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#1 2004-04-30 22:57:50

Lars_J
Member
Registered: 2004-02-11
Posts: 82

Re: First view inside Endurance! - Wow...

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#2 2004-05-01 01:23:51

Rxke
Member
From: Belgium
Registered: 2003-11-03
Posts: 3,669

Re: First view inside Endurance! - Wow...

boy, looks mighty steep... wonder if Opp will get the gren light to get actually inside the crater...

Pic's too dim/grainy to say anything, but it DOES look interesting, lot's off different rocks, that dark area, the lighter patches at Opp's place etc...

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#3 2004-05-01 03:10:22

Michael Bloxham
Member
From: Auckland, New Zealand
Registered: 2002-03-31
Posts: 426

Re: First view inside Endurance! - Wow...

Wow! Bedrock looks thinner than expected... Outcrop on farside rim obviously can't be studied in much detail, pity; the outcrop directly beneath Opportunity seems to form a inviting ramp into the center. Interesting land-slide features and erosian under the overhanging outcrop; wavy dunes extending up the right rim. Magnificent!  :laugh:


- Mike,  Member of the [b][url=http://cleanslate.editboard.com]Clean Slate Society[/url][/b]

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#4 2004-05-01 03:38:53

Stu
Member
From: Kendal, Cumbria, England
Registered: 2001-09-04
Posts: 318
Website

Re: First view inside Endurance! - Wow...

Boulders and outcrops and dunes, oh my...

http://www.lyle.org/~markoff/collection … navcam.jpg

big_smile


Stuart Atkinson

Skywatching Blog: [url]http://journals.aol.com/stuartatk/Cumbrian-Sky[/url]

Astronomical poetry, including mars rover poems: [url]http://journals.aol.com/stuartatk/TheVerse[/url]

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#5 2004-05-01 03:43:17

Stu
Member
From: Kendal, Cumbria, England
Registered: 2001-09-04
Posts: 318
Website

Re: First view inside Endurance! - Wow...


Stuart Atkinson

Skywatching Blog: [url]http://journals.aol.com/stuartatk/Cumbrian-Sky[/url]

Astronomical poetry, including mars rover poems: [url]http://journals.aol.com/stuartatk/TheVerse[/url]

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#6 2004-05-01 08:35:41

Shaun Barrett
Member
From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Registered: 2001-12-28
Posts: 2,843

Re: First view inside Endurance! - Wow...

I showed my wife the detailed picture of the interior of Endurance. She took one look at the bottom of the crater and said: "That's ice!"
    I said it was probably more likely to be sand dunes, judging by the shape, but she still maintains its dirty ice. Back in the seventies, she climbed Kilimanjaro on a 5-month trip through Africa (she was pretty fit at the time but it still nearly killed her! ). She says the ice near the mountain's summit took on similar wind-tortured shapes as it sublimed, ever so slowly, into the thin, cold, dry air.

    Now she's got me wondering! Who knows? Maybe she's right. Wouldn't that be a blast?!!
                                                        tongue   smile


The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down.   - Rita Rudner

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#7 2004-05-01 08:38:40

cassioli
Member
From: Italy
Registered: 2004-02-23
Posts: 218

Re: First view inside Endurance! - Wow...

I showed my wife the detailed picture of the interior of Endurance. She took one look at the bottom of the crater and said: "That's ice!"
    I said it was probably more likely to be sand dunes, judging by the shape, but she still maintains its dirty ice. Back in the seventies, she climbed Kilimanjaro on a 5-month trip through Africa (she was pretty fit at the time but it still nearly killed her! ). She says the ice near the mountain's summit took on similar wind-tortured shapes as it sublimed, ever so slowly, into the thin, cold, dry air.

    Now she's got me wondering! Who knows? Maybe she's right. Wouldn't that be a blast?!!
                                                        tongue   smile

I suppose we'll know it as soon as Opportunity will take a couple of snapshots with the color camera and with the spectrometer (if not too much dust covers the ice...).

Luca

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#8 2004-05-01 09:24:19

RobS
Banned
From: South Bend, IN
Registered: 2002-01-15
Posts: 1,701
Website

Re: First view inside Endurance! - Wow...

What incredible pictures. It's hard to say how steep the sides are. Note the other side looks steeper than the near side. But perspective is radically different between the two. If the outcrop along the top is just a foot thick, like in the little landing crater, our perception of the steepness would be very different.

Did you see all the blueberries in the foreground? They're everywhere.

What I wonder about is the material under the "caprock" (the thin layer on top). The caprock is blueberry-rich evaporite, I suppose. The material underneath seems blockier (in the big blobs of outcrops), less layered, and more massive. Basalt? Sandstone? They can probably get Opportunity in by zigzagging it down.

        -- RobS

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#9 2004-05-01 10:59:16

Lars_J
Member
Registered: 2004-02-11
Posts: 82

Re: First view inside Endurance! - Wow...

Yes, entering on this side and slowly spiraling down is probably the best way to enter and exit the crater.

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#10 2004-05-01 11:15:57

Palomar
Member
From: USA
Registered: 2002-05-30
Posts: 9,734

Re: First view inside Endurance! - Wow...

*I think that's one of the weirdest pics of Mars I've yet seen.

Beautiful...but weird. 

--Cindy


We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)

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#11 2004-05-01 18:58:11

ERRORIST
Member
From: OXFORD ALABAMA
Registered: 2004-01-28
Posts: 1,182

Re: First view inside Endurance! - Wow...

Looks like spring water making it down the right side.It disappears beneath the side and reappears as it nears the bottom as a ice flow.

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#12 2004-05-01 19:32:33

Shaun Barrett
Member
From: Cairns, Queensland, Australia
Registered: 2001-12-28
Posts: 2,843

Re: First view inside Endurance! - Wow...

I think this is one of the most exciting areas of Mars I've ever seen. I just can't wait to find out what's in this beautiful crater.
    God! Wouldn't you love to be there in your MarsSkin, rock hammer in hand?!! I think I'd pass out from the delirium and have to be dragged back to the Hab by my heels!!
                              tongue   :laugh:


The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down.   - Rita Rudner

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#13 2004-05-01 19:56:04

ERRORIST
Member
From: OXFORD ALABAMA
Registered: 2004-01-28
Posts: 1,182

Re: First view inside Endurance! - Wow...

A few sticks of dynamite would do some good also.

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#14 2004-05-01 21:48:35

atomoid
Member
From: Santa Cruz, CA
Registered: 2004-02-13
Posts: 252

Re: First view inside Endurance! - Wow...

Yes, entering on this side and slowly spiraling down is probably the best way to enter and exit the crater.

still sounds pretty risky, considering how much trouble it had on that little slope in Eagle crater, was it that it was slipping with all those ball bearings blueberries under its wheels? or just that the sand was loose and had no real bite and just fluffed out as the wheels spun? either way, it seemed to dig itself into quite a rut going up the side of that little slope, and this slope looks quite a bit more intimidating...

If they find it might be too risky to go in until they've circumnavigated the rim and checked out other areas of interest in the vicinity, then maybe while theyre at it they can go check out the heatshield impact zone which is just a tiny jaunt away from the other side of the crater to see if it gouged a deep groove for the MI to look into. it would also be interesting to see what kind of effects Mars entry had on the heatshield (this should prove to be good engineering feedback to optimize future heatshield designs, and would be the first such results from atmospheric entry on another planet).


"I think it would be a good idea". - [url=http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Mahatma_Gandhi/]Mahatma Gandhi[/url], when asked what he thought of Western civilization.

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