I'm with Rui on this one - If anything the 'Twin Peaks' are less distinct now than when we were at Victoria.

They are quite hazy now, but look at the raw image Rui linked in post 1 of this thread they are quite distinct, as is 'Cook'. Of course the added hazyness does give a better impression of distance.

Doesn't really matter though does it, it's just nice to have them back on the horizon again.
Looking forward to seeing 'Cook' again as well sometime - it'll be nice to have a beacon on the far rim for a change.

B****r. Forgot about that great image for some reason. Doh! You're both absolutely right, of course, thanks for pointing it out. I''ve amended my blog piece accordingly.

The Rui linked image---What a shot, three craters rims in a row, each a log or two bigger than the one in front.

I remember when Victoria crater was but a couple of pixels on a image.

So do I...
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...NVP2396R2M1.JPG

I remember when we were trying to identify Erebus. I must say, for me that was the worst part of the journey thus far.

Just playing with that latest pancam, probably just artifacts but isn't it possible that we're also able to see Cook looming over the horizon over there?
Click to view attachment
Regarding the feature on the middle I have even more doubts, guess that the elevation to the left of Cook I've marked is well below the horizon from this point of view...as I've said probably just an artifact or a dune but, if not, we're seing something new...

Which pancam is that? Twin peaks and Cook are far to far apart to appear on the same pancam image.

EDIT: Actually, given how hazy the Twin Peaks are, we may struggle to see the more distant Cook at this time.

I assume those are from today's batch. In that case they are the "drive direction" images and those pictures are pointing to the south.
Can't be Endeavour, sorry.

Nope, the image was the same Phil used.
As I've said probably just a couple of artifacts...

It's great to see Endeavour on the horizon again! And, since we've been reminding ourselves of old shots of the rim of Endeavour, we can't forget that we got some stunning pancam views from Victoria:

North rim.

East rim.

And how appropriate that Phil-o-Vision strikes once again in recovering New Beacon first. I can't express how happy I am there's no question about which side of Endeavour we're looking at

Jeez, did I fall asleep for a week or something?!?! I don't remember seeing those at all!!!!! Great views. Can't wait to see more and more detail coming into view as Oppy steams towatrds Endeavour. This is going to be one heck of a ride...

Just a gentle reminder... those pancams already posted earlier in this thread (originally downloaded from exploratorium some time 2006) http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=127264

UMSF is becoming such a huge and comprehensive resource that it is easy to not be aware (or forget)
something that was posted earlier and so duplicate it in a new post!

This RAW really is one of the great ones we've had coming down from Opportunity:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...VYP1663R0M1.JPG

Three craters in the same shot, each one bigger than the other by a factor of... well, what actually? - help me out here!

No better way to answer than to direct you back to page one of this thread...

Good, point, so 7, 700 and 22000 meters across...

Or log ratios of 2.0 & 1.49. Definitely between 1 and 2 logs.

The faraway Hills of Endeavour in colour...

Click to view attachment

I agree... the foreground is in colour
It's getting better and better as shown here and in today's download.
Thanks Stu (anyway...)

Tough crowd tonight, I was really pleased with that!

Click to view attachment

Does anybody have any idea what those black sediments can be on the southwesterly part of Endeavour crater?

They look like large hills of some sort but they are very dark, far darker then anything in the HiRISE image. However on CRISM they do not seem to really stand out from their surroundings, except in infrared.

They are probably within reach for oppy, even on 5 wheels, but it's a long way down and she will need to make a detour to avoid some nasty dunes further up.

They look like sand dunes (a bit barcany) and dark often means basalt.

Roy

Could be an abyss.

Don't tempt me...

Reckless is right, they are large barchan dunes, and probably made of basalt sand. They are quite common around Mars and very distinct from the smaller bright features we see everywhere. Dunes are complicated, and differences in grain size, density, wind speed etc. can sort fine materials in a variety of ways.

Phil

Their location might be related to a changing wind pattern. Zooming out (in Google Earth 5.0) one can see that there are dunes just to the W and SW where the long axis seems to vary as one goes around the rim of the crater.
Click to view attachment

Just beyond this curve (and just outside the image) is the talus slope and SW wall of Endeavor crater.

I was indeed also looking at those dunes on the crater rim above the black hills. Not only does the wind direction seemingly change, but also the dunes themselves come in what looks like three separate bands, each of them different from the other. These dunes differ a lot from the dunes we have been crossing to/from Victoria, and they seem to have more in common with the dune patterns on the floor of Victoria crater. Quite short 'wavelength' and all completely entwined with lots and lots of cross-dunes everywhere, it definitely doesn't look like a 'friendly' area to enter but fortunately there are enough options to avoid them.

If there is a wind pattern which results in basaltic sand ending up on the SW rim, then it remains weird why these hills should be so very sharply defined, hardly any sand seems to be spilling 'outside' of these hills, they have very sharp edges and don't seem to have much in common with the landscape around them. Mars remains a fascinating place, time and time again ;-).

The winds prevailing through this area in recent years (millennia ?) are probably just below the velocity threshold to set the surface dust layer moving. At the edge of the dune the winds are deflected upward and, hence, accelerated, as with the leading edge of a plane wing aerofoil. The resulting velocity and 'lift' is enough to strip off the fine, rusty dust that sticks to the adjacent level plains. Thus only clean, coarse basaltic sand grains are left to cover the dune. These are great light traps, better even, and darker than, a solid plate of basalt. There probably is similar black sand in the adjacent plains, but coated with red dust.

Isn't Endeavour Crater a bit of an optimistic destination now?

Yes, but not the first. Life's just one optimistic destination after another.

It was always an optimistic destination. That doesn't mean it wasn't, or still isn't, an achievable destination. If I had to pick between the likelihood of Oppy reaching Endeavour or Spirit reaching Von Braun,... well, maybe we just shouldn't go there.

Let's not go there, but think at how Victoria was seen when we left the heat shield. It looked just as far and just as unreachable.

Paolo

Thanks for the explanation!

I accidently stumbled on what looks like exact the effect you mention in MOC image M1900278 around 45.02 S and 202.27 E (close to the supposed Mars 3 landingsite), here the topsoil of the dunes seems to have been blown away, exposing black basalt, which is also present in other places in the same area.

Click to view attachment

Difference is that at the Meridiani ripples on the route of Oppy, the top of the dunes seem to be mostly brighter then the average terrain and the same seems to be true for the dunes inside Endeavour, so these hills of basalt sand look a bit more like a local feature or maybe the basalt is hidden deeper underneath the dunes.

Another possibility is that medium-strength winds are blowing dark basaltic sands all across the plain (I'm pretty sure I read this in Sullivan et al. see post here).

Endeavour Crater could be a really big basaltic sand trap. The grains go in, but they don't come out. (And even if they do escape, they diffuse/dilute out quickly and are not evident). The lower strength winds pile them on top of each other and concentrate them into a dune pile. (like the dune patch in Death Valley).

Couple this up with the dust explanation by Shaka (lighter winds required to move the dust), and I think it's a good possibility for what we see here.

-Mike

mmm those black pixels look really black and contrastless. I would think those are artefacts somehow, but don't see why they are so neatly aligned on the dunes.

I'd say they were saturated pixels and the software, upon registereing a max value, is showing them as black. If the max vaules were displayed as white the image would be closer to the actual view.

You might be right, but I'm not completely sure of that. These ripples are on a crater floor and there is a lot more of this black stuff higher up on the crater walls and on the rim of the crater, they all look similarly black/featureless so either they are all saturated pixels or it's really black sand/dust blowing into the crater and getting stuck on the ripples.

Click to view attachment

Full image is MOC M1900278

hi Geert,

it looks like a saturation effect to me too. if you go to the MSSS image page here, you can have a look at the map projected image, which is pretty bright in the areas you've highlighted.

here's a crop of the map-projected (medium quality) image of roughly the same area as your image. it doesn't look to me as if there's any dark stuff blowing about in this area.

Click to view attachment

pete

You're right Pete, it's indeed not in the processed image, I was using the unprocessed version, so it must be a saturisation effect.

One more riddle solved thanks to UMSF

... and for more on those big dark dunes check this out:

http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/galler.../20090317a.html

Phil

Thanks Phil!

BTW, clicking on the large version of the image brings out the fine ripple detail on the dark dune itself.

It is just beautiful!

In the latest press release, it is stated:


This is funny - we just had this discussion a few pages back in this thread. It seems some of us weren't the only ones who forgot about the superb imagery of the Endeavour rim we obtained from Victoria way back around sol 950 (almost 900 sols ago!), not to mention the many views we've had since!

Not to mention the many views well before Victoria. Funny, though.

True, some of us did forget, but the big difference now is that we're actually heading *towards* those hills, rather than just spotting them on the horizon whilst doing something else.

Well Stu, I would argue that as we left Victoria we could see Endeavour and were heading towards it.

I think the big difference now is that we can see the west rim - the actual bit we are heading for. Back at Victoria, we could only see the north and south-east sections that are a LONG way from where we are actually going.

Fair enough. Definitely having a "Jeez, wish I'd never said anything now..." moment...

Personally I'm just buzzed whenever we get a glimpse of something new on the horizon. That's the true wonder of this mission. We keep seeing one "something new" after another.

Good point. So what they wrote is accurate when read in a certain way.

Not sure if this has been noticed already, but they've labelled what they're seeing in some press release images: North Rim of Endeavour, East Rim of Endeavour, and "West Rim of Endeavour and a Farther Crater's Rim", specifically Iazu Crater.

Click to view attachment

Is this a single large stone on the SSW wall of Endeavour, or is it a crater with bedrock?

If it is a stone then this must be the cobble they were looking for, thing must be really big.