During Tuesdays press conference, one of the scientists, Dr Joy Crisp spoke about some of the locations they would like to send Opportunity to in the future. After leaving the current location a long drive to "Endurance Crater" is planned and after theat they would like to attempt a long drive to the South of about 2KM. This area has a mottled appearance, possibly with bedrock exposed on the surface, but I cant find images of this area - anyone help?

Also, a drive to the south after visiting Endurance Crater would take them close to the heatshield impact site - would it be a worthy scientific target?

This is the picture she showed during the press conference


(click for larger image)

I hope they visit the heatshield. It might of dug a hole of greater depth then the rover could do with its wheels. Also, many of the engineers would like to see the heatshield to study its performance.

Yeah - the heatshield has to be a target really doesnt it? It's dug a big hole, then is sticking up quite a lot to where it bounced to

Doug

I agree that the heatshield is a good target, mostly for engineering reasons. (How well did it survive the atmospheric entry and impact?) But any soil sample at the area would very likely be contaminted to a degree, I suppose.

The DIMES images of the Opportunity landing site show nearly all the craters to have white rims, Endurance crater is particularly bright - any idea what causes this?

Even the crater the rover is in has it, but it can't be the bedrock/outcrop as it appears all the way around the crater, where as images from opportunity show it coves about 60% of the wall.

DIMES image:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/pre...1404m-B22R3.jpg