Good job Hugh! Well done.
Keep it up.

Yes, good one Hugh. Here's a version made into a circular map.

Phil

Click to view attachment

Very nice work Hugh

Indeed you appear to be right: it looks like another drive south on sol 2045:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...J0P0703R0M1.JPG
Thanks for the details on the missing hazcams, Tesheiner.

Hi Stu,

I've produced for you a color version from the PDS datas of this view

It's cool because it's possible to enhance the contrast.

Thanks Stu, Phil and Zeke4ther. Since other people are doing great work with pancam stuff I think that when I do panoramas I'll focus mainly on navcams. I enjoy UMSF a lot, so it's great to be able to make a contribution in return for others to enjoy.

Is it the small fresh crater on the horizon or is it too far to be seen ?
Click to view attachment

Image from the last pancam :
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...J0P2434L6M1.JPG

In all cases, the horizon seems to be not very far. Maybe a nice view after the "crest" ! Bopolu's rim perhaps...

Too deviated from the south I would say. Based on the map it should be less then 10º SSE. (crap deleted!)

See below.

What's the diameter of the fresh crater? It is ~760m away on 2045, right?

Found it: ~12m

Then it should appear at 0.76km with: viewing angle=0.90°; FOV% of Nav/Pancam: 2.01%,21px/5.65%,58px

Thanks Ant, really nice view. Shame we sped right on past at the time, I would love to know what those chunks looked like close-up, but we can't stop and gawp at everything, I know!

1. 10m, I would say.
2. Yes.

In the pancam that mentioned feature spans about 40-45 pixel. Purely calculative it has about the same size as the fresh crater could appear.

Oooops!

Disregard my previous answer to Bill! I thought that pancam shot was the first of four in the "drive-direction" mosaic but it's actually the second one. So, if I'm now doing my math correctly, it means the heading for that feature is about 171 degrees, fitting perfectly with the heading of the fresh crater.

Here's that same pancam picture with the horizon section exaggerated 5x and a grid showing some absolute headings. And from google mars I get the heading to the fresh crater to be 172º. Almost perfect match.

Click to view attachment

To confirm if that's the crater we should wait for the pancams from the next drive. Assuming a 70m drive due south, the feature should "move" almost one degree to the left.

If it's another drive it was kinda Oula Oup...: http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportu...23P1637L0M1.JPG

We can see the crater in these previous pancams too, if this can help to check!
From sol 2042 : http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P2430L6M1.JPG
From sol 2043 : http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...AXP2432L6M1.JPG

This is really great. With the stretched image you can see the darkened spot of the fresh crater, and in fact after looking at that you can go back and identify it in the unaltered version.

Let me try with the first one. That image is from sol 2042 and the heading to the fresh crater should be, based on the overhead map, around 173º.
I'll post later on with the results.

Here's the pancam image http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P2430L6M1.JPG, with the horizon vertically exaggerated 5x and a ruler. The result is not conclusive.
Click to view attachment

Could it be that the other (fainter) black line-like feature (slightly to the left and closer) is in fact fresh crater? The size would match too and the larger shift to the left (or right) would be more accurate.

Hmmm, that's a bit different...

Phil

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...OLP0703R0M1.JPG

Today's drive was "only" 50m instead of the usual 70m. IMO the intention was to stop right beside this little crater (?) partially seen to the right of the navcam mosaic. Same image as posted by Phil.
Click to view attachment
Click to view attachment

As recentely the drives have been very very accurate, I would bet they stoped not to have a look at the crater but to be sure not to run into this "hazard" instead.
My guess.

Accuracy would infer they could reliably avoid such a crater if they so wished. They've stopped for a quick look.

But the movement of the dark feature from 2042 to 2045 is in the right direction. Is the amount of the movement correct, without rounding to the degree? And there must be some uncertainties in the pancam headings. Since there's no other potential target near that heading, I'd say it's very likely this is "fresh crater."

IMO, the stop was intentional for imaging.

02047::p0703::03::6::0::0::6::0::12::navcam_3x1_az_180_3_bpp
02047::p1211::03::2::0::0::2::0::4::ultimate_front_haz_1_bpp_pri_15
02047::p1254::02::2::0::0::2::0::4::front_haz_fault_pri15_4bpp
02047::p1312::07::2::0::0::2::0::4::rear_haz_ultimate_2_bpp_pri15
02047::p1354::01::2::0::0::2::0::4::rear_haz_fault_pri15_4bpp
02047::p1625::01::10::0::0::10::0::20::navcam_5x1_az_36_1_bpp
02047::p1882::03::4::0::0::4::0::8::navcam_2x1_pri32_az270_3bpp
02047::p1991::07::4::0::0::4::0::8::nav_2x1_rvraz_0_1_bpp_pri42
02047::p1994::05::1::0::0::1::0::2::nav_1x1_MovieFrame_Leye_1bpp_pri72
02047::p2102::14::3::0::3::0::1::7::pancam_isc_voc_cal_L267
02047::p2104::10::3::0::3::0::1::7::pancam_mtes_cal_target_L267
02047::p2435::20::12::0::0::12::2::26::pancam_drive_direction_4cx1r_L6R12
02047::p2601::03::4::2::0::0::2::8::pancam_tau_L78R48
02047::p2625::03::34::34::0::0::2::70::pancam_pre_sunset_L4578R2478


You read my mind. The movement was on the right direction and looking for today's pancams I would say the same.

Since Block Island - 43 Sols, 1.2 km Average of 28m/sol even including the science stops, restricted sols etc.

That's not too shabby at all.

The reasonably good driving terrain starts in another 2km or so - the sublime driving terrain another 1km thereafter.
We're then 3km from Endurance 2.0 (I fancy calling it Aurora - have we had that one already? It was the ship that did the other side of the Antarctic from Endurance during Shackleton's expedition) in terrain that saw an average 100m/sol in the James Caird days.
Then only another 6.3km till Endeavour.

Yeah - we've still got a ways to go

Yes Doug - what might have looked like a pretty wild idea at first now seems well within reach. It's also interesting to compare the drifts we are seeing now with those treacherous piles near Erebus - as seen in post 455 above (Ant103's colour image). The terrain is already pretty good compared with that.

Phil

That they went straight over that little cobble field/flatish dune says something about their confidence with the vehicle and driving. Regular 70m drives are not to be sniffed at.

IF we can get through the next 2km before years end (70ish days) we'll have done DAMN well this year I think.

It looks like they found on these 70m drives the best balance between covered distance and wheel currents. Not too much distance to start becoming concerned about the currents, not too short to be concerned about the time to that far away destination. With this in mind I now believe the pace won't change once we get to better terrain. The planning might be simplified perhaps even reducing the period of restricted sols to a barely minimum, but I think we won't see 100m+ drives again.

I wonder what the effect of terrain would be on the wheel currents. I seem to recall hearing that wheel currents are generally higher on rougher/dunier terrain than on flat terrain. So maybe we would be able to do better than 70 metres on flatter terrain?

The crater Opportunity is currently parked nearby has been named "Trinidad". Google gave me this hint about the possible reason for that name:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_(ship)
"Victoria (or Nao Victoria, as well as Vittoria) was a Spanish carrack and the first ship to successfully circumnavigate the world.
<...>
The four other ships were Trinidad (110 tons, crew 55), San Antonio (120 tons, crew 60), Concepción (90 tons, crew 45), and Santiago (75 tons, crew 32). Trinidad, Magellan's flagship, Concepcion, and Santiago were wrecked or scuttled; San Antonio deserted the expedition before the Straits of Magellan and returned to Europe on her own."

A pancam mosaic has been planned for thisol and then bye bye.

Is your route map relative to an "official" one ? Is there a possibility to be unabble to turn east because of not so good terrain until the very very old crater with the dunes field in its center ? And then going directly to the main rim of endeavour without seeing "endurance 2.0". Just a suggestion regarding James map James ripple map.

Fully Agree ... the total progress is really impressive and does show the determination with which Oppy progresses towards her goal !

There is no need for record-breaking single-sol drives ... it's this safely and steadily sustained 30-70 m/sol pace that has all the potential to bring us to Endeavor

It looks like the 2049 drive was in the forward direction (there's no sign of a turn in place post drive):
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...6XP1311R0M1.JPG

New rock on the way to the fresh crater ?
Today navcam :
Click to view attachment

We can see it in this pancam from sol 2047 too
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...OLP2435L6M1.JPG

Yup. And the last 30m or so were in autonav mode.
I think the reason was due to the lack of "drive-direction" pancams from the previous sol. AFAIK the navcams are not good enough to plan a 70m drive.

New martian meteorite looks strangely familiar...

http://twitpic.com/njlq0

Individual ripples are visible all the way to the horizon in to-sol's pancams. Guess they must be coming up to the crest of the regional high.

A little help: Someone on this forum asked, at some time in the relatively past, why meteorites found on Mars would be especially interesting -- why there'd be any differences between meteorites on Mars and the ones we have in hand on Earth that would make it scientifically exciting to study them on Mars. I've got an answer worthy of printing in The Planetary Report but to do so I need to find out who asked the question in the first place, and I couldn't make Google find it for me. Help!

Is this what you're looking for Emily?
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=143945

It looks like as strongly
https://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...23P2441R1M1.JPG

Maybe no meteorite but an ejection of "fresh" crater.

Yup, and it this high point seems to be more or less coincident with the crater we are heading to. So me might be around half kilometer from this local high.


I measured 320m range to the rock but the one-pixel error is still too high (100m!). We'll have to wait for pictures from subsequent drives (today!) to get a better range measurement and try to find it on HiRISE images.

The "center" of fresh crater and the rock seem to be 4,3° apart in the sol 2050 pic. My try to find a search line for the HIRISE image comes up with (I'm curious if it lies THEN right on it ):

Yes, many thanks! The answer will be on Planetary Radio a week from Monday

Does anyone have that section of the Hirise split into a full resolution, but easily viewable chunck (>70 mb)? Could you post a link?

Use the Google Earth/Mars addon listed in the map thread

I did a range calculation to the yet-another-meteorite using the latest pancams (link) from sol 2051: 190 meters with a 1 pixel error of 35 meters.
We might be there by mid next week.

Arr! Next island ahead...

Click to view attachment

Arr! Be that an island, or a shark?