Duck bay seems to be the best entry point if it is decided that Oppy should enter into Vicky.It is the largest bay around the rim of the crater and hence the slope down the bay should be the most gentle of them all.Any ideas as to the angle of the slope down Duck bay?There is also a whole stack of stones uncovered and dust free which seem to reach deeper into the crater than anywhere else.That should stabilize the rover by means of a firm grip by driving on slabs rather than sand as was the case when Oppy entered Endurance.

IMHO

Any ideas regarding this matter?

I have been thinking the same. Duck Bay and a few other entry points. Lots of other bays seem to have dangerously sandy slopes.

Nico

Really this thread should be Getting out of Victoria since getting in will be dead simple with gravity on Oppy's side.

I think Duck Bay is a very good candidate, however there is another bay to the Northeast which has a more gradual slope (informally measured at about 15 degrees on average since it's an ascent of 30m over a horizontal distance of 110m). It also has a "lip" that looks easier to get up and over. If the dust is not an impediment, perhaps it will be the Estrecho De Magallanes we're hoping for!Click to view attachment

Yes, it may be a good entrance door but, do you think about the solar illumniation. I think it's better (and longer...) to go to the south parts of the crater. Here, the slope will give Oppy some electrical power, as at Endurance when the rover had a very good level of power, more than at the beginning of the mission.

Hail ants! Won't the sun be to the south of Victoria during the upcoming southern hemisphere summer?

Yea it mainly depends on solar illumination at the slope (besides the slope angle). Steve Squyres mentioned it during the last press conference.

Julius, take a look at this thread:

- Getting into Victoria crater

Everyone's got their own Victoria thread these days

It was bound to happen since what was largely a one-dimensional trek has blossomed into a truly three-dimensional experience and the volume of available information has simply exploded. I expect Doug will think of a clever way to manage it but I can't . .

I second or even third that Nix.
Duck Bay is as good as it get, and one part of me cant but feel a bit of disappointment they didnt even have a closer look at the possibility.
I know that the planners are very careful for one part, but the idea of treating every mission day as it was the last should have pushed things to at least do a closer look at the strata at the nearest cliff. Now we will have to wait until late Oct I guess.

I disagree about entering through Duck Bay. From what I can see the geology isn't nearly as accessible as it is on the far rim. We need to enter where we can get right to work. Who knows what kind of mobility there will be once inside the crater. I had picked out one of those bays on the other side previously, but now I seem to have forgotten which one. Basically we need to drive right over the layers like we did in Endurance or at least have a series of layers visible within reach of the IDD. I simply don't see that in Duck Bay right now.

EDIT: Depending on the steepness of the slope, I think the best geology is visible in "F1" and possibly "Bay 2" on James' most recent image. In "F1" the layering is literally underfoot and then when the sand commences it looks possible to move to the north and examine additional lower exposures in the adjoining wall.

I like the bay proposed by MarkL above; I believe we're calling it B2? It's right next to "rolling rock trail" which would be a great imaging opportunity.

So far Duck Bay - and C. Verde especially - is the only place where we see the deep layered unit. But the lighting (for solar power) is very bad at this season. Right now the best course of action is going to be a lot of remote sensing (including mini-TES) to get a basic characterization of materials and find the best accessible geologic sections. The best section is more important than the easiest access, unless they are all the same... and it looks like they are not all the same.

Phil

ISTR that JPL gave it the informal name of "Boat Ramp" a few months ago.
I do agree with Phil that we must consider the shadows cast by the capes. I don't know the exact harm that spending half the day in deep shade would cause, but I think the planners must calculate it.

Yes Phil S. I was thinking of Cape Verde and of course Shaka the mission planners should consider the loss of power. But then again, the rover will be completely inactive during opposition so it wont use much energy for anything but keeping that experiment going and a few heaters. So I still think that the suggested long Mössbauer integration I suggested earlier would have been the most constructive way to spend this inactive time.

At the moment spending half the day in a shaded zone (ie no direct sunlight on the solar panels) would drop the power levels by a third. This is because about a third of the power comes from diffuse lighting and that is more or less unaffected by the shading. Power would drop back to around 330whr/sol give or take.

I'd see that as a worst case scenario though and while it would be hard to find a spot that kept all of Opportunity's solar panels in shade for 50% of a sol slap bang up against the currently visible face of Cabo Verde would possibly be one of those spots. The north easterly face of Cabo Frio would be a much better environment right now. That said I think we could do with a month or two of surveys before doing anything intemperate. Power would be up at that stage no matter what and we can always return to Cabo Verde once the sun edges to the south if no better target turns up.

Could someone speculate on the depth of that light colored band that we see practically the whole way around Victoria. It's a little ways down from the edge and is somewhat visible in the reply 3 photo and as it relates to how far down we had explored in Endurance crater ?

Myran said : "But then again, the rover will be completely inactive during opposition so it wont use much energy for anything but keeping that experiment going and a few heaters. So I still think that the suggested long Mössbauer integration I suggested earlier would have been the most constructive way to spend this inactive time."

I don't agree to go inside during conjunction for a simple reason that has been pointed by Steve Squyres : we can NOW study rocks or (whatever they are) that are HIGHER than anything studied so far. So, let's do a loooong Mössbauer integration there, it will may be be the only one.
BTW I've got a doubt. I understand that we are on a high place if we take Victoria as a reference, but, I guess that we are at a lower altitude if we compare to Endurance, rigth ?

Sorry guys for starting a new thread;forgot there was one already.I thought its time to start a serious discussion about this matter not that JPL will take heed of our suggestions!!Anyways probably its true that we'll have to have better coverage of the entire crater rim before such a decision is made thou I must say perhaps the MRO IMAGE may be of some use already!

From today's Pancams...

Click to view attachment

Looks steep...!

I'm not sure if they will enter Victoria Crater ... it might be the end of Opportunity as it:
1. might not get out of it ( although there's for science to be done for about 300 sols )
2. does sunlight get everywhere in there ?

And there might be other interesting places in the vicinity ...

"The interior of the crater looks so interesting that the rover may drive in, even if there is no guarantee it will be able to get back out, says rover team member Jim Bell of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, US. "My guess is that we'd go in anyway," he told New Scientist."

Thanks for the update Ustrax ... Exciting days indeed !