National Aeronautics and Space Administration

“ Perhaps EDL team putting together animation. We can see it traces out a figure-8 pattern in crater. Central circle in airbag print about the size of a basketball. Cool to think about but physical properties folks on science team having a blast with these. We're leaving an indent and it's acting like a fine grained material but material not sticking to airbags like at Spirit site. Physical properties are telling us about the grain size, electrostatic or other physical properties. ”

“ Q. Acquired at Spirit site some high res images of crater off in the distance. May actually be exposed bedrock there as well?
Jim: this is subject of some debate. Unlike at Opportunity we had not had the opportunity to take low compression data. Most of the high-res was off on the distant hills and down at magic carpet and by our feet. The crater is going to be a near term target once we get back On he road. What we have is mission success panorama. We tried to take a long panorama across that crater but ran out of time and then the problems. Finishing that is a high priority. ”

“ In accord with our predictions. See pebbly surface with small outcroppings of white material. Seeing rim dive down and background picks up some of the flat terrain outside of the rim. Horizon is as flat as any place we've seen. ”

“ We got data at Spirit site lot of sulphur and chlorine. Less cemented at Opportunity and one prediction is less salts.
Matt: don't see duracrust at Opportunity.
Q. Mapping out mission course from inside the crater? Do a second evaluation once you're out?
Matt: landing in a crater is a blessing. If we'd been on the plane, we'd have a devil of a time located. We are in a crater with a 20 meter diameter and there are only so many of those in the landing area so narrows it down. ”

“ Jim: biggest area of debate about pebbly layer in outcrop is whether it's a continuous layer or a unique aspect of one rock, holding out judgement on distinct discreet layer.
Q. Gravels, pebbles and cobbles, are you seeing different colors.
Matt: certainly a dark small dark particle resolved in high res. For the first time an indication of different hued particles. No color yet but it looks like different color small particles among the dominant dark gray. Ideas are that they are particles weathered out of the brighter outcrop. ”

“ Matt: smaller than pebbles, gravel. Geologists have these specific categories. Indication in high res is that they're embedded in that material, not just sitting on top, on vertical faces poking out. When you look out to lowest part of rim where the easiest drive out, there is a reddish layer in foreground and behind that a darker layer. There's debate whether topography or just a different color. ”

“ Science team happy about that. Pancam investigation going well. Completed acquiring mission success panorama with thumbnails. 75% down on the ground. We've had opportunity to insert some little sequences when we had a few extra minutes between engineering activities. Exciting for science team. Nice bonus. For Opportunity, we've acquired 514 full-frame Pancam images for about 240 Megabits. On Spirit 2239 Pancam images or 1.3 Gigabits of data. This image is the first part of the Pancam mission success panorama, full resolution, in color. Stitched together one part near outcrop. ”