New Mars Forums

Ok guys, here it is:  :band:

http://jumpjack.altervista.org/immagini … f]Download 8 MB gif animation 640x480
http://jumpjack.altervista.org/immagini … i]Download 2 MB AVI animation 640x480 (requires DIVX 5.1 codec)

Many thanks to (in order of appearance ):
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsde … age/a]This site for Hubble image
http://ralphaeschliman.com/id22.htm]This site for Mars hires map
http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20040116A.html]This site for Gusev b/n image
http://www.lyle.org/~markoff/]This site for color image of Spirit landing site

Luca

Did you see http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/ … .html]this incredible pictures by NASA?  :band:

Luca

Some calculations:

If rovers move at 1 cm/s, they can drive 0.864 Km per day; supposing they drive just 8 hours per day, they would cover 0.288 KM/day.
Till september, we have ~150 days; 150x0.288=43.2 Km
Unfortunately, Gusev's rim is around 60 Km far 
But the southern mesa (which maybe was a bunch of little islands in Gusev lake...) are less than 30 Km away! 

And probably rovers can run faster than 1 cm/s and 8h/day...

(from http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20040116A.html]here)

Luca

A rough calculation says that, to have the bottom of an equatorial martian crater 130m wide never hit by direct sunlight, the crater should be at least 145m deep... 

Infact, due to ~24 degrees planet inclination, at the equator (Opportunity is around 2 degrees south of equator) the Sun never goes down more than 24 degrees at noon (with respect to vertical axis), so tan(24) = 65m/depth  ==> depth=145m

The shadow arrives to the center of the crater only when sun goes down to at least 73 degrees from vertical axis, but I don't know how long it will remain under that angle during the Sol.

But there is another possibility:
although enlightment of Endurance appears not compatible with ice at its bottom, we must consider Mars average temperature: I remember surface temperature never rises over 20 degrees (Centigrade), and goes down several degrees under 0; so here it is what it could happen: during warmer hours, water vapour is in the air; when temperature falls under 0, vapour condenses and even freeze on Endurance surface; next Sol, in warmer hours, frost melts, and resulting water falls toward crater's bottom, where it freeze again in colder hours; repeating this process for several days, I suppose we could obtain ice accumulation in the bottom reagion of the crater.

Now we have just to go there and dig it to proof this! 

Luca

It could be a martian creature just escaped from the near hole in the sand to go to the ice dune to have some water...
...or it can be another fu**ed rock
Actually, it's still too far to suppose anything about it.

About strange endurance color and strange dunes at its bottom
I know that on Earth's Moon ther is water-ice inside deep craters in polasrs regions, because hey never receive enough sunlight to melt the ice.
I suppose that the strange dark color of the bottom part of Endurance is caused by the crater's shadow (although I can't actually see its edge), which covers the bottom part. If the crater is deep enough, and if sun is low enough (always or in a quite long part of the year), probably we could have ice inside the crater.
But I need more info to proof this:
- How wide Endurance is?
- How deep?
- What is the inclination of Mars axis?
- What is the max Sun elevation in this area, now and during martian year?

I can obtain the last info with a program of mine, but I need the other (I know you know them, don't let me google them...  )

Luca

Maybe http://www.the-planet-mars.com/mars-cha … .html]this page (taken from http://www.the-planet-mars.com/]this list) will be more useful to you. 
(A lucky night today to look for Mars images, for me!    )

Luca

This crater is VERY strange! Absurd colors!!! 

BTW, I found an interesting image which maybe explains why there are so many bluberries here:

http://ralphaeschliman.com/mars/opls.jpg]Opportunity Landing site - color

Maybe the dark area has the same origin of Gusev's one:

http://ralphaeschliman.com/mars/guls.jpg]Spirit landing site - color

http://ralphaeschliman.com/id22.htm]The "maps home page"

This is a very nice map, with locations nomenclature and landing sites of various missions:
http://ralphaeschliman.com/mars/mlassm2.jpg]Big color 3d map

Luca

Ok, I post my images... but take them with care:

http://jumpjack.altervista.org/immagini … e.jpg]Blue endurance  - 1

http://jumpjack.altervista.org/immagini … 2.jpg]Blue endurance  - 2

I didn't do anything difference from what I usually do: just took L2-L5-L7 and joined them into RGB channels.

:hm:

Luca

Ok, guys, I found a new wallpaper for my desktop: I just enhanced the HUE value.

http://jumpjack.altervista.org/immagini … ]Endurance wallpaper

Luca

Sorry, couldn't wait for official color images! 

Luca

If NASA dos  not post new images SOON, I'll pass to the Other Side of the Force... :rant:

http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/ho … html]Crazy Mars

Luca

I just found this site while looking for explanation about rovers' pancam:
http://mars.gh.wh.uni-dortmund.de/mer/]mars color images

BTW, I also found the info I was looking for:
http://www.highmars.org/niac/education/mer/]MER  Pancam

Luca