Like this ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMKCLyhBBwI

Artifact


Click to view attachment:

Sort of Climber too and still BTW! Look easy enough to have a go, specialy if we can have a break in a cave. Can't see it for sure dilo. I guess I understand what you're talking about.
Even if it's another thanks on top of so many, I'd like to join to the others : your work as well as others image-processeur-wizard-mage is just incredible. I hope you find it rewarding that some UMSF'ers, like myself, are as much waiting for your work as for the planing of next move of Oppy.

I don't know if you notice this in the MER website:
The week began with a checkout of basic mobility functions using the new flight software: arc, turn, go-to-waypoint and visual odometry. Also checked were a few of the mobility test criteria such as the time-of-day limits, suspension limits and a new capability for keep-out zones (areas deemed too dangerous to rove).
it was about time :

One of the first things to catch my attention when the images came in...like AWHOLELOTTATHINGS this isn't necessarily something peculiar (lighting causes stranger views from a distance).

Also, don't forget the fact that an 'alien' spacecraft landed not far from here a few years back .. as we've seen more closely to the landing site, such a landing leaves some debris scattered around..

We'll see what it is when we move closer.

Nico

Congratulations on your retirement Bill. Now that you have plenty of free time on your hands, I expect to be reading a lot more of your wonderful insights on Mars geology. Good luck.

Ustrax mentioned the 'baseball bat' a couple of days ago. I'm pretty sure it's just a thin slab at an angle that makes it appear rounded. You can see several examples of similar slabs in the image.

Anyone care to comment on the object which appears to be drapped over the fallen rock in the centre of this image?

Click to view attachment

Wild guess - material has flowed or fallen into a vertical crack in the cliff and cemented itself onto the side of the block; then when the block became detached from the cliff by erosion parts of the layer flaked off (or remain attached to the other side of the original crack).

Here is another shot from a colour image from Bill. In 3D the central part of the object seems to have a thick pronounced bulge.

Click to view attachment

I have been not here during thisz week end because I re-take my scolarity and at the University City, it's impossible to go to the Web.

So, I need to recover the time I loose.

The two color panorama :

Cabo Verde :


Cabo Frio :


And a wallpaper for your desktop :



Maybe I repeat myself but it's so ... incredible to be here.

I'm really intrigued by that layering on the eroded middle layer of Cabo Verde....

Some Pancams came down.

This is the desktop, the other was the thumbnail.

Desktop

Oops! I forget the link
http://www.astrosurf.com/merimages/Desktop...952-desktop.jpg

Looks like Oppy did a curving turn rather than a stop and go turn.

Navcam

Is that a new software feature?

Can't remember seeing something like this on long drives.

Pretty wild looking, Prometheus! Looks like water action to me (seeping water from the crater wall depositing dissolved minerals as it evaporates?), similar to what we see here on Earth in

If people are correct that there is water stored under the surface of Mars, then you should see evidence for it in exposed rock faces such as are found at Victoria.

Could be part of the upgrade.... very cool.

I wonder how much of these software subroutines would be applicable to MSL... I would imagine much of the expertise would be transferrable at least in concept. If so, seems like maybe a good rationale for mission extension post Victoria as they head out to the Big Crater -

The surface looks to be very soft and somwhat compact. The rover's track are little sunk. To drive over that ones will feel very smooth ridding. On the other hand, the slope toward the Cabo Frio is attainable since the slope is lower than 20 degree and also the surface is compact, covered by outcrop.

I seems that JPL is using a principle, first to survey all place before selecting any bay entry. I suspect that the Oppy is heading for any high point or any promontory to perform a panaromic picture.

Rodolfo

If they really turned without stopping, then that must be what -- I think it was Squyres -- meant when he referred to a new feature involving "no go zones".

When I first read it, I was thinking it was a nice safety feature around a rim like Victoria's, but what would it mean practically speaking, other than preventing horrible oversights by the command crew. Wouldn't they already be accounting for avoiding the rim in their drive commands?

But now I'm thinking it might well mean that they can command the rover to go from A to B while going around zone C, all in one command. Makes much more sense. Superbly cool if true.

No - I remember the curving turn from about Sol 14ish on Spirit - from the point where the egress drive stopped, driving up to Adirondack there was a curving drive.

Doug

Perhaps we are going on top of Capo Verde
This deserves an extended ultra-sharpened view (stitch of 2 images) :
Click to view attachment
PS: thanks to all for the kind words in previous posts...

Is it a dead lizard....?

Kenny

Slightly more seriously, is it an icy, saline muddy slush that oozed out of the cracks and cavity behind, when that block was dislodged and fell forward. It is not draped exactly as might be expected if it was dripping and freezing under gravity alone - perhaps a mini-glacier like feature where later flow piles up behind an earlier "freeze front"?

Kenny

FYI: Driving again tosol (957)

I have heard that the gang would like to get to the top of Cape Verde (or whatever it is called) in the next few days so that at least a good clean pan of Victoria can be started before Opportunity has to hunker down for the 2-3 weeks of solar conjunction that is coming up. (They reserve the right to change their minds of course.)

Doug is right (again). The arc turns that you saw are part of the original flight software (FSW) design (the drivers can place the center of the turn radius nearly anywhere). I do not know why they are doing that now and not much earlier. There may be a reason now that we are running on the new FSW.

In the meantime check out the new MRO picts! This has been a nice couple of weeks.

-Rob

*******
Opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not represent the views of NASA, Caltech or JPL.

Thanks for the update, Rob. We'll catch Doug on something one of these days....

That caught my attention when I first saw it, too. Originally I thought it was another example of the possible mineralization we have previously seen filling fractures and occasionally creating rinds on rocks. The more I look at it, the less I am convinced it is the same thing. It doesn't really look like a new layer on top of the bedrock, but maybe a discoloration or stain on the surface, perhaps like the part of the outcrop just above and to the right of that area. If I was that guy we saw in the space suit down there (or Opportunity, if she ventures there), I'd take a closer look, though.

Yeah...I'd say my slapping would go something like that!

The "lizard" is a fascinating little feature, all right. Could this be something like a pegmatite intrusion? If so, it might be a metal ore of some kind, maybe even non-ferrous...copper?

I saw the "artifact" as well a couple of days back, and figured it was a thin rock slab viewed edge-on. Dig the speculation that it might be a piece of Oppy's EDL system...anybody know of possible candidates? A fragment of the heat shield seems most likely.

More on the "Drapped Object" in colour and 3D. Lizard is a good name for the object but no I don't think it's alive. Just very unusual and interesting. I do hope we get a few closer colour and 3D shots to define it a bit more.

Click to view attachment

If it is part of the EDL tech it is unlikely to be part of the heatshield, we know that fell and impacted as a single object back by endurance.

I'll have to echo CosmicRocker on the "Lizard" feature:

"Originally I thought it was another example of the possible mineralization we have previously seen filling fractures and occasionally creating rinds on rocks. The more I look at it..."

Initially I saw this as an object draped over the rock, then I interpreted it as a fracture fill. Now, I don't know what the heck it is. It may be a 'photogeist' of textures and shadows.

Whew, they must be having a field day over at Kooks Online. Nearby I spotted a feature looking like a thin rod.

--Bill

Prometheus's color view of "The Lizard" is very helpful in showing the distinction between what are clearly a couple of pointed angular small rocks of the normal local sandy color sitting on top of the larger dislodged block. In between those two little fragments (one of which in B&W looks like a leg of the lizard) a grey colored object appears to "ooze". It really does look "draped" or "oozing out". It has clear shadowed edges, with apparent bulk to them, to distinguish it from the (apparently) underlying block upon which it rests. The high points gleam dully in sunlight, perhaps giving a clue to its constituent material.

If it is indeed some material which oozed or encroached out from between those 2 little angular rocks, it looks to have bifurcated and the right "arm" is now covered with reddish dust. If it was a process whose motion was governed by gravity, then the flow looks to be wrongly angled. It would look more naturally like a downwards flow if it happned prioir to the underlying boulder tipping over a little towards the left.

It certainly looks more solid than a "photogeist".

Kenny

It appears to me to be a fracture surface lit at an odd angle. I see what you guys mean about a feature appearing to be "draped", however when I look at it I see a single rock with a chunk taken off the side. The two scalloped features are interesting though. If this rock is sedimentary or stratified it may be the result of impacts on those edges or corners by rock falling from above. A petrified lizard skin is, I'll admit, also a very real possibility.

Here is the L7 panoramic view in the drive direction

taken on Sol 955.

jvandriel

You'd better smile when you say that! And stick your tongue in your cheek. And roll your eyes!

I much prefer the deadpan delivery.

I wonder if they will change thier minds and drive to the Beacon to do the panorama, seems a better spot to me being the highest point, and it also sticks out into the crater more than Verde.

If you read the last update you'll see that every scenario is possible.
Now the main priority is to find a nice and cosy place to park Oppy for superior conjunction, then, who knows? The Beacon, Cabo Frio, egress...
But the Beacon looks like a strong candidate for The Panorama...

Just so long as Opportunity doesn't get parked in one of those wind shadows - the long dark streaks from the one side of Victoria. This is no time for a dust bath.

My understanding is the dark streaks are where dust has been removed from the surface. We would want Oppy to have that done to her of course, but I think that only happens during the Martian summer, and we are in winter at the moment.

There have been some changes observed at Low Ridge Haven this winter, which have been attributed to aeolian forces, and also some mild cleaning events, so don't think that the atmosphere is static during the winter.
Pity we don't have an anemometer fitted (yes I know space, weight ... )

Nick

MSL will have a full set of weather instruments though (except rain guage....)

Not to flog a dead liz@rd to excess, here is a combination of this feature clipped from Prometheus' post and clipped from dilo's sharpened and stretched L257 of Cabo Verde. FWIW.

--Bill

I guess we are all bored waiting for the next pics to come down.

There's certainly no way to tell what exactly the feature is by just blowing up the image over 100%...
We'll see what it is when we get there.

It looks like molten-then-solidified rock and we all know it. No more liz@rds please

Here's one of a thousand examples.

http://cmex.ihmc.us/data/catalog/Volcanism...MoltenRock.html

Nico

YAY.. Victoria gets a press conference:

Oct. 3, 2006

Erica Hupp/Dwayne Brown
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1237/1726

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278
MEDIA ADVISORY: 06-155

NASA'S MARS ROVER REVEALS DRAMATIC NEW IMAGES (CORRECTED HEADLINE)

NASA is hosting a news briefing at 11 a.m. EDT, Friday, Oct. 6, to
present stunning images returned by the agency's "Opportunity" rover
from the Victoria crater on Mars. The briefing will be in the NASA
headquarters auditorium, 300 E Street S.W., Washington.

Plans for the next phases of work for Opportunity and its twin,
Spirit, also will be discussed. Both rovers have been exploring Mars
more than 10 times as long as initially planned.

Panelists:
-- Doug McCuistion, director, Mars Exploration Program, NASA
Headquarters
-- Steve Squyres, principal investigator, Cornell University, Ithaca,
N.Y.
-- Jim Bell, lead scientist, Rover panoramic camera, Cornell

The briefing will air live on NASA TV with question and answer
capability from participating agency centers. For NASA TV streaming
video, downlink and schedule information, visit:



http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For information about Spirit and Opportunity, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/rovers

My guess is that it is impact melt. Victoria is probably large enough for it, and here on Earth at least, it is usually glassy and often greenish.

tty