Starting a new topic to include Eduardo's Google overlay for the rest of the journey to Cape York:

http://planetary.s3.amazonaws.com/gmars_ma...41_1775_RED.kml

Follow the link above and it should load right in to your Google Mars features.

I took a low crow's flight along the final 6km this morning. Below in green is what I think the final route will look like. Also an interesting feature along the way that appears to be a cluster of rocks, possibly Santa Maria ejecta, or large meteorite fragments. Note how the dune has evolved around the three (or more) objects. Object is at -2.199395°, -5.396676° -- roughly 3km down range from Santa Maria.

EDIT: bad link replaced, wider context image added for three rocks.

The Green path is interesting indeed.
On my side, I bet for a "directissime" (as we say in French) route to Cape York (RED path on ElkGroveDan's good map), because Oppy is now on a very flat terrain with just small dust ripples. I think the Navigators will just race (straight route) on the smoothier terrain available in front of them (maybe with short stops at small craters), not only to gain time, but speed also, while saving some energy by avoiding wheel friction on "pavements"... We'll see
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I can see them making a beeline. I think the path from here to Cape York will be one of straightest they've ever made.

Members who can't access HiRISE images via the IAS Viewer, or who haven't got Google Mars, might find this zoomed-in view of the "final approach" to Cape York interesting... I think Oppy will be driving over/through/round some *fascinating* ground features as she rolls up towards CY...

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I'll add a "scale Oppy" later, have to head out to work now...

There is an open topic on the Geomorphology of Cape York.

Several posts moved there.

No big scientific musings here, I just have to say that I'm non-plussed by the thought that Opportunity - after all these years - is actually heading for large-scale morphology. It might be just another crater, but it feels like Landfall.

Endeavour is not just another crater. It is the one and only crater that Opportunity will visit that presents material from another - more ancient - age of Mars. The rim of Endeavour was there before the layers of sulfates, before the hematite 'blueberries', before anything else that opportunity has seen.

We agree. It is totally different from what we have seen so far, that was more or less the gist of my posting.

I would guess the MER team would want to get to Endeavour well before the next winter. Who knows what the next Martian season will bring?

Opportunity, being more equatorial than Spirit, has never needed a tilt during winter.

A late summer or fall dust storm could always make the winter hazardous, even for Opportunity.

Indeed - such an event occurred just before ingress to Victoria...with Whr's down to <100. And then once the skies cleared it just carried on.

Might the rover drivers forego the climb of "Ledge York" and instead study the surrounding hydrated bedrock before heading straight for the clays at Tribulation ?
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA13708
Saving precious time and beating MSL
Or will Oppy now be headed for a specific location targeted by CRISM ?
Best of luck and W/Hrs to the team!

Per Ray Arvidson at LPSC, Opportunity will start driving toward Cape York between Monday and Wednesday next week.

Some musings on the road ahead for Oppy...

http://roadtoendeavour.wordpress.com/2011/...aring-to-depart

Your blog is always a pleasant reading, Stu, and I believe we are all eager to start moving again. Incidentally, I'm already working on the JPEG route map covering this final leg (see below a half scale version).

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It's going to be a pretty flat ride!

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And an overall downward slope the rest of the way can't be bad for those poor, sore wheels!

ET, thanks in advance for your ongoing efforts! Another innocent question: in your image, are the lighter-shaded areas rocky?

Hardly a slope. 1:160 means effectively dead flat. The visual representation of these graphs with such different axis metrics can be misleading. But the MOLA passes are pretty far apart here so there could well be swales, bumps and hollows to be found. But overall it does look life the sediments did a real good levelling job on the terrain.

Remember - Petes chart is from a HiRISE derived DTM - probably three orders of magnitude better than any MOLA gridded product.

2542 is a driving sol...

I´m just curious - is it possible for Oppy to drive on top of Cape York ? The view around must be stunning !

Robert

Check out this post and those that follow for a discussion of this.

Short answer: Quite possibly.

Long answer: With an interesting "crack" at the North end, interesting ejecta blocks at the South end, and possible interesting erosion features all along the juncture between Cape York and the Meridiani pavement, who knows how long it will be before the urge to bypass all that and climb to the top will take hold. On the other hand, Cape York may turn out to be an easier traverse for Opportunity than Home Plate was for Spirit. Maybe a quick jog to the top before heading to the North or South end could be in store. Maybe head one way along the edge -- to the North for example -- then head the other way along the top. Or vise versa.

The scope of Cape York is kinda amazing to consider. This place is big -- like, Texas big!

Well... Victoria Crater big, anyway.

So to examine Cape York as thoroughly as the perimeter of Victoria was examined could take a year.

Click to view attachment
Source images:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=128456
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&p=171593

I couldn't imagine them spending anything like a year at CY when the real goal of clays would be farther to the south (not that you meant to suggest that, 'worth).

In fact, I wonder if they may decide to head straight for Tribulation, where the biggest exposure of clays seems to be, instead of CY. Or perhaps straight to Solander Point instead and then south to Tribulation. CY is quite a bit out of the way.

And after we've gotten so worked up over how to study Cape York!

But finding clays before MSR is a stated objective. (How official, I don't know.)
Of course, Tesheiner will have to redo his "final Leg" route map.

Yes, but the sequences planned for 2543 make me wonder if this is just a small bump before taking the second part of the LBS mosaic.

02539::p2260::09::48::0::0::48::2::98::pancam_Santa_Maria_LB2_left_4x3_L257R2
02539::p2261::09::36::0::0::36::0::72::pancam_Santa_Maria_LB2_left_3x3_L257R2
02540::p2262::09::12::0::0::12::2::26::pancam_Santa_Maria_LB2_left_1x1_L257R2
02540::p2263::09::12::0::0::12::2::26::pancam_Santa_Maria_LB2_left_1x1_L257R2
02540::p2264::09::48::0::0::48::2::98::pancam_Santa_Maria_LB2_left_4x3_L257R2
02541::p2265::09::36::0::0::36::0::72::pancam_Santa_Maria_LB2_left_3x3_L257R2
02542::p2266::09::8::0::0::8::0::16::pancam_Santa_Maria_LB2_left_1x2_L257R2
02543::p2267::09::12::0::0::12::2::26::pancam_Santa_Maria_LB2_right_2x3_L2R2

I agree. This must be gathering votes amongst those who will decide. In addition to the clays Tribulation has the same curious skirting shelf as Cape York so I can't see any obvious science that would be lost by missing out the latter except in the case that the rover fails just before reaching the slightly more distant target.

This post from Maxwell may clear things up a bit:

Regarding the destination on Endeavour's rim... at LPSC two different posters showed the same graphic, of routes at the south end of Cape York which might offer access to the Noachian materials in the Cape itself. One climbed onto the top of the Cape near the south end, one skirted the Cape's south end to examine older rocks at the southeast corner. That graphic is not shown in the abstract accompanying one of the posters:

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2011/pdf/2199.pdf

But it is clear they expect interesting materials at Cape York and Botany Bay. No need to head south right away.

Phil

Phil...if I remember correctly from a couple weeks ago, Ray Arvidson said that the engineers had told them that the proposed path straight up Cape York was a "suicide mission". Basically, Opportunity could get up there, but might not make it back down. So I think the southern path was/is preferred right now.

How could Oppy climb up somewhere that she couldn't get back down? Slippage would be a problem going up, not down.

"Phil...if I remember correctly"

Yes, you're right, he did say that.

"How could Oppy climb up somewhere that she couldn't get back down"

Dunno - except I think he might have meant the end part of the route. The interesting material seemed to be on the inner (eastern) slope of Cape York. The drive might be easy up to the top, as we've been saying in this discussion, but then tricky at the end as the targets on the steeper eastern slope were approached from above. For that reason they preferred the southern route, crossing the broad terrace at the base of the hill to taste the yummy stuff above it.

Phil

Strictly in terms of topography, my target of choice is that wedge feature on the northeast corner. It looks to me like a water-eroded ravine, with hints of source channel and "deltaic" deposits spread on the plain to the northeast of the "mouth". This is the single most anomalous feature that I've seen since Home Plate. If I were driving, this would be the first target -- do a quick imaging survey, then go off and look at the spots with neat chemistry elsewhere while we digest the imaging results.

This is music to my ears.
Scott Maxwell tweeted:

Buckle up kids. Has everyone used the restroom? Let's go!

Next stop seen on Sol 2543 with the L2 Pancam.

Jan van Driel

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I have this catastrophically unhealthy urge to shout 'POWERRRRR' in a Jeremy Clarkson Top-Gear kind of way.

But with < 500whrs, it seems a bit rude.

Shotgun!

You mean way point, don't you?

As a generally passive observer of Opportunity's travels, I am glad to hear that it is getting on with it.

Now, full speed ahead!

As another well known backseat driver would always say: "Engage"

I back the wind too, c'mon wind, g'luck Oppy...

It continues to amaze me that Endeavour is almost the size of Oppy's journey thus far!

Great ride so far and the best is yet to come!!!!!

GO BABY!!! GO!!!

Craig

Like a leaf in the wind!

http://astropoetry.wordpress.com/2010/03/21/museum-peace

Yep, that is rather impressive...

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