Mars Cope Rift Mystery Cache
Marky: This one is gone. I'm archiving this to allow a new cache to be placed.
More
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size:  (regular)
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The posted coordinates are where the Mars rover landed. The black box is thought to be within 4 miles of where the Mars rover touched down.
Back in 2004, shortly after touchdown, the Mars rover headed into the Cope Rift for some surface feature studies. The following coded message was received from the Mars rover. No communication has been received since. We believe that the message sent contains the final coordinates of the mars rover's black box. It was designed to eject the black box in case of a critical problem. Nobody has been able to break the code. During your flight to Mars, we hope that you will have enough free time to break the code. Assuming that you do, your mission is to recover the black box.
Here is the message as received:
166306069
9956969
27539479
1309
9956969
467797
174915529
3185237
3185237
9956969
40549
4343141
22231
276971
22231
1309
259831
276971
174915529
3185237
2720783
259831
40549
I'm sure I don't have to tell you this, but the terrain in the Cope Rift can tricky so go slow and watch your step.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
[puzzle step 1] Pnpur gvgyr vf n gjb jbeq nantenz gung qrsvarf n frg bs ahzoref.
[puzzle step 2] Pbaireg rnpu ahzore va gur chmmyr gb gur frg bs ahzoref va fgrc 1.
[puzzle step 3] Hfvat n ahzrevp gb nycun znccvat (n = ybjrfg va gur frg, m = 26gu va gur frg), pbaireg gur frgf sebz fgrc 2 gb nycun punenpgref.
[puzzle step 4] Rnpu frg bs yrggref va n bar jbeq nantenz.