It's a matter of whether we see new rocks at Santa Maria. If it's just the same old Meridiani bedrock, I think they wouldn't stop for long and almost certainly wouldn't enter Santa Maria.

On the other hand, if they see something new at Santa Maria (hydrated sulfates?), they'd definitely want to spend time studying it. If the new material was only inside Santa Maria and there was very easy access into the crater, then they might enter the crater. But they definitely wouldn't want to put Oppy at any significant risk, with the big prize of Endeavour still ahead.

I get the point fredk. I'd also said that if there is something of interest, Santa MAria would be a goog place to stay (and work) during superior conjunction due by end of January.

"I think Santa Maria will be a fascinating waypoint on the way to Endeavour — I just hope it doesn’t slow us down too much. But what are you gonna do, just skip it? If we didn’t have Endeavour beckoning us to the horizon, we’d be all over Santa Maria, so we might as well give it its due. I guess my personal hope is that Santa Maria gives the science team just enough to keep them busy analyzing data while we complete our trek to the big one!"

- Scott Maxwell

One reason to stop for a while at Santa Maria is to compare the composition of the salts (bedrock) from further North, to see if there is anything special to observe along those lines when we get to the walls of the big crater.

New panorama...

http://twitpic.com/393kq5/full

... and that has to be parts of the rim of Santa Maria poking over the top there, right..?

Click to view attachment

looks like it!I agree

If so, could someone point it out with a wee arrow?

Click to view attachment

That's definitely Santa Maria. The question is, when will the rest of the crater come into view? James talked about that recently. Looking at Stu's stereo view closely, it looks like most of the rim is blocked by a near horizon (lighter below, darker above). But to me it looks like that "near" horizon is still pretty far away. So it may take a while before we see the full rim.

On the other hand, the topography is so subtle at Meridiani that it's hard to know for sure. I'll bet that if I was there, I could jump up and see the whole rim!

Here's an average of the L2 and R2 frames from 2427 to reduce jpeg noise. We can see some of the rim to the right of the left "bump":
Click to view attachment

Nice one, Fred. Here's one of my trademarked vertical stretch jobs. A couple of little craters along the way are showing up, as well as similar-looking bright spots in the distance.

Phil

Click to view attachment

Thanks for that, Phil. That shows nicely the "near horizon" I mentioned, and a couple of the little craters we'll probably do drive-by imaging of on the way. But looking at the orbital view, there should be more little craters along the line of sight to Santa Maria. Since we can't see them, I'd now estimate the near horizon to be 400-500 metres away (as of 2427). So a good week or so of driving and Santa Maria may be fully revealed...

I think you're right. The near horizon seen from here must be around that outcrop area seen in your lines-of-sight image above. The cluster of craters just beyond it is hidden.

Phil

thanks for the oval-shaped arrow....

You're welcome

As we're now within sight of Santa Maria, time for a look at what's waiting for us when we get there...

Click to view attachment

( Taken from http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2010/...avour-base-camp )

I am getting really excited about Santa Maria, now. There's going to be a lot to see there, and it will be a great - ahem - opportunity for the MER team to 1) give Oppy a short rest, after all the hard driving she's been doing recently, and 2) catch their own breath, before striking out for Endeavour. So I really do think we can think of Santa Maria as "base camp" for the final assault on Endeavour, instead of 'just another crater'.

Great work Stu.

Completely random thought: looks like "boulder #5" is about the size of Opportunity and judging from the shadow somewhat sundial shaped.

We shall soon see as it appears to be just in the right spot to be directly visible after Opportunity approach to the NW rim of Santa Maria.

I've really no idea what the drivers are planning but they could be heading for a patch of ground with bedrock outcrops WSW of the crater because that route offers more reference points for navigation, in which case we'd approach from that direction.

I'm really looking forward to adding some names to those features as we get closer and then start rover-rummaging around the crater

And I've just noticed that today is Nov 23rd, that means another release of data from the PDS... this release should, if I've read it right, include calibrated pics of Concepcion and the beautiful "Chocolate Hills" rocks.

Image processors... start your engines!

It looks like a mini Victoria, nothing new....., drive right on by it !

Those blocks do look big, I'm thinking rover sized chocolate hills... can't wait to see...

Dune fields? Everyone can see that those are abysses man...haven't you learned anything in these last years?

About the names...hmm...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Mar%C3%...hip)#First_crew
(their names or towns of origin)

or names related to where the Santa Maria ran aground on December 25, 1492: Cap Haitien, Haiti.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cap_Haitien

Intrepid Crater from the other side:

Re: Intrepid Crater

It is interesting that this small crater displays (in a modest fashion) the same erosional forms as Victoria -- "Capes and Bays".
Santa Maria might be likewise categorized.

Whoa, free-lying boulders the size of the rover! Didn't know we would see that. Definitely interesting. Thx, Stu, for the annotated image and the chat with Scott.

You're welcome, but please bear in mind that I'm only guesstimating the size of those boulders, based on my own cack-handed amateur efforts

It certainly looks comparable in size to something like Wopmay back up at Endurance.

I think the big guy inside the crater is actually bigger than Wopmay. As for the ones outside the crater, I think... think... a couple are just under rover sized, but time will tell.

These boulders might well be the first compositionally different rocks we've seen in years @ Meridiani...can't see them being made of the usual crumbly sulfates.

Wasn't 'Marquette Island' compositionally different as well? Can't remember what it was made of...

IIRC, Marquette was a meteorite. I omitted those, meant native martian rocks.

EDIT: Oops, I'm a dork. Yeah, you're right, OWW. Marquette was a deep crustal rock, mostly basalt, and that wasn't quite a year ago. Time flies...

Phil-O-Vision version of James' Sol2424 panorama.
Click to view attachment

Santa Maria on sol 2429, showing a bit more of the rim. Average of L2/R2 frames:
Click to view attachment

Ok, this is the best I can do, comparing Oppy to Santa Maria and surroundings...

http://twitpic.com/39posk

Well, we can now see Santa Maria and our current location on the zoomed in view of Tesheiner's map (on my screen resolution). The high point in our approach looks to be about 400 m ahead next to a cluster of 3 small craters and oucrop (50 m west of the 3km E grid line). I think that will be our best view until we are actually at Santa Maria looking in.

(Marquette Island was a secondary meteorite from elsewhere on Mars, and it was a Gabbro -- Coarse-grained Olivine + other stuff.)

The dune field on Santa Maria's northern slope is intriguing. I don't remember seeing inclined, "mesh" type dunes (esp. inside craters) on our travels...

Peeking inside Southern Cross crater, a particularly rocky crater, on sol 2404, pancam stereo:
Click to view attachment

I don't recall any determination that Marquette Island had ever spent any time in space as opposed to just being blasted from one part of Mars to another. Maybe you mean ejecta, and probably primary ejecta.

Unless I'm missing something - these dunes are not significantly different to those in Endurance and Victoria.

The dunes near the north rim of Santa Maria do look a bit like the northeast corner of Spirit's El Dorado.

Although it is likely that MI is ejecta, it is not definitive, and may never be known with certainty. It cannot be ruled out that MI could have been ejected into space for a period of time before recapture, or even came from a parent body other than Mars that we have insufficient knowledge to recognize.

The large number of crater interiors and other steep south-facing slopes in various equatorial areas with deposits of dark sandy material bespeaks of some sort of episode in the Martian past that would transport and deposit this material. An interesting problem.

Of note is that Victoria had dark windblown material blowing from inside its northern rim. Maybe the dark stuff (as dunes up against the North rim?) is there too, but buried by more-recent dust and debris except where a few spots are eroding....

I don't think MI's been through an entry - it has no symptoms of being meteoritic (fusion crust etc ) and indeed its angular edges would almost preclude such an adventure would they not?

We simply do not know what has spalled or broken off of this rock.

That's true, but 'we don't know' is not evidence of anything. It is much more likely that this is a simple ejecta block. It's easy to invent additional possibilities, but it gets you nowhere in the absence of specific evidence.

Phil

Let's just say we agree on this point.

Nice view from Endeavour crater.

Taken on Sol 2429 with the L2 pancam.

Jan van Driel

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&id=23079

Sorry, I got an error message.

Just one month, and we have Christmas. Here's a calendar to shorten the waiting time ...
Couldn't resist to open the door of the Advent calendar a week to early ...

Welcome back, jvandriel!
It was a looooong time without news from Holland.


Yummy.

'Tis the season; best advent calendar ever, thanks!!!