Oppy's first navcam pics near Voyager, unfortunately he stood there fairly aslope.

Navcam Oppy Voyager sol424 (400KB)

Beautiful.

...hey did you do a pan of Viking too?

Probably, suddenly I get appetite for Viking too

In the meantime I've found a nice solution in order to flatten Voyager...

Navcam Oppy Voyager sol 424 (520KB)

Looks really good, Tman!

It's pretty obvious that both Viking and Voyager are a little smaller than Eagle -- I can't see the landing platform fitting inside either V or V with room for Oppy to roll off without driving halfway out.

Voyager is also obviously older than Viking. This is a really, really good example of how the ejecta blankets of craters of this size erode -- notice how here, around Voyager, the ejecta blocks are still visible around the crater, but they are efficiently flatted down. They still form a slight bit of relief (a small mound that the crater sits neatly amidst), but the blocks themselves have been worn down to a nearly flat surface. Note how nice and even Oppy's tracks are as they run through the ejecta blocks -- that's a flat surface.

Viking looked exactly like this *except* that the blocks around Viking are still partially intact.

This evaporite erodes down very, very efficiently, doesn't it? No matter what landforms were created within it, it seems to erode right down to flat fairly quickly... so it doesn't retain its structures above-ground all that well. The only thing it seems to retain is holes.

Makes you wonder what caused the cracks (i.e., Anatolia, etc.). Are they evaporation cracking of the surface, or are they erosional? Seeing how easy it is to erode these rocks, erosion might be a little more likely than I had thought.

-the other Doug

Hi Doug, just I've updated a comparison of craters which Oppy visited. The pictures on the right side shows the craters from satellite images and are approximate in the same gauge. It's difficult to compare it from different satellite image (V+V with Eagle for example) but it gives a certain overlook. Anyway it's nice to see all together, sadly it lacks a better image (pan) of Eagle crater.

Seven craters by Opportunity

How about this one for Eagle:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/pre...-B079R1_br2.jpg

Hi akuo, thanks, I've seen this image of Eagle, it's nice, but for the size which I've used for the comparison it was then (in my mind) too small and too unimposing. If there is once a comparison of a larger version, then it could works.

Nice set of images. Perhaps Victoria will be in that collection someday

I agree. That's a nice set of images Tman! I love comparisons like that.

Remember how amazing Eagle seemed to us when Oppy first landed there? After an exciting 6+ months in Endurance, I had forgotten how really plain Eagle is by comparison - and even relative to the other craters we have visited so far. I think one area where we were lucky was that the outcroppings were relatively intact and easier to use for gauging the history of sedimentation. The story would have been harder to piece together had we landed in Fram instead.

And of course the one thing that Eagle has that none of the other craters have is a lander!

@Tman, great work u did here!
Esp. the comparism between the craters are amazing.
Thank You very much!

Hi Tman! Do you realized this with Pov-Ray stitching? (if yes, I would like to know how in the imagery section of the Forum, obviously)....
Marco

Great work, Tman! Boy, it really shows how you can't easily tell a crater's age (or at least, state of erosion) from orbit. Vostok, Viking, Voyager and Eagle all look a lot alike from above, don't they? But they seem of vastly different ages from the ground.

I'd guess, from the looks of the ejecta blankets and such, that they are, in order of age from youngest to oldest, Viking, Fram, Voyager, Eagle, Vostok.

-the other Doug