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Wow! Look at those GULLIES!!!!!

LOL No PanCams for today

It's not uncommon for the images to be spread over 2, 3 or more hours. There's a full 10 frames of Navcam and 8 of Pancam in the offing, it's just a matter of when they'll come down.

Doug

Yeah, could you imagine the screaming if the bean-counters pulled the plug now?

Good catch Stu.
Now let´s wait and see if the pancams are pointed in that heading too and we can get a better view.

Well - 8 pancam frames can cover approx 2.5 - 3 Navcam f.o.v's - so I think it will be at least all of the two full frames we can see now .
Attached - a rough Pancam f.o.v. over the top of the two nav frames. 6 would cover those two.

Doug

Looks awfully steep and deep. I got the feeling that we were expecting Victoria to have a less relief and be more eroded.

Nick

Crazy Idea of the Day: Could Opportunity somehow SLIDE into Victoria
down one of those areas that look like rock-free sand? Maybe lock its
wheels and go down at an angle? Would that make it easier for Oppy
to get in, or worse?

I am just thinking the rover might end up sliding anyway due to the
overall steepness. Perhaps if JPL plans for this, they can use the
situation to their advantage and avoid risking the rover tipping over.

Also: Have they reprogrammed Oppy to not shut down if it finds
itself at a higher angle than usual?

It is really opening up behind Cabo Verde and to the left to the high outcrop (beacon?). When images come down from both cameras, the 3D view should be incredible.

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Hold your horses, it does look steep but fredk and I have done some calculations and it doesn't seem so bad - The view is very forshortened from this angle.

Quick pan sol 950
with processed images

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How far was today's drive and how far do you guys estimate we are from the rim now?

Match to MOC image from the two navcams so far.

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James

According to the tracking site todays drive was ~27m

I would say around 25 - 28 metre drive - leaving us perhaps 20 metres from the 'rim'. The 'rim' is a fairly fuzzy target from this distance as it is not really a discreet 'point' anymroe.

Doug

Well no more images this hour - I guess that's it for now.

I'm off to bed then...

Exploratorium seems to have gone down .

Maybe it received to much "CTRL+F5"...it's back up again...

I may have asked before but anyone hazard a guess to the height of the rim on the Horizon ( Big Crater ) ?

it's probably been F5ived to death

From here it looks the gap between Cabo Verde and Duck Bay is good candidate for entering Victoria...

I think Tim's post over on the Big Crater thread is the closest estimate we've seen...

WOW and double WOW!! I'm overwhelmed by all the images that have been posted here. Big thanks to James Canvin for coming up with his naming scheme and for matching the orbital and rover images. And Stu's observation of those possible gullies is really amazing. This is gonna be some fun BBQ!!

Until the rest comes in...

BTW, my shorcut to Exploratorium bring me in a sort of back up server (I guess) since it's kinda veryyy sloooow. Anybody would care posting here another link for me?
Thanks
Climber

I'm using http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/pancam/

BTW, I don't have any coffee to pass around, but I have a fresh brewed pot of Chinese and Indian black tea, with some green mixed in. A nice strong brew, with some Assam and Yunan and Ceylon leaves, for those who care to know.

There's the milk and sugar, over there.

Here in Northern California, on the bayshore across from San Francisco, it's foggy and cool just after 9am. I'm working on job applications!!

And, waiting for pancams...

Hey SteveLu

Since exploratorium is located so close to you there in The Bay Area. Go over there and tell them to speed up the posting of pancam shots.

Do that before you go back to work

Hmm, according to the Pancam Tracking site, all the pancams are down on Earth. Not sure when this happened.

This would almost certainly mean that the rover won't be able to reach the bedrock, which is much more interesting scientifically than the sand on the bottom. Not to mention that it would preclude further exploration, such as driving to Ithaca. Besides, this can make the solar panels really dusty.

You mean upside down?

See the change of ripple direction

There is a change of direction of ripples close to the rim to the rest of annulus. That means that the consistency of the surface will be softer since these ripples are the product of sand deposition coming from the inside of Victoria Crater. According to my experience, that part has looser than the ones belonging to annulus. Oppy can reach over that but it must completely flat since it offers lower traction for going a pending slope.

I would rather avoid to approach that due to many uncertainities. There is a bit depression or unlevel of surface between annulus and rim. The problem would be that if Oppy is close to the rim and it might have more trouble to pull back trying to overcome the difference in height between the annulus and rim.

Rodolfo

Sorry, they post all the Mars shots from their Skyship computer center, which hovers permanently about 15 kilometers above the Farallon Islands, just offshore.

I've tried to board before, but they won't let my trike land.

It says the thumbnails are down at this time, not the full images.

How do you read that? :-)

'ETH' is a thumbnail ' EFF' is full frame. 'EDN' is a downsample frame ( i.e. a 512 x 512 or 256 x 256 frame ) and 'ESF' is subframe ( i.e. just the sundial, just the sun etc )



Doug

You know what?
Oppy didn't came alone to Victoria :
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PS1 : I still need some practice to manage Photoshop, eh?
PS2 : I miss Bob too on this

There are columns for the different image types - 'ETH' is the thumbnails. Make sure you have selected MER-B Opportunity - that's the most common 'gotcha'. But that said, I hope most folks just refrain from using the site unless they really need to, or at least don't over-use it, as has been discussed before in other threads.

This navcam view (only L down so far) gives us our first look at Cabo Frio, and more of the far rim to the right:
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It looks to me relatively flat out to the tip of Cabo Frio. Considering the downwards slope out to the tip of Cabo Verde, I'd think Frio might be chosen as the big pan site.

Sol 950 Navcam 200x80 cylindrical projection:

Pancams are up at Exploratorium

I never tried the attachment method. How's this (quick and dirty brighten plus red boost)?

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May be wrong timing for my post but the images TIM was talking about yesterday have been posted on MER website here :
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/pre.../20060926a.html

This is an important reference.
I'm sorry James. I thing you've got to do it all again.

An L7 stitch:



Edit: Brightened it up a bit to tease out some more detail.

True. Finally we have the unlabeled version!

As compared to navcam, those pancam open up an entirely new world before our eyes!
Much much more boulders than suspected, much much much, ...wohaa, everything, I mean, I can't believe there's such a difference. This is the first real view of what Vicky look like. I'm happy Pando's view fade away and I'm sure we're ALL happy! Come on James WAKE UP, you CAN'T sleep Vicky's there

As the parade of pans continues, here's a navcam anaglyph showing Cabo Frio and the region beyond:
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Frio extends farther out than it looked without the 3D info.

Attention American Football Fans. It's 1rst and Goal and the ball is on the 1 Yard Line.

Go Go Go Oppy

Seattle Seahawks Fan

Am I alone there? Help please don't let me down! Pancams are there...eho eho eho !!!!
Regarding the Capes on the other side I can see two different processes :
1-big chunk collapes and that seams to come from the part of the Capes the closer to the center of the crater. Basicaly, that stay together without creating a lot of big boulders.
2-smaller part collapses and create bigger boulders that roll further down in the crater. We can see BIG ones since they are some 700m away. Can they be as big as 5+ meters? Anyone agree?
The horizontal (now white) line seams much smaller than I first thought but I think the bigger part is around Sofi and we don't see it yet on the pancam.

Yep, and there's apparently solid ground there. I've got the feeling that the top of the cliffs are reachable by the IDD. Go to Cabo Frio Oppy, just go there

Maybe this has been discussed earlier, but in these latest pancams, there appears to be a thin bright layer a few meters below the crater rim. Any thoughts on this?

EDIT: I see climber brought it up.