MER project but no, I'm just another outsider like 99% of us on this forum.