Luckily, we have a beacon pointing to North

Judging by the tracks, the feature on the horizon about a quarter of the way from the left edge of this image could be Vostok. I missed it the first time I looked at the picture as I was staring at the outcroppings.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P0680L0M1.JPG

That can't be because it's look at West. Vostok is toward South-East.

Hmm. Should've figured that out by the direction of the dunes. The last Pamcams from 2/24 are looking SE-ish.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P2381R1M1.JPG

Personally I don't think Vostok is visible at all unless you're almost on top of it. The rim is probably totally eroded away so that it's just a flat bedrock peeking through the soil.

I thought this was Vostok. It's about a third the way from the right side of the image, just below the horizon. They've been taking lots of L4 L5 L6 pictures of it for a while now.

No - I've made the same mistake - that's a large crater way out to the east somewhere. (notice the dunes running across the field of view - not in line with it )

Doug

And an updated JPL Opportunity Route Map :

Large version in this link.

They will have a hard time keeping this map up to date given Oppys current pace

Already 300 meter farther south than the map shows

^ WOW! How close are they to Vostok?

That close
http://mer.rlproject.com/index.php?act=Att...pe=post&id=5855

....damn, I guess the person that updates the pictures is on holiday

Sol 389 Pancam images......

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...unity_p389.html

These images aren't showing up on the exploratorium site

Blueberries everywhere we look. I got a creepy feeling that this seemed familiar
and realized it strongly reminded me of the "black flies" in Stanislaw Lem's The Invincible. I'm not suggesting the blueberries are anything like the remnants
of microrobots in Lem's fiction... but the descriptions in that book have an eerie
similarity to our pictures from Mars.

Sol 390 raw images have arrived!

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity.html

Could this be in the direction of Vostok?

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P2286L7M1.JPG

I wonder if the dark line with what I assume is a rock above it is the small crater nearly midway between Oppys current position and Vostok. Just above it is another linear feature, possibly Vostok?

Possible meteorite?:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P2287L7M1.JPG

Sunspot: to my opinion, Pancam images from Sol 390 heads toward SW to NW; then Vostok cannot be seen.
Here is a little version of Sol 390 stitched images. I believe Opportunity is parked East of the "two big, one little, crater cluster" (see Opportunity route map image Sol 387). These three craters are seen on the Pan below: the Eastern one on the foreground, the Western on left, the little Northern one halfway to the right side of the Pan. Sand dunes orientation (roughly North South) may fit also with a Westward view.

Updated Opportunity route map.

So, are we at Vostok? The map above makes it appear that way.

No. There is a Mars Clock for both rovers at:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html

You'll see that Oppy's current sol is Sol 393.

I wonder if it would be possible to add a mars clock to this forum? At the top of the page so it's always visible.

Good idea..... Doug?

or that one in the office:

Going off-topic here but here's probably the coolest clock I've seen on the web (Earth time though).

Get mhoward's MIDNIGHT MARS BROWSER and keep it running in a window - keeps great Mars time by rover!

That's three minutes ahead of the JPL clock - what's with that? Who's right?

Don't forget Mars24...

Not easily Without just stealing the flash one at JPL's site.

Doug

I noticed in the last route update, that Opportunity's goes inside Vostok

that assumes that Vostok is a crater, some say it may be a mound ... :>

new panorama of 'Naturaliste' Crater, Sol 387 here

If it was a mound of any height - we WOULD have seen it by now

imho - it's a very very erroded crater, much more so than eagle/fram etc - i.e. pre hydrological activity - it'll just be exactly what it appears on the orbital images - a ring of exposed rock perhaps a few CM above the surrounding area with no inner 'dip' or dunes

Doug

Well, it must be a really low mound, otherwise it should be visible by now.

Edit : it appears Doug types faster

According to Pando's last Opportunity routemap (link: Pando's RouteMap) and JPL's sol 387 Pan (link: Pan sol 387), Vostok should be seen on that sol 387 Navcam picture: 1N162546176EFF4700P0680L0M1.JPG
(on the left part of the horizon, and roughly 400m far). Thus in fact "it must been a really low mount", as you wrote Djellison and TheChemist...

Astrobio has a nice javascript Mars clock. Just add this to the page source:

<script src="http://www.astrobio.net/news/javascript/marstime.js"></script>

To be honest - it'd piss me off If I want to know the time on mars, I load up Mars24 Great though the Invision board is -it's cluttered and noisey enough already. It'd be breaking my own rule about excessive signatures ( I HATE signatures that go on and on about peoples PC specification WHY DO I CARE!! )



Hell - what next - BA Flight schedules from Heathrow to KSC in the menu bar

Doug

I think MMB's is just a couple seconds off Mars24's. I'm not exactly sure why the difference from Mars24, possible a rounding error. Couple seconds off was close enough for my purposes.

QTVR of the 'Naturaliste' Crater, Sol 387, panorama here: "site_A47_cyl-med.mov"

Just a quickie, but I like the "being there" feel...

Looks like the "vessels of discovery" naming meme still applies...though I don't remember any "Voyages of the Naturaliste," Google again saves the day!

Looking all around Naturalist QTVR Pan; damnation, where is Vostok? Thanks, Lyford.

You can get a non-Flash (but javascript) html Mars clock at:
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~lemmon/mars/MERClocks/mera.html
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~lemmon/mars/MERClocks/merb.html
http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~lemmon/mars/MERClocks.zip

It is as accurate as the UTC clock of the computer it is run on, or
to within a couple seconds for a time-synched computer. It can be
put in another web page or set as a desktop feature (at least for
windows, haven't tried elsewhere).

curious, why choose Deimos as opposed to Phobos as a screen name...

I think they'll take one look at Vostok and drive right on by lol .... I still don't believe the white annulus visible from MOC images is bedrock... I think it's lighter coloured dust that's accumulated around the object.... all the craters show this when seen from orbit.

I found this previously released image of Vostok, as you can see they are looking into it and it is surrounded by a lighter coloured dust that's accumulated around the object. Well called Sunspot



ps Vostok was Gagarin's spacecraft,

you can read the fascinating story here

Vostok was the Russian equivalent of the American Mercury program, so it was the spacecraft for Gagarin, Titov, Tereshkova, and several others.

cIclops: your post raises the question of Vostok's images true colors, and i am pretty sure the following one is more accurate :

Daily updates are coming in for Spirit..nothing for Opportunity for a few days now

that always makes me nervous lol

EDIT: a new flight directors update is available, they should be driving over the weekend and hope to be at Vostok early next week.

Yes, driving on Sols 394,396,397, no drive for today, Sol 395 (restricted Sol).

Assuming yesterday's drive was successful (let's say about 140-160 meters), we should be sitting around the Sol 395 marker on the map right now, continuing on toward Vostok over the weekend, and be there by Monday.

http://mer.rlproject.com/index.php?act=Att...pe=post&id=6069

Looks like a nice long drive backwards toward South-East on Sol 394



edit: looking back on sol 394 at a drive made on sol 393...? maybe?

Hello Pando, mhoward, folks: i wonder why Pando just post Sol 394 Opportunity images: Exploratorium is up! Tralalalarere, just a Froggie folk song...

Yes, exploratorium is back, but it skipped the PanCam images of the Opportunity triplet crater that were posted on the jpl site the last few days....

You should let them know that, if that's the case, it might be a bug with their software. (Chuckle... kind of an inside joke for me there.)

On second thought, I suppose it might be a bug with *my* software, if you're using it, so maybe I'll just shut up...

According to Pando's routhe map todays drive should take us up to Vostok