We'll see. It's roughly located SE of that position and the last move, during sol 2279, was more or less in that same direction.
BTW, I *think* this pancam sequence was automatically triggered by the new AEGIS software.

Regarding the change of direction I note that prior to the move we had just rejoined the proposed route line and the latest move tracks that line very closely. I wonder how closely we will be following it from here onward?

Don't put too much store in the 'proposed route', it only denotes the general direction. The actual route will have to zigzag between small obstacles like larger than average drifts and (later) Anatolia-style troughs, with occasional sidesteps to look at items of interest.

Phil

The images taken during sol 2279 are already available on the JPL site.
Curiously, the navcams (http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...nity_n2279.html) are tilted *up* 19 deg. instead of the usual 17 deg. down. It reminds me of that drive which was planned for X meters in one direction but was actually commanded on the opposite way.

Those navcams are odd. I wondered about cloud imaging - on the same sol there was a cloud in the fhazcam:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...FAP1205R0M1.JPG
But cloud navcams are usually a series of downsampled frames.

Maybe they're looking at sky transparency - those navcams show nicely how much the sky darkens as you move up from the horizon. To eliminate the effects of vignetting, which is symmetric about the frame centre, compare the brightness of sky the same distance from the top and bottom of the frame.

Edit - of course these jpegs are auto stretched, so they don't reflect how much the sky really darkens with height.

The pano. Personnaly, I like this kind of view .

I know exactly what you mean. Wide open spaces... can't beat 'em...

I've been gazing at Ant's desktop image from a couple of days ago on my second monitor. It looks so clear and those hills so tantalizing that if I were standing there in person I'd swear the hills were only two or three miles away (instead of the 20 mile distance that the far rim is sitting at.) You almost want to break into a run.

Didn't we have a discussion in "Distant Vistas" about being able to see hills clearly from long distances (20-90 miles), even here on Earth? I'm thinking mid-March of this year.

--Bill

Can't resist more… Color based on my last desktop pic.

Click to view attachment

There are two areas just up ahead where the ripples appear to be "erased" or filled in. What could cause this? Localized piles of dust?

I think it's possible to see the nearest field to the SE in the pancams from sol 2279.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...FDP2352R2M1.JPG and http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...FDP2352R2M1.JPG

From the latest Oppy update, improvements in a couple of numbers:

This might be part of the area where the ripples are muted in the orbital image. Lots of small pebbles here.

http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/p...J1P2558L7M1.JPG

Like the ripples outside of Eagle crater! Lovely. More of that terrain to come in a few more kilometers!

Phil

In colors http://www.db-prods.net/marsroversimages/O...1P2558LCoul.jpg

Yes, this is great to have terrain like that .

Been a while since I made a 3D view, so here goes... some lovely ripples here, dontcha think?

Click to view attachment

Views like that, and Dan's recent comments about the amazing success of the rovers, set me thinking about the ultimate fate of the Mars rovers. Warning: the following link takes you to a blog post that might - ok, will definitely - offend non rover-huggers, so if that's you, save yourself a lot of teeth-gnashing, and don't click on it, ok? You'll just get all antsy, post a snide comment, which I'll then reply to equally snidely, and before you know it there's a great big crack in the universe and Silence is Falling, so just move on, nothing to see here for you...

http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/...g-to-the-future

Can't seem to find the "Like" button. Oh wait. Wrong site

Love it (reminds me of the crystal markers up Husband Hill story)

BUT....

I don't think the rovers will get buried. There are lots of rover-sized-and-smaller things around not buried, and we've seen the rovers themselves get dirtier and cleaner over time. I think they'll get some dust around the wheels for sure - but they'll be stood there looking pretty much as Spirit does right now in many many hundreds of years.

Stu, your blog is truly inspiring and thought provoking.

If fact, if I didn't know better, I would bet that this would make for an interesting premise for an SF Story set on Mars.
mmhh somethig to think about ...

Already working on that

Thanks for your kind comments, much appreciated.

I think Exploratorium is back up.

Edit: Just started the update; a lot of VERY old images. Looks like they're rebooting the new system.

Stu, I enjoy your poetry, but that prose works great! I guess I'm prosaic

Haha! I guess you are! Thanks, appreciate that.

Have to say, it's good that Exploratorium seems to be coming back online agan, after its computer started singing "Daisy, Daisy" in that slowed down voice...

...or on Prozac

From the latest Oppy update:

Power is really starting to climb now!

A Rovers-Eye view of the path eastward on Sol 2282.

I notice that they are also doing frequent soil Pancams and the ripple-sand looks interesting at the bottom of the sequence now that the sand is thinning out.

--Bill

The Planetary Society update is out:

http://planetary.org/news/2010/0630_Mars_E...ate_Spirit.html

Some highlights from that update:

"Cape York"
I can dig it. Not the Garden of Eden, like Cape Trib, but appropriately dramatic.
The northernmost point of the Australian continent.
I once scrambled down the wet rocks to sit on the last one and dangle my feet in the Torres Strait.
Bonzer.

As always: absolutely brilliant, elaborate and entertaining report ... can't be said often enough !





Squyres quotes like this are always heavenly music in my ears



"Drive, Drive, Drive ... " a wise man once said

"Drive, Drive, Drive ... " a wise man once said

I said it too. You can't leave these things to the wise alone.

Phil

For those of you who don't follow American football, this quote is most likely a pun on the famous saying "Three yards and a cloud of dust". It refers to a style of offense where the ball carrier basically plows into the defensive line to pick up two or three yards be sheer strength and force of will. Nothing flashy. It's a style that's loved by football purists, but often derided as "boring" by those who prefer the more exciting but higher risk aerial game.

I think it's an apt comparison for our slow-and-steady rover who continues to chip away at her goal by sheer perseverance and dogged determination.

At the rate our running back is plowing the field when are we estimating to arrive at Endeavour?

IOW: are we there yet?

Was Sol 2288 a driving day? The Sol 2288 photos are new or just old photos that have been downloaded now?

If you're ever not sure when a particular image was taken, here's a great resource...

http://www.greuti.ch/oppy/html/filenames_ltst.htm

Paste the image number into the box provided and voila, all you could ever want to know about that image is displayed for you. :-)

A few notes 'n thoughts on "Cape York"...

http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/...l-make-landfall

Stu, those pictures came from the JPL site as being from sol 2288. So yes, it looks like Oppy drove on that day.

Sol 2280 - Long pan is looooooooong. This is a view through the pancam, with L1 filter (clear), that show us a fulle 360° of the horizon.


An hires pic is available here (7.3 Mo) http://www.db-prods.net/marsroversimages/O...80-pancamL1.jpg

We can see a lot of stuff, like a uninterrupted view of Endurance, and some distant features.

I have a math question to ask.

From our current position. How many 70 meter drives would it take for us to arrive
at Santa Maria Crater and The edge of Endeavour???

Thanks

It's not as simple as that Bobby. The route to Endeavour will be a stop-start marathon, not a set-distance-a-day sprint. Variations in local topography, power levels, etc, make it just about impossible to extrapolate. The answer to "When will we get there?" is the one beloved by kid-plagued parents everywhere...

"We'll get there when we get there"...

Agreed, but if Oppy were to maintain a straight line, first to Santa Maria (4.8 km away) and then Cape York (11 km away), and throwing in some capricious rounding, we're looking at at about 70 such drives to Santa Maria, and 160 drives to Cape York. Which means of course that the actual number of drives to those two locations will not be those numbers, and will almost certainly be more, given that they seem to have settled around 70 m as a safe, unstressful distance for the wonky wheel. That could also change as the drive progresses.

So... what you're saying is... we'll get there when we get there...

So, we're not there yet?

Seriouslyer, BrianL's figures do put the distance into some perspective. The recent super res pan pic makes Endeavour seem kinda close!

Deceptively close, yes...

But even more seriouslyer, BrianL's figures are informative. But anyone wanting to play the "Guess How Many More Drives" game should just go to Google Earth and measure the distance between Oppy and Cape York in metres. Then divide that by 70, and there you go, ballpark figure.

Oh, broody herr Stu, now everyone knows the secrets of my mathematical wizardy.

Bobby, calm down. It's a marathon, not a sprint. They'll drive when they're ready. Banging on the back of the car seat won't make them go any faster.

You in the US?

I haven't gotten a single business email today. I think we're constitutionally required to celebrate our independence from Stu for this entire week.

Thanks STU. That makes me feel better.

Hey STU. If the Mars Rovers were a video game. Which one would it be? Playstation, X Box or Wiiii?