Yes, everyone please don't over-interpret what Scott said. He was definitely talking about a best case scenario. As we all know, Mars has a habit of slipping a whoopee cushion under best case scenarios...

Could have been a bit of hyperbole too...

Phil

Hyperbole... Enthusiasm... Optimism... Whatever. The guy *drives* Oppy. I'm going to assume he has a pretty good idea of what's possible.

The way I read it, the Easter thing was entirely hypothetical, not even a best case scenario. Good interview though, nice to see the enthusiasm.

Yeah - take away all the limitation of conjunction, comms, science, restricted sols etc. If you imagine 50-100m/sol, every sol, 5 days/week for 3 months. That's 6km right there.

So moved. Do we have a second on the motion?

James, that is spectacular!

Regarding Scott's comments, as ever I will remain cautiously optimistic. It is reasonable to be heartened by such comments without having unreasonable expectations.

Yes we all know the limitations, anyway, look at this:
March 24th to December 14th = 258 Sols = 6388m (more or less what is left) = 24,8m/Sol
August 31st to December 14th = 104 Sols = 3654m = 35,5m/Sol.
Things are getting better and better.
(this regards ALL Sols, not only driving sols)

The large slab of exposed bedrock, center in the Pancam mosaic above, is "Luis de Torres".

Edit: Linking to the mosaic again, since it's two pages back now.

And yet you still want to play X-sols x Y metres.

After 7 years.

Don't we ALL know better than that these days?

A new stereo view of the ledge of Yuma from our slightly closer vantage on 2478:
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I can't wait to get our wheels out there!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but do the exposed bedrocks in this area of the rim have very few, if any, concretions embedded in them? Example
The blueberries all seem to sit on top of the bedrock or in the grooves between them, as though they rolled or were blown here, not excavated from the matrix?

I think we would need MI images to be sure of that.

Phil

So, this is Luis de Torres...

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( named after http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_de_Torres )

... and it looks like being Oppy's first science target here. In an email, Scott told me:

"Yesterday, we sequenced a 5-degree turn in place with the goal of
hitting the rock to the right of that split that runs down its middle."

... which would be roughly at "B"

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"Anyway, once we're in position ... we start the long campaign of pre-RAT recon, RAT, and post-RAT recon, including a MB integration lasting through conjunction (I think).

"I don't *think* we're heading further down the ramp pre-conjunction."

Ok, so it looks like we're going to be looking at this plate for quite a while then. Time to throw down the picnic rug, get the flasks and sandwiches out, and make ourselves comfortable... :-)

And NO ants!!!
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Thanks for the update, Stu. (So, what's A on your pic?)

No ants, maybe, but these blueberries are a pain to sit on for very long!

Nothing. I was just asking Scott roughly which area of the rock they'd be RATting, A or B.

Some weird n'wonderful rocks around here, folks...

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Wow. Thanks as always for the anaglyphs. We can add to the roster of names "Terreros," "Rodrigo de Jerez" and "Ruiz Garcia".

The first one have specialy sharp edges like been not too eroded. Anyone agree?

BTW, thanks Anaglyphs-King-Stu

Erosion can also cause sharp edges.

Some fascinating (I think, anyway!) background on the newly-named rocks pointed out in mhoward's post...

http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2011/...g-columbus-crew

I'm particularly intrigued by "Terreros"... anyone else think it looks a little like the meteorite "Mackinac Island", with those sharp, semi-circular edges..?

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But the rest of it looks very stony and nobbly. Fascinating.

The last L2 image is complete and down.

Here is the Pancam L2 view of Santa Maria
on Sol 2453 and 2454.

Jan van Driel

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My interpretation of the view of Santa Maria at Sol 2476. I really love those evening views with long shadows... Enjoy
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Finally in colour...

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A 3D view looking back across Santa Maria from Yuma towards Palos, where we first arrived:
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Wow, this is just .... phantastic !
Absolutely outstanding work, Olivier: for me, this one is among the Top 5 rover images of the whole 7-years mission

Another view of Luis de Torres...

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Steve Squyres was kind enough to answer a couple of Luis de Torres-related questions for my blog, if anyone wants to read...

http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2011/...ng-down-to-work

(In case anyone's wondering, the reason why I don't just paste the discussions with Steve and Scott and other MER people in here is because I specifically ask them for feedback for my blog, so even though I'm sure they wouldn't mind I wouldn't feel comfortable just cutting and pasting their answers here. I'm sure you all understand :-) )

Thanks again for posting that, Stu.

Here's the stereo L7/R1 view of Terreros:
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It's great to have these intriguing details revealed from the MER team, thanks !

Are these blueberries bigger than previous examples along Oppy's journey?

Stu
I am confused by two apparently conflicting comments by Steve Squyres. Am I missing something?

comment #1
The thing that’s different is that for some reason at this place it’s actually possible to see the signature
of hydrated sulfates from orbit. That hasn’t been the case anywhere else, and we’d like to try to understand why.

comment #2
The slabs. One of the things we can see from orbit is that the signature of hydrated sulfates seems to correlate
with the presence of bright bedrock.

Jack

My interpretation is that when he said "That hasn't been the case anywhere else", what he meant was anywhere else that Oppy's been yet. My guess is they see the signal from orbit correlated with bright bedrock in places Oppy hasn't been, but perhaps will reach when we return to driving.

brellis: not sure quantitatively, but in that anaglyph I posted above, they sure seem to stand out above the ground.

Just rediscovered my 3D specs after the move...thanks, Stu & Fred!

This place is just sick (in a good way!)

Colour view of Terreros...

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This rock is making me a bit twitchy. On the right it looks very knobbly and stony... but on the left, I dunno, that looks more than a little metallic and Mackinac-y to me... the very sharp edges to the semi-circular area at the bottom left, the indentations on it... if it *all* looked like that I'd say "meteorite" without any hesitation.

Most odd.

I can see that, Stu. My own personal impression is that it looks extruded; looks like the residue of a viscous primordial material.

Ordinarily this would be igneous rock, generally solidified lava. However...Meridiani does not seem to be rich in such materials. Are we looking at an impact melt artifact? Or, perhaps, has this rock been blasted from another locale?

I look forward to answers here.

Thanks, Nick. I hadn't thought of that. You see, this is why I love exploring Mars on this UMSF Away team. Someone spots something, comments on it, and someone else offers an explanation. Just brilliant.

Sharpened and generally messed about with 3D view of Terreros...

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I'm not sure about any texture differences across Terreros, but there is a colour difference. It's subtle in Stu's close-to-true-colour view above, but it's pretty obvious in false colour:
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The left side is clearly bluer (that's false colour blue, of course). No idea if that's intrinsic to the rock - maybe one side has more dust adhering to it due to prevailing wind directions?

Either way, this ain't your ordinary Meridiani bedrock. Since it's sitting on the rim of Santa Maria, I'd guess it's either a different kind of rock excavated in the impact, or a piece of the original impactor itself.

Some MIs came down...

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Here is the complete Sol 2475 Navcam L0
view of Santa Maria.

Jan van Driel

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Colour view of Ruiz Garcia...

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My, that's a tasty-looking cap of bright bedrock just beyond Garcia, isnt it..?

MIs after a longish time? Very nice.

On the other hand there seems to be some sort of new interference in those MI images. Or maybe it's just high compression rate in the RAWs?

With part of the image in direct sun and part in shade, you end up loosing most of the shade part. It should be fine in the real images where they can correct without fighting the JPEG compression.

...or maybe I've just messed about with them whilst joining them together. They'll get cleaned up in time. For now, just enjoy the view for the view.

Another nice view.

Jan van Driel

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Just to remind everyone where Oppy has gotten to...

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Oppy is, of course, parked next to Luis de Torres and should be giving it some *serious* attention very soon...

SPAIN

But she is here at Santa Maria Crater on Mars.

The Navcam L0 view taken on Sol 2478.

Jan van Driel

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