Looks to me like the trenches we have already seen have become more numerous until they have merged together to form a general collapsed area with remnants of the old terrain forming the criss-crossing ridges.

I think you're spot on there, Dan.

Very quick Best Guesstimate Rough Guide to the major landmarks that MIGHT ahead based on what I take to be the route shown on the recent traverse map release... bit hard to pick them out tho, because it's quite a low resolution pic... and the nnames are *obviously* a million percent made up by myself, they're just there to give a flavour of the trip, ok?

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You'll see a little virtual Oppy next to each crater, at the correct scale. I'm going to put some better versions of these omages up on my blog later, rather than put them all up on here and gorge myself on UMSF's bandwidth, so I hope some of you will take a look at those.

Note: I'm not absolutely sure about these crater IDs, so this really is just a bestguesstimate

I think it's a slightly bigger one 200m NNW of your identification.
One reason --but perhaps we are trying to extract too much information from the image posted by Tim Parker-- is that the feature on the official map seems to be located on a rocky patch more consistent with the crater I'm pointing at. The other reason --and this is perhaps more relevant on this "game"-- is that this whole "route path" makes a small detour north of a straight path. Why? IMHO, it's not to visit some craters on the way but to avoid crossing a ripple field on a more direct path. This northward route crosses a more benign terrain and the little double-crater on Dan's picture is right on the ripple field.
My 2c.

I think 'Young Blocky' could even be the rayed crater at the top right corner there. OK it's not on the proposed route line but it's sufficiently close to have been considered as a possible waypoint at some stage.

"Unalaska", from Sol 2553...

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...and the obligatory 3D view...

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Interesting rock, that... Named after http://unalaska-ak.us ?

Because the higher ups vetoed the name "Deadliest Catch."

lol, I work on that show

Good name, if you've ever seen the Aleutians...

RtE blog post now up, with lotsa pics: http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2011/...te-to-cape-york

It looks like we caught a gust/DD on the horizon on sol 2561:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...1M1.JPG?sol2561
Compare with this navcam view on the same sol - the light-coloured gust isn't visible here:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...3QP1997R0M1.JPG

I'm a bit puzzled by the apparent plan to initially target the south side of Cape York. The "wedge"/valley on the northeast side is clearly a target of interest, and the obvious next destination following Cape York would be the taller rim peaks to the south, so it makes more sense to me to make the initial "landing" at the (closer) north end, then work through targets of interest between there and the south side, finally departing Cape York southwards. My best guess is a higher priority put on seeing minerals in that south-side crater before MSL does the same elsewhere.

Sibling rivalry. There's no way Opportunity is going to let her younger sister make the big discovery when the same achievement is within her reach.

Why does Spirit's Evidence of Phyllosilicate in Wooly Patch not count as the "big discovery"? Using the same instruments (in a weaker state), will Opportunity be able to document any discovery better than Spirit?

The L2 Pancamview on Sol 2579.

Jan van Driel

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... and with a 10x stretch of the above pan, there is EGD's 'etched' area (post #245 above) right ahead. It does look very distinctive like this, or from above, but oddly bland when you're right on it.

Phil

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I had quite high hopes for that area too, as I did for an area of "mounds and domes" a way back. But now we are almost on top of it, a 3D view shows it's nothing special, really just a trick of the light...

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On the other hand, the "double crater" up ahead is starting to look interesting...

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Looks like a slight detour on the way to Double Crater...

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/tm-...B_Sol2579_1.jpg

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Unfortunately I think that was not the case. I just checked the data available for today's drive and this is the result.
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Actually, there was a mid-drive stop to take a whole 360º navcam panorama and a pancam mosaic of that etched area, but the drive continued afterwards directly towards the double-crater.

I'll update the route map later on.

Suits me, I couldn't see the appeal of that spot anyway

This month's MER Update by A.J.S. Rayl is online now. I've just started to read it and found this:

Today the rover is scheduled to drive on toward a grouping of several impact craters, named Freedom 7, Sigma 7, Faith 7, and Friendship 7, for the NASA’s historic Mercury spacecraft.

Edit: ... and this:

"Opportunity is turning into one of these active seniors who make the rest of us feel self-conscious," chuckled Callas. "Here's this little old rover zipping around up there every day, while we're saying to ourselves: 'I really need to do something more about my weight and getting a little more exercise.'"

Just been reading that too... another fantastic report, as usual...

Those newly-named craters...

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I was just ready to post a GE snapshot with the actual crater names when I saw yours.
Yep, that's the right assignment; Salley puts it very clear on the report.

Today was another driving sol but I still can't get enough data to post a preliminary map update. With the currently available data (to us, outsiders) I can only tell it seems to be another looooong drive (+100m ?) so we might be right at the "Mercury crater field".

This was very interesting, I thought...

The course charted will take Opportunity up to Endeavour's Cape York by way of Botany Bay, Arvidson confirmed. "Botany Bay through CRISM data shows hydrated sulfates and it's an easier approach to the southern side of Cape York where the phyllosilicates are exposed."

Sooooo, looks like Oppy will actually drive past Cape York then double back and roll up onto it from the south. They really want a look at that rubble-surrounded crater, don't they? Can't wait to see those pics, as at least one of the blocks is bigger than Oppy herself...

New Cape York pic up on: http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2011/...te-to-cape-york

What confuses me is that the darker green that is labeled as "clay minerals" at Cape Tribulation is not seen at Cape York, while the significance of the lighter, yellowish green seen around Cape York and elsewhere is not mentioned. (Does it indicate a weaker signal, or phyllosilicates of different mineralogy?)
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Neither this latest image or the previous image from http://www.planetary.brown.edu/pdfs/3954.pdf shows any phyllosilicate signal around the crater on the South tip of Cape York. Perhaps all that ejecta will just be blocks of basalt. In fact, I don't see any phyllosilicate signal at the South end of Cape York in the latest image, so I don't know where they intend to look. The ejecta doesn't look like a good bet to me but of course it would be a good idea to investigate the ejecta regardless of whether it contains phyllosilicates or not.
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There is newer CRISM data - see this post.

Fig 3 from that abstract shows a few small greenish spots on Cape York, though it doesn't say what the colour represents. One of the spots corresponds with the blocky crater Stu's been talking about. The text says there are possibly interesting signatures from Cape York itself.

Another interesting bit is a description of the criss-crossy "darkened terrain" we drove through on 2581:

I'd just add one more point. I interpreted that quote differently. I read it "...it's an easier approach from the south end of Cape York to the region south of Cape York where the phyllosilicates are exposed." Ie, from the south end of CY they will be able to easily head south across Botany Bay towards Tribulation, where they know there are phyllosilicates. I don't think they're planning on phyllosilicates at CY, but any they do spot would be investigated, I'm sure.

It looks to me like the green just represents craters, with no respect as to what materials are associated with them.

While the text mentions "... the presence of Fe-Mg smectites in Cape Tribulation and perhaps even in Cape York.....", there is no indication of phyllosilicates in the diagram.

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http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2011/pdf/2199.pdf
(link indicated by fredk)

Actually the phyllosilicates at Cape York seem to originate with the ejecta from the now filled crater in the centre and were possibly dug out of a deeper, protected deposit by the impact.

That geologic map has been used in a number of publications at various scales. The green unit has not always been clearly defined in the publications. One paper that I found seems to suggest that the green (CT) simply maps post-Noachian craters. It's not a very useful designation, but perhaps the best available.

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One could get that impression from the image on the left, but there is no indication of that in the other (updated?) images.
That leftmost image seems to be a representation of actual data. But maybe it is discounted in the diagrams to the right because its reliability is in doubt.

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Interesting that you should present a map which includes both Endeavour Crater (upper right) and Miyamoto (lower left). I was looking at a paper that presented Miyamoto as a possible landing site for MSL because of the presence of phyllisilicates (before that site was dropped from the list).

The papers on Miyamoto phyllisilicates and on Endeavour rim phyllosilicates have three authors in common (Arvidson, Wiseman, Murchie) but the papers come to different conclusions as to the source of the phyllosilicate signal. In the case of Miyamoto Crater, the signal is shown as coming from crater fill while in the case of Endeavour, the signal is hypothesized to come from exposed layers in Endeavour's rim.

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Miyamoto
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2008/pdf/1806.pdf
(Above, upper right, is a Google Mars image that I included to show the relationship of Miyamoto (blue),
Endeavour (green), boundary of Meridiani sulfate layers (orange), and approximate location of Opportunity (blue dot).

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Endeavour
"...hypothesized stratigraphy, with
subhorizontal hematitic plains layers (gray, short dashes)
overlying layers with hydration signature (cyan, long dashes),
which onlap tilted phyllosilicate-bearing layers (red lines)
exposed in Endeavour rim."
http://www.planetary.brown.edu/pdfs/3954.pdf
(previously linked in post 275)

"That geologic map has been used in a number of publications at various scales. The green unit has not always been clearly defined in the publications. One paper that I found seems to suggest that the green (CT) simply maps post-Noachian craters. "

That's not the same map at a variety of scales - you can't deduce anything from one regarding the other.

Phil

CosmicRocker, as a Real Geologist you'll know what I mean when I say that CT on many geologic maps of Mars is sort of equivalent to Qf on Earth geologic maps. It's the crap that gets in the way of us seeing what's going on with the bedrock. Anything exposed in crater walls is usually too small in spatial extent to be mapped intelligently; CT covers the crater and its ejecta that obscure what was going on underneath, just like Quaternary fill obscures geology in Earth's valley floors.

Phil: You are the map expert here and I don't want to argue with you about maps (because I'll probably lose that argument). I will admit that I had assumed the various published maps were all based on the same map, because the colors used for the various units are identical. I don't *know* that they are the same map at various scales, but it certainly seemed like a reasonable assumption to me. You state, "That's not the same map at a variety of scales." Do you *know* that to be true?

That's really a pretty good way to describe it, Emily. As an avid reader of your blog, I can say that you have quite a talent for describing obscure things in ways that are very assimilable.

Waiting for full resolution.
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That's really good work, Peter.

Wider angle view, made from thumbnails again...

http://twitpic.com/4sqhvw/full

"Do you *know* that to be true?"

The use of similar color schemes makes it look like they are the same map, but this is misleading. Obviously there is something in common between them as well, but they are not the same.

First, they are very different scales, so it's not just a case of the same digital image being shown in full and in an enlarged detail, which was really what I meant at first. As different map images, the color schemes don't have to mean exactly the same thing. More importantly, though, different scales mean (in this case) different levels of generalization. The regional view (Miyamoto map) aggregates all the Meridiani plains material into one unit. The detailed map of Cape York splits that into multiple units - including the hydratyed material and terraces. The green things are confused by the cartographer - in the regional map they use green for two different things, Bololu materials (mostly ejecta, a specific geologic unit) and a morphological class of feature, the post-Noachian craters. Note how the green is in the crater depressions, not the ejecta deposits of those craters. In the detailed map green is used again for morphology - crater depressions, some extremely subdued and, frankly, geologically indistinguishable from the material they formed in. And if you look at Endeavour in the regional map, the blue Noachian material is not just shown on the hills of the rim but as a complete ring around the crater, looking like the inner slope of Endeavour. The detailed map correctly maps the inner slope below Cape York as the red plains material and related units.

Phil

This images pipeline is still somehow broken so we'll have to continue with the "minimalist" mode. Here are yestersol (2585) navcam pictures assembled on a mini-mosaic and a mini-polar-view.
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Long ago the MER team realized they needed to alternate forward and reverse driving to keep lubricants better distributed in the wheels, but when they they decide that the healthiest thing for Oppy was to do 95% backwards driving?

The FR wheel starts drawing a lot more current if they drive forwards. Driving backwards, it's elevated above the others, but not as much and not in an upwardly trending way.

It would have been a few months after Victoria they made the switch I think.

There are new pictures of Freedom 7 up at JPL, but still not at the Exploratorium.

Phil

NASA's update, with good image of the new crater: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?rele...mp;auid=8289598

Admin: A series of posts moved from Oppy Map thread.

Did some forum archaeology and found this from pre-Victoria days:

And Squyres would have told you the rovers would be dead after 120, maybe 150 sols.

I'm in good company.

You will also see that over time, I come around to the idea.

I was absolutely sure there was no frakking way in a dozen different hells that Oppy could possibly make it to Endeavour, too. Not a lack of faith in the rover, or her team, just a stronger faith in eeeevil Mars to do its damndest to kill Oppy before she even got half way.

Very glad to have been proved wrong.

Question for the very talented and skilled folks stitching together these wonderful images: is it easier to work with thumbnails or lower res images than the larger images? Can you substitute the high res images onto your work on the thumbs?

I'm guessing YES and YES.

Edit: definitely easier on the clock due to smaller file sizes, but how 'bout on a superfast computer?

Superior design inevitably results in superior performance. There should be an entire systems engineering textbook written about the MER design...hmm...maybe I just invented a project for myself...