Regarding Ant103's enticing Sol 2667 image: is that the "Far Side" crater we see in the distance to the right?

That's Iazu crater spanning roughly the middle third of the distant horizon, if that's what you mean.

To figure out what's what, have a look at James's nice inverse polar matchup in this post.

I wondered if tosols drive would be a short bump to get to a bit of outcrop that Matt Lenda had said the science team were interested in IDDing. There was a 'work volume' observation planned which reenforced that idea. However it looks like ~120m has been put on the odometer, that's some bump!

James

Maybe they spotted an outcrop a little closer to Endeavour's rim that looked more promising? Guess we'll know when we see the pictures...

I 'think' my colour blindness is one of the 'standard' ones. I've seen an explanation which seems to match my view of the world :-
The eye has 3 peaks of sensitivity, roughly @R G B and the brain sorts the mess out into continuous colours.
My (et al) peaks are shifted towards Blue - and red is lower sensitivity than normal - thus red is a dark colour, & blue a bright colour.
so I get dim(darker) image through the left/Red filter, and a much brighter image through the right/cyan filter - that intensity difference is what makes my brain hurt..
Sorry for the OT
Mike

Some nice driving to get to a good looking outcrop. Expect IDD in the coming sols on this.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...N5P1214R0M1.JPG

Look at these beautiful pic:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...N5P2374L2M1.JPG

Just: wow!

(Are we there yet?)

That looks suspiciously like tilted layering there on the left side.

just two so far

Algorimancer, do you mean the large dune in front of the left near horizon? Those look like typical dune striations to me.

BTW, that dune is on the west side of the last big crater before Spirit point, which Stu called "Almost there" crater a while ago, and was circled black in this post.

James: Maybe, but my guess is a closer dune/crater/mound. The ground drops pretty dramatically in Botany Bay, so that next cape would have to be pretty tall...

CAN'T WAIT for the other two panels in that drive direction pan to come down!!!

Gotta hand it to the Opportunity team, they're making it hard to turn away from a 7-year-old mission when we have shiny new things to pay attention to, like Dawn, Juno, GRAIL, and MSL

Yeah, I had changed my mind and deleted that part of my post just a couple of minutes after posting it. Initial excitement got the better of me.

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Well when they work, they REALLY WORK, & I found out about my build error when I was in my late 50's during a successful life as an electronics engineer...
Mike

A wonderful shot today, with Iazu crater in the distance, Endeavor Crater showing itself more, and "Almost There" dune/crater. A deluge of mind-blowing images these days/sols, history in the making.

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That's what I've been wondering? What constitutes an official arrival at Endeavour? Victoria had some pretty clear demarcation lines, most of them fatal to cross. Here we just seem to be flowing through a continuum of increasing downwardness.

Debating this is a waste of time, but if you want a crisp definition, 'there' means at the very clearly delineated edge of the ledge surrounding Cape York. One HiRISE pixel across!

There!

Phil

Not that it matters, really, but I'll consider us 'there' once Oppy passes the southern end of Cape York and is halfway across Botany Bay, that's always marked the finishing line for me. Others may consider Landfall, i.e rolling up onto Cape York to represent true arrival. It's just a personal view, I guess.

I wonder how long any IDD work might take? Could we have a tiny tiny delay in our journey due to something called radioactive decay.

That's what I was going to go with, Phil. Seems as good as any, and that strand line is a clear marked "finish" line right there on the surface. However, Oppy's trek has always been a series of "finish" lines, as soon as we get to one (edge of Endurance, edge of Victoria, edge of Endeavour), we/they spot another place we/they want to go to. So quite frankly, does it really matter?

Since Endeavour is mostly covered by sulfate sediments, perhaps "there" is when the first (basaltic?) material of the actual crater material is encountered, presumably on Cape York.

I remember reading about how long it takes the MB to do an integration these days; I know at landing it was 12 hours. So many half-lives have passed!

I've always considered arriving 'there' to have occurred once we have obtained a vantage point that shows most of the interior of Endeavor.
As with Victoria, it was when we arrived at a point on the crater lip where we could see not just our first glimpse of the dust-clogged drain at the bottom of the pool, but some of the foreground crater slope as well.. IMHO of course!

On a journey of this length, I think it's nice to have multiple arrival points.

--Greg

fredk, thanks for the response. I was wondering if what Stu refers to as "Tesh's Crater" in Post 351 of this thread appears right of center in Ant103's pic in Post 1099. That crater has captivated me since it first appeared on UMSF radar. It's a pretty serious divot on the rim of a gigantic crater, never seen anything like it.

I believe Stu's referring to the crater in the foreground (but still far away) in that image, not the crater on the far rim hill. I don't think we settled on a name for that far rim crater. (Maybe "Far rim crater"?)

Anyway, far rim crater isn't visible in Ant's pan, it's off to the left. If you're wondering about the dark smudge on the distant hills, that's a "cape" sticking out of the ejecta shield around distant Iazu - the rightmost upper yellow line in James's matchup.

I think Brad's referring to the crater I refer to as Cyclops. That big well-defined eye on the far rim that's been watching Opportunity on her journey to Endeavor.

Cyclops! - That's a great name!

This might help clear things up, Brad...

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Endeavor approach milestones:

- Rim peaks first spotted over horizon
- Opportunity moving down slope over divide
- Crater interior first seen
- Cape York first spotted
- Cape York terrace reached
- Clays accessible with instruments

BTW, 'arrival' will occur when the new thread is started.

Ready to get down to work...

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Almost! What you labeled "Byron" should be "Dromedary", and your "Dromedary" should be "Hicks".

BTW, the lone peak on the south rim is called "Batavia", and we're seeing Iazu through the "Torres Strait".

Edit: A picture is worth how many words?

The MER team seem to be viewing "arrival" as reaching Spirit Point. That seems as good a milestone as any.

Question about the labeled pan: Why does Solander Point not show up in the image? Is it another low-lying hillock like Cape York? It looks much more pronounced to me in the satellite imagery. Is that little bump in the center of the image a part of it?

I would be remiss not throw in a comment or two here about by own enthusiasm as we approach Endeavour. It truly is astounding. When I think back to that announcement in September 2008 that Opportunity would be embarking on yet another journey that would require nearly tripling her odometry, I hardly dared hope it was possible. Of course I did hope, and the excitement about beginning that journey has only been trumped by the excitement of arrival. There were moments when the obstacles seemed too many: the wheel troubles around Kasos and Absecon, adding 3km to the trip to head west, the doldrums of the solstice and the PMA fault. But here we are on the doorstep. It truly is a credit to humanity, to the the creativity, resourcefulness, and perseverance of all involved, that the culmination of the journey is at hand.

Anyone wanting to debate the sol on which we 'arrive' at Cape York....please go away and find another forum.

At some point there will be a new thread. Anyone who actually cares when that is or what it means....probably should seek urgent therapy.

Thanks Fred, I wasn't sure myself, hence the question marks.

And yes, that picture is worth a thousand words, but since that picture was made the viewing angle has changed and we've lost some of the SW hills from view due to foreshortening, making it a bit harder, I think, to ID those features.

I think it is visible, but quite subtle - check out this post.

Thanks, Fred! I think I see it now; it blends in well with Cape Tribulation. I was clearly looking too far to the left. Thanks to all you map-makers and landmark finders for helping people like me get our bearings.

Wan't to know how the rover planning day was for this drive? http://opportunityendeavour.blogspot.com/ from Matt Lenda.

Gives us nice insights what is going up on earth to push the rover on Mars.

Best statement:
"Oh, by the way, our updated Crumpler Countdown is: 0.50km, 97.8%"

The Pancam L2 view on Sol 2668 in Colour.

Jan van Driel

Click to view attachment

.

We really see more and more detail of Cape Tribulation now:
http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/p/...N5P2374L2M1.JPG

Oh my...

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Reposting after an admin clicked the wrong button!


Wow! And look at how much of Cape York we can see now!

http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/1/n/...N5P1944L0M1.JPG

I'm intrigued how flat Cape York is on top despite it's contours. Almost like a submerged sandbar that gets eroded flat as the water level recedes. (Not that I'm suggesting any such thing as a receding body of water, just that it has that APPEARANCE )

...and with a little imagination (look in the distance) you can find almost anything you want on Mars

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1...s,_Colorado.jpg

Strange....

Cape York looks spectacular from HiRISE, but if we didn't have those HiRISE images, I don't think we would have any idea that there was anything as spectacular as Cape York just below the horizon.

MGS showed Endeavour clearly, I recall (though it was a while back).

Ooh, pretty view...

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And the anaglyph for the whole panorama.

Oppy is offering me perfect breaks during my PhD thesis writing