Well, the farther the current low region extends, the quicker and more dramatic will be the Dropping of the Horizon and the Revelation of Endeavour!

Shhh! Click to view attachment


It was posted yesterday (PDT) so it means "today". But his references to driving are actually to drive planning / sequencing so we should probably have it executed during sol 2649 and downlinked friday morning CDT (GMT+2). Easy, isn't it?

one drive in almost 2 weeks

Yes, but don't worry - we'll still be at Cape York before ExoMars launches!

Phil

Two hour drive today, about 120-140m.
http://twitter.com/#!/marsroverdriver

For what it's worth, a slapped-together Approach Crater video. There are more recent images to add, I believe, will do so later if I can find the time. the pictures are from Sol 2594 to 2635 (does not include every shot taken, as some were shot near same location). The distances were measured on GoogleMars, using Tesheiner's most excellent route map.

Click to view attachment

Same set of images as above, but sped way up for different effect.

Click to view attachment

Very nice, walfy!
And on the last frames I have the impression that the crater disappears a little bit, meaning that it is slightly after the next high point.

A cool movie,walfy!
It seems to me that the crater walls (left and right) of the Approach crater are spreading.

Yup. That's exactly what we should expect for a target three times closer on the last frame than on the first one, isn't it?

So we just still don't see Cape York. So I think, it is just a myth, we will never reach it .. after more than two and a half year we are just before the destination and we we still see nothing ... that's frustrating. Maybe we just turn around and drive somewhere else?

I know, but it's just geography and topography. The Cape will show itself soon enough. I have faith in my little red flag.

While we're all scrutinizing the view to the E-SE which has been getting worse, the view to the NE has opened up pretty dramatically in the last few weeks. Here's a navcam animation of the N rim of Endeavour (with 3x vertical stretch):
Click to view attachment
You can see that a subtle rise that was blocking our view has moved to the left, giving us a clear view. I don't think we can yet see more than back around Santa Maria, though.

I have a couple of (earthly) experiences where I couldn't see my destination until being almost there. And what happened in both cases was that the view suddenly opened up and the OMFG effect was great.

Exciting? Yes. Frustrating? Definitely not.

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Back to the usual topic (driving, driving, driving), yestersol they managed to drive 140m SE. I will post the map update in a minute.

Ever since Opportunity landed its the apparent flatness that has been one of the sites striking features. And with it being so flat you expect to be able to see for miles and miles, in some locations you can see further, but just a small change in elevation changes the distant horizon dramatically.

According to measurements on Google Mars, Cape York is about 780m in length, after the SOL2649 drive we are about 1400m away from it's closest point, just twice the length of Cape York itself, yet it is still totally invisible Amazing really.

According to Tesheiner's map approach crater and the top of cape york could be in one line of sight now.

Here the bump on the right side of the pics: Approach crater
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...00P2357R2M1.JPG

I did some measurements on GE too and Cape York right now should cover 28deg. i.e. much more than the FOV of a pancam picture. Once we reach Approach Crater it should span 40deg.

The problem it seems is that our Rover Driver friends by diverting from the "planned route" path/line have taken us around the right side of the "summit" we were approaching. So we are still in this bowl depression and my guess is 15-20 feet lower right now than we would be if that purple line, "planned" route had been followed. That small elevation difference makes all the difference in the world based on our position relative to CY and where it is "hiding."

On the other hand, it appears that in a few sols when we climb over that ridge there is going to be an eye-popping vista of Endeavor's far wall (well, eye-popping for Meridiani explorers). A lot of it depends on whether they tack right or left from the current position. If they got to the left, back toward the original path we'll see some serious relief almost immediately, but if they go right it will be a few more sols longer before the horizon changes.

If Oppy drives stright to Spirit Point, she will briefly dive off our big map. Do we need to add one more tile?

I'm betting on a visit to Stu's Notch, followed by a drive by Approach Crater. Then we'll probably be OK with Tesheiner's map for now.

Really looking forward to the big Revelation of Endeavour...

Cue Sid James laugh...

We're close to that view, so close now...

Just catching up with things after being out all day, avoiding TVs. So what do we all think, two more drives until our first shot at a HOAV?

It seems to me that we still are going down.
Here a comparison of the crater wall crater, which give a good indication of how deep we are in the current depression.

Why so few drives the last couple of weeks?

Here's an overview of the found meteorites of Oppy along its trek. I counted 12 meteorites on the trek.
We travelled 31 km, and maybe found every meteorite 50 m left and right beside the trek. So Oppy investigated about 3.1 square kilometers and found 12 meteorites.

Spirit Point ist about 17 km south and 10 km east of Eagle crater (Opportunity landing site for the younger of us), so in this region between Eagle crater and Cape York covering 170 square kilometers there should be about 658 meteorites lying around.

Was Santa Catarina at Victoria a meteorite? Or something else?

If I find out how to make links to the internet in Google mars I will post the .kmz File.

Not sure. But 2652 looks like a drive sol, so all being well they could be about 10% closer this time tomorrow.

Latest bedrock target to be studied by Oppy...

Click to view attachment

Looking at the 3D Hirise image again, there seems to be a ridge just before getting to cape York! The cape is hidden behind this ridge and it will take opportunity to ascend right to the top of this ridge before it will get a good whole view of the cape.

Moreinput: Bounce Rock was thought to be ejecta, not a meteorite. A small rock called Barberton on the south rim of Endurance may have been a meteorite as well.

Phil

Thanks for the meteorite plot, MoreInput. To add to Phil's comments, we're also not sure of course that the two recent rocks "Bypass 1 and 2" are meteorites, since we didn't examine them close up. Also, we've been travelling much faster on the W-E leg than S from Victoria, so there's been less drive imaging per km, and so we might expect to find fewer meteorites per km. On the other hand, meteorites could've been more easily hidden in the higher ripples on the N-S leg.

MoreInput: Santa Catarina was thought to be a stony meteorite, as were Barberton, Santorini, and Kasos. See "Properties and distribution of paired candidate stony meteorites at Meridiani Planum, Mars" for more info.

Aww, don't say that!!!!

If you had been paying attention, you would know.

They've been making progress as fast as practical and possible.

Restricted sols, USA holiday, DSN problems, full flash. These things happen.

On a related note it looks like tosols drive faulted out - but only after near 150m of driving.

Could this have something to do with the drive fault? Front wheels.
Or is this what the backward drive dance step looks like mid turn--must as right front wheel no longer turns.
OK, hopefully no problem, fault just happened mid dance step.

They sometimes look like that: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...QTP1205R0M1.JPG from 23rd June

The long 2652 drive was enough to finally start to get us over the crest of the very subtle ridge that's been blocking our view of Endeavour (and CY). Here's a comparison of the last two positions:
Click to view attachment
The horizon should drop faster and faster now...

If you stretch one of today's navcam images vertically, you get this...

Click to view attachment

Hmmmm.

Fasten your seatbelts!

(but it will still be a few days before we arc over the curving crest enough to see the goal)

Phil

My blinking gif

Sol 2649 - Sol 2652 - Yay! - Sol 2649 - Sol 2652 - Yay! - Sol 2649 - So 2652 - Yay! - Sol 2649 - Sol 2652 - Yay! - Sol 2649 - Sol 2652 - Yay!


Jack

I made up a little tune a while back called "Cresting the Rise", and I thought this might be a good thing to share with the UMSF Rover fans...
Something to listen to while we wait...

[quote name='Floyd' post='175401' date='Jul 11 2011, 03:15 PM']Could this have something to do with the drive fault?

Yeah, looks like the drive faulted after the turn back to the drive direction but before the wheels were straightened (apart from the RF which never turns of course). Hopefully something simple like a slip check fail and not an issue with a steering actuator (edit just catching up on Twitter and I see Scott talking about driving so I guess it wasn't anything serious )

Comparing Oppy before Cape York and Spirit before Columbia Hills

We are just about 1500 meters before Cape York, and still see nothing.

For comparison: View of Lahontan crater, just at the same distance (1500m) like Oppy is before Cape York: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...ntan_Crater.jpg

Still cannot believe we are so close.

It's not a huge surprise or shock we can't see CY yet. SPirit saw the Columbias so early and so clearly because they were sticking up out of the landscape, the highest point in it. We've known for ages that CY is over our horizon, actually inside the bowl of Endeavour, so we'll have to be at the highest point in the local landscape, looking down into Endeavour, before we see it properly, and on the top of the local ridge before we see its highest parts at all.

If you look at a bath from the side you can't see the dirt ring around the inside until you peer over the edge...

But I think that soon, very soon now, we'll see the summits of CY's peaks appear on the horizon.

Why? One is about 20x taller than the other.

We may even see something like this* soon...


Click to view attachment


* but probably won't!

My guess: CY will be much lower, and much less sharply peaked. I'm thinking a subtle "shelf" on the inner slope.

Nice work Mark! Makes me feel like we're really rolling now!

Oh, me too Fred, that's a purely fanciful view

Hey, we've seen the HiRise Digital Elevation Model in its various manifestations. Cape York is a shelf generally below the surrounding elevations. The highest part, based on shadows, seems to be the north side. But it seems mostly to be a shelf within Endeavour's basin.

I really think the difference between calling Cape York a shelf on the wall of Endeavour and a low, exposed portion of Endeavour's rim is important. I think the latter is the case. Yes, Cape York appears more shelf-like than peak-like but I think it is appearance only, in relation to the Meridiani sediments, and not the true morphological identity of Cape York. Maybe we can just call it a scenic overlook.

Cape York as a portion of Endeavour's rim nearly covered by Meridiani layers. This is what the situation looks like to me.
Click to view attachment

Cape York as a shelf on the interior of Endeavour's rim. I see no evidence of this. Where is the rim peak to the West of Cape York? I do not think one could have been there and eroded away. And even if that were the case, that would make Cape York part of the the current rim peak.
Click to view attachment

Just my two Centsworth.