New anaglyph view of BI from sol 1973. I've done a gamma tweak to bring out the shadows. You can make out the so-called "pedestal" quite clearly. To me, it looks like a bit of a ridge similar to what we see elsewhere around here (look at the images of the "South America" outcrop, eg.), rather than a pedestal associated with BI.
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Very nice anaglyph.

It seems as though the underlying rock at right hand side of the base of BI is flush with the ground and about 2/3rds of the way across to the right, after the 'blueberry patch', starts to rise evenly so that the left hand side forms a 'mini' cliff. I really enjoyed having a good long look at your work.

This is a much better view than the previous ones. But I would have to say that the raised outcrop doesn't resemble other nearby ridges in detail. This bedrock rise is vertical on it's eastern side, whereas almost all of the other bedrock ridges have gentle eastern slopes, including "South America." Just because part of the purported pedestal merges with the regional surface isn't enough evidence to rule out a pedestal landform here. I'm not convinced this actually is an erosional pedestal, yet, but I can't say it isn't, either. We will probably not get all the required views to settle the question. We would really need views from several sides to see if the vertical sides of the bedrock protuberance roughly conform to the shape of the meteorite.

This is, however, what makes armchair planetary exploration such exquisite fun. Imagine how much fun it would be to be one of the persons who could say, "OK, Let's move the rover to the other side and take images of targets X, Y, and Z.

(edited to correct grammar)

Very dramatic shot...

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...C7P1214L0M1.JPG

You're wrong Dan: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/freespirit/

As far as I can tell from that article they will be using the second test rover in the same test bed location. Nothing here indicates that there are two testing locations.

<out of lurk mode after a month-long vacations at the mediterranean coast>

She came to the current site on an almost 180º heading but I saw some drive-planning shots being taken a few sols ago and those were pointing NNW (-30º), to the left of the previous tracks. Perhaps looking for a short cut...

Oh yes I agree, I was just telling that they've got TWO test rovers now, which is very good, and not only one as you said. I jumped on the (bad) occasion to tease you.
BTW the article shows that, as the 2nd TeeBee is lighter, this helps to reproduce the lighter Mars gravity...which is a recurrent question here on UMSF.

Thanks for the Info Eduardo, and welcome back to work.
I'd said they can resume driving now that you're back.

Stu: Very dramatic shot...

Absolutely right!
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Nice details in this microimage
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...C7P2976M2M1.JPG

I thought this version of the recently linked microimage might amuse you.

Oh those Martian sculptors and their bas-relief work...

The laminar micro-structure visible in the microimage I linked above reminds me of the pearlite micro-structure visible in this image

Continuing the 2001 theme, I couldn't help but see a resemblance... With my full apologies in advance...

Boy! This guy really gets around!
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Looks kinda messy over there... not lots of mini Block Islands, surely..?

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Some of the latest pancam images appear to show that the edge of Endeavour crater is so close. It will be exciting to see these get even larger in the images as Opprtunity gets closer.

If so, and a prolonged survey campaign results, could the rover team be called cobblers?

...I'll get me coat.

As with Spirit and the quest for Von Braun, I'm beginning to wonder if it would be faster to wait for the mountain to come to Mohammed than for our rovers to finally get there on their own!

(Patience is a rare commodity with us back-seat drivers.)

Sol 1980 images looking back along the tracks.
(Autostitched and contrast-corrected to make look pretty.)

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Sol 1959 Pan (just a bit more foreground than previous versions.):

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(manually Photomerged, warped, brightened/darkened, contrast-adjusted, etc.)

-Mike

My try at an anaglyph of Block Island from Sol 1959 images:

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Amazing image of the biggest meteorite found on Mars
Is by any chance someone working on a high resolution color image showing the surroundings of the meteorite?
I would like to use it for my upcoming article "Six Years MER operations on Mars!" due for the January 2010 monthly magazine Spaceflight, which already featured 3 covers made by UMSF forum-members... Please PM me

Based on the info from the pancam web: tomorrowsol (1995) is planned for driving.
Positioning the rover at another target on Block Island or ?

There is a 360 degree pan taken while Oppy has been parked here that is almost all down. I'll be making a version of the pan as usual.

I wonder if possible desert varnish on Block Island is being studied by Opportunity. This thought came to me as I looked at some of hortonhadawho's musings here.

In another post (#276) he has the answer to my question about the upcoming drive. It's the former option.

All those meteorites lying around.... Really goes to show how little the surface is being altered. How many meteorites wouldn´t we have lying around on planet e
Earth if our surface wasn´t being constantly altered?

Yeah; it's amazing, really. Meridiani is old, clearly.

It's interesting to consider the possible future implications of so many meteorites lying about in this region. Wonder if anyone might need easy sources of nearly pure iron & nickel as well as organics someday...?

Looks like Oppy's started to head around Block Island...

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I didn't see this subject discussed here but I may have missed it.
My question is about eventual disturbance of wind, i.e. dunes, by BI.
Any effect would be visible from a short distance (~10m) as well as by doing the round loop around.
Any thought?

The Block Island Panorama



Polar Projection



Enjoy,

James

Not-quite desert varnish...
"Rock Coatings at the MER and Phoenix Landing Sites", Diana L. Blaney, Athena Science Team, Phoenix Science Team
(http://www.abstractsonline.com/plan/ViewAb...e7-5f15c4bfb759Thursday, Oct 08, 2009, 5:00 PM - 5:10 PM)

http://www.abstractsonline.com/plan/ViewAb...e7-5f15c4bfb759



If the direct link doesn't work try ngunn's front-door link posted on the "41st DPS October 2009" topic: http://www.abstractsonline.com/plan/start....08CED373A512%7D
...and click through to Mars Surface to see the list of presentations.

I hope when they leave BI they take a slight detour and swing by the dense field of cobbles. No stopping, just pictures on the fly.

As we head towards Sol2000 for Opportunity (keep an eye out for a new poster and poem soon) and as she heads around to look at the other side of Block Island, I thought you might enjoy this little postcard from Mars.
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Nice postcards Astro0!

Couple more "from this side" Block Island pictures before we trek around t'other side...

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This is James's great panorama - just a strip along the horizon - wrapped into a circle with extreme vertical exaggeration. It gives a more map-like view of the region, and it shows the shallow crater south of here that the western route is designed to drive around.

Phil

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I'm a little surprised that all the Block island content hasn't been migrated to a separate thread from 'The western route', considering how much time and energy Oppy is spending on the object.

You can remain surprised. We'll start a new one after we set off from BI

OK, but given that Oppy ended up practically where she started, I think we should consider this a false start, and refer to the next thread as the REAL 5th leg.

Oppy's latest view as she drives slowly alongside BI...

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Rather than migrating the BI posts to a new thread, it might make more sense to just rename this thread (or its subtitle) to include a mention of BI, since the return to BI was first mentioned on page 3 out of 27 of this thread! That would make it easier for people to search for BI-related posts in the future.

3D version of the view posted above...

http://twitpic.com/guv21/full

~~The Western Route~~
Mystery at Block Island

Or how about the title doesn't actually matter and we just get on with our lives?

Yup- we have a winner.

Great shot, Stu!

Boy, what a difference just a meter or so of movement makes in viewing. Look how deep some of those vesicles seem to be on the 'windward' side!

Sure wish that we could roll it over. Would love to see if that apparent wind erosion is present on the bottom as well. It's tempting to speculate that it might be an EDL artifact rather than an effect of chronic exposure to prevailing surface winds.

Here are my versions of the latest pancam anaglyph view, one optimized for sharpness (L7/R1) and one gamma tweaked for the shadows (L2/R2):
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I especially like that second one, fredk. It doesn't look much like a pedestal from this angle, does it?

nprev. I'm a bit acronym challenged.

http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/EDL

Entry Descent Landing?