So far!

Please, Sunspot, cheer up!

Seriously - after 7.5 years of rover operations - have you not gained a single ounce of patience with which to deal with the intricacies and challenges involved in exploring another world?

I don't think anyone has an avatar that suits their forum persona less than you

Peering into the abyss (if ustrax will forgive the expression) - now I only need to stretch by a factor of five, not like the old days!

Phil

Click to view attachment

Hi folks, long time lurker, first time poster. Just a big thank you to all those out there who are sifting through the images sent down to us on Mars for the benefit of UMSF members. Watching Oppy's progress over the past year or two has been a humbling experience - a testament to the engineers, mission planners, rover drivers, and everyone involved.

Almost there now!

Looking at the farside rim after crossing the plains makes me think of the American settlers in their prairie wagons having their first sightings of the majestic Rocky Mountains.

Incredible! So we are THAT close ALREADY??? Thought the trip from Santa Maria to Endeavourcrater would take 2 years!
Did oppy stop by a gas-station or something?

No, seriously, I have a question actually. Does anyone know Oppys current all-time-record of driving in one day?
I have seen numbers like 160 meters in one day, but anyone know the record?

Thanks, and also, totally agree with everything Seryddwr wrote!

// Robert

Robert, I have 180m or so in my mind but others will know better. Good to see that new followers are inspired enough to speak up, as we approach such an exciting revelation....

One day forward drive record: 220m, Sol 410 (March 20, 2005)

Hay everyone, the images are down--both navcam and pancam--They are fantastic!!!! eample
You all were saying how excited you were for the images to come down--well you have to keep checking every 6 hours
Where are US west coast UMSFers????

Well, east coast Aussie UMSF'ers are here

Great view from Pancam - Sol2661

Click to view attachment

Bonus: Animated gif explaining near/far horizons and crater rim/interior for anyone not sure.

Click to view attachment

Some west coast Canadians, too!

I love this navcam view:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...0M1.JPG?sol2661
Following the horizon from the right across to the far horizon on the left, you get a nice sense that we're starting to plunge into a huge crater! Here's a Philovision version to exagerate the effect:
Click to view attachment
I think we'll need another 100 metre drive (or two) before we'll start seeing CY...

Crikey, thanks mate. I had to mosey on down to the corral but it looks like I got back just in time for the hoedown. Stu will be getting up for work shortly and this will make his day.

That's a really useful gif Astro0 amazing work in such a short time.

In today's 3D the local sand field on the rim-top ends just within the range of perceptible 3D, and Endeavor's opposite side falls back from that, giving a sense of the opening void in store for us all!

Click to view attachment

That's an awesome anaglyph Walfy!

As we get closer to Endeavour, I was reminded of something someone said long ago

The lovely SE view in stereo:
Click to view attachment
The terrain's looking a bit bumpy in the foreground...

(yawn)

((stretch))

...computer on... wanders over to kettle... grabs biccie from tin...sits down... logs on to UMSF...



Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

Hey Stu, I think "Approach Crater" now has an official name: Mariner9.

02662::p1973::03::6::0::0::6::0::12::navcam_mariner9_3x1_az_126_3_bpp

Here's yestersol navcam mosaic with Mariner9 / Approach Crater to the left.
Click to view attachment

... and for comparison, here's the first image ever taken of Endeavour crater. Coming up to its anniversary!

Phil

Click to view attachment

(PS just finished text edits of the Mars book... but it stops at Mars Express. The next one will continue with MER)

We have arrived at Mariner 9

Today's batch of images include this one exposing another big crater on the far rim to the right of the one we already knew from a long time.
Click to view attachment
Original: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...T6P2367L2M2.JPG

And, BTW, I'm pretty sure about seeing CY on one of the navcams; unfortunately is has been censored.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...T6P1973L0M1.JPG

What's this?
Click to view attachment
3x Philovision:
Click to view attachment
After many false alarms, I'm hesitant to declare it CY, but this is the most promising target yet!

Yeah I wouldn't want to say for sure but maybe, just maybe...

Let's see if I can get any more mileage out of my visibility map...

According to my reckoning Oppy should be just, and I mean just (~5 m) inside the visibility range of Cape York. As usual, green is visible from the summit of Cape York, red isn't.

Click to view attachment

So I think it's possible that Cape York has just started to rise up into view.

Got to admit that the view is even more gobsmacking than I imagined. Brilliant stuff.

Pete

EDIT: should say, that red dot is Sol 2661 position

Could be! - GM says it's the right direction for the most prominent 'summit' of the Cape.

Phil

Some time ago, on one of the previous "false alarms", I did this exercise. And repeating it again I got the following result. The heading is slightly off the highest peaks of CY but the images I'm using as reference might probably have a slight "distortion".
Click to view attachment

I say "yes" too!

Hmmm.... very, very interesting... I so want that to be it... perhaps the tallest spires of the Emerald City are starting to peek above the horizon...

Actually, Tesheiner, looking at the fantastic contour map Pete just posted, your 118.5 heading line seems to sit right at the summit of CY! I checked the width of the new feature - about 3 degrees - and that matches pretty well with what we'd expect for the flatter region around the summit:
Click to view attachment
This is looking very promising!

Nice work Pete. I bet you feel like Einstein did after the 1919 eclipse.

Absolutely!
I ever thought the highest point was the following one (see the arrow), but now looking to the contour lines on Pete's map in detail I realise that was a wrong assumption.
Click to view attachment

The highest point (a sort of plateau, actually) is dead on the right heading!

Thank you Kenny and Krisk!!!

That. Just AMAZING. And says that it will be even better ! I have the excitements of the first times. The times when Oppy was heading to Endurance crater, and Victoria.

Sol 2660


Sol 2661



I've also made this "phil-o-vision" with a little bit of wavelett sharpen. We can clearly see the shape of the crater now.
Click to view attachment

We can see a third crater on the floor of Endeavour.

"A crater within a crater. Two levels". Ahh, Inception…

And yes, I think this is CY we can see on the "horizon".

Phil,
That was a wonderful post of the old Mariner 6 image of Endeavour. Perhaps like you, as a youngster, I remember those pictures coming in and seeing them in the newspapers and New Scientist and Scientific American. I never imagined I'd be studying them again in detail 42 years on... !

Right Kenny - I remember the newspapers saying it was 'our next destination', coming as it did only a week after Apollo 11 returned to Earth. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi!

Phil

Hilarious!

Great news on the probable first sighting of CY.
This is I suppose obvious now, but why was I so surprised to see the far rim and plains beyond? (Stu nailed it in his mockup.)
The arc of Endeavor's rim as it makes its path 'round the way into the distance from afar makes for a beautiful geometry, aching to be explored.

fredk, pgrindrod, Tesheiner --in fact, all of you-- you are the reason we keep coming back to UMSF. Very impressive work.

Land ahoy!

I hope with the next drive we see more than one pixel row. And hopefully it is CY, but I am sceptical..

Well, based on the DEM rendering, this is pretty much exactly what I would expect to see. Sadly, no towering peaks, and I think it will be most obvious once Oppy is on it or on the east side of it rather than on the approach.

Slam on the brakes! There's quite a collection of cobbles over here...

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...T6P1973R0M1.JPG

(kidding...)

Phil

Yup... cobbles galore...

Click to view attachment

A bit of info (and a nod to our Stu!) explaining the recent short drive over at the new insider's blog:

Managed to tease out this pan-cam 3D from today's downlink (R-hand image had very poor contrast).

One big hole coming up! (Though probably more a dusty and dune-rippled plain, flat and wide. With a touch of terraforming, perhaps one day a prairie ).

Click to view attachment

A part of the upcomming pan (I think).

Isn't it a part of Iazu Crater we can see at the right part of the pan, behind the hills of the south rim of Endeavour ?

If those headings are correct then I think I'm ready to call....LAND HO!!

Super stretched animated gif:
Click to view attachment

The wider view animated gif:
Click to view attachment

Right - that can't be anything but Cape York now!

Phil

Wow, those triangular peaks to the south are really popping up too. Are they all part of Cape Tribulation?

I haven't had the time to do a proper feature comparison (yet) but I would guess that those are part to the south-west rim quite a way beyond Cape Trib.

EDIT: Actually looking again, I'm inclined to change my mind. They probably are the very nearest peaks of the Cape Trib range that point toward Cape York.

Shouldn't it appear darker than that though? The further away features are, the lighter they appear because of the atmosphere. It looks lighter than the peaks around Cape Tribulation.

The colors are not absolute and may (and actually do) change from one image to another; remember that these are JPEGs where the brightness / contrast may be completely different from the original IMG pictures, so I would not compare the exact darkness of CY on that picture with CT on another one. If they were on the same pancam picture that would be a different story.

Besides, can you point a different feature on that (or similar) heading between CY and the far rim? There's no one.

Overview...

Click to view attachment

Nope, nuttin obvious either between us and where CY should appear, or between CY and the far rim... there is a rise on the crater floor in that direction, but pretty sure it's not high enough to obscure the crater visible above what we're thinking is CY...