During the final sols of September, the team discussed the next plans for Opportunity. One option under consideration is to send the rover back uphill to an area near the first way station where the MER scientists have spotted some interesting bedrock.

“It looks like two different colored, bedrock units in direct proximity,” said Golombek. “One area that we’re imaging shows that one side has rocks of a lighter tone and the other has a browner, darker tone and the two units appear to be separated by what could be a fracture zone or something. It’s all dirt, maybe broken up rock that’s been filled in by sand, or who knows? But when you have two different units right next to each other, then there is often information in that contact that tells you about what rocks are there and what the relationship is between them, whether one has been deposited on top of the other or how different they are, and what’s going on.”

The team members have also been discussing sending Opportunity farther east, down the valley about 12 meters, to what ostensibly be the next science stop. But the actual decision probably won't be made until after discussion at the "End-of-Sol" meeting on Tuesday, October 3rd.

Although the team settled on the new target-naming theme when Opportunity entered Perseverance in July, they have not yet named the science stops. They did however talk about it, said Golombek. “That just came up and I think we may start doing that,” he said.

As September turned to October, Opportunity was still working on completing her imaging assignments at station 2 and APXS investigations into Bernalillo and an offset of that target and team members talked about what’s next.

“There are certainly some interesting things we’ll be seeing as we continue our way down the valley,” said Fraeman. “From orbit, we can kind of see what might be this anastomosing features that we’ll have a chance to look at up close. And, we’ve been seeing a lot of bedrock and carefully documenting it. We are still discussing what carved this feature. But we haven’t found the smoking gun yet.”

It seems a majority of the MER scientists still agree that whatever formed Perseverance, it probably happened 3 to 4 billion years ago during the Noachian Period on Mars. “A lot of us are pretty convinced that whenever this was done it was quite some time ago, because there’s just a lot of dirt on everything,” Golombek chuckled. “We haven’t seen anything that’s indicates it’s youthful although it’s not like you get there and it’s got this big ’N’ on it that says: ‘Formed in Noachian.’ You still have to use the surface data to figure it all out.”

Most of the scientists also seem to also still be leaning toward water as the force that carved Perseverance into Endeavour’s rim. ““A lot of us feel the information from the walkabout was semi-indicative of flow over the edge of this, water flow,” said Golombek. “There have been proponents who have suggested there are a variety of things that are consistent with that. We have seen Aeolian erosion, and I guess I would call it modification of some of the surface rocks. But I don’t think anybody’s talked about how you would carve such a valley, with what look like these channels that go back and forth, by erosion. We need to just get the rest of the data and put it all together.”

Perhaps the most important news this past month from Endeavour is that no one’s worrying about whether or not Opportunity will make it through winter – and the rover is admirably still working her little robot heart out.

“I think we can be very proud of our rover,” said Nelson. “We are by no means having to just hunker down and wait things out. We still have work that we are doing and once we get the 0-degree, battery heater running that should also help quite a bit.

Actually, there is that other reason for optimism – Mars itself. “We’re waiting with bated breath,” said Nelson. “Maybe if we all huff and puff really hard, we can make the wind blow on Mars…”