Thanks Tesh, for the news! We've indeed left HP, and are heading straight for the next most interesting outcrop on the hill that Spirit will spend the winter on. That's a great picture!

We may not spend a lot of time at these places, but as fast as Spirit has been moving, it appears we have more than a month left before we reach the most ideal wintering place NASA might choose. I'm hoping this means we have time for thorough examinations enroute - before we 'park it' - so to speak.


You'll be missed, James... but, we'll do our best to leave a good diary here for you to read when you can get back.

Thanks so much for that view! There are so many items I hope to see closer, but I'm wondering if we'll just see Spirit whisk on by most without much of a stop.

I've also began to wonder if the spot chosen to winter at might not be a surprise. Some think it must be far to the East in a more sun exposed area (green circle in attached) but, what of nearer options? Could not the "North facing slope" be somewhere along the nearer immediate South (yellow alternatives?) This would certainly provide a quick return to HP, and much closer trip to the "promised land."

The long-green-line certainly provides more interest to me, but what of travel time, there and back? What area provides the greatest chance of continued wind "cleaning" must also play a big part in where MER-B winters, I would think...

It seems it might be time to start a post about the run to the hills... there are few days left to get Spirit to a winter-friendly spot somewhere up there - with all those tempting spots that we ~might~ be able to stop by on the way. That is - if we don't dally too long at each!

A discussion of what the best spot would be, and why it would be the best spot seems in order - along with what the best targets on the way would be interesting.

I'm looking forward to the possibility that we'll have a chance to see several outcrops that appear to have layers, maybe similar in some respects to HP. Or will they be?

I'm also looking forward to the possibility that we might get a look from the top of these hills, off to the South as winter ends, before we descend from the hills and head to the "Promised Land."

Later I'll post some snips of locations I'm hoping to see up-close... thought I'd get it done on posting - but, just had an 'emergency' that demands quick departure!

Agreed - it does look little different (see enlarged snips below) other than that the image taken earlier has more fracture, and the smoother section at the lower left (my snip) shows more of what appears to be small vacuoles - but not a single micro-spherule - and isn't as high in magnification.

There is not much reason to believe that we'll see great differences in any of the material that makes up the layers of HP, but I sure would like to see a few more MI’s of various layers next spring.

- Yup, they do seem immortal - testament to the fine care they've been given by their opperators. We've been warned that either MER could die 'at any moment' - or 'tomorrow.'

And, yet I blither on like I'm sure there will be 'next spring.'

One thing encouraging, others must think there will be spring - and summer... we've seen funding extended to next September, have we not?

The choice of "get it now, while we can" - or "get it later, after we escape a winter death" is a no-brainer... you act to stay alive, not die taking repeated one-last-looks.

Last winter, we did a lot of sitting in generally one place - but we did drive a bit, and get to new spots to marvel at. We found that drives raised the temperature inside the WEB, sometimes higher than expected - proving beneficial and getting to new places that still gave us the tilt toward the sun needed. I expect we'll see more drives this winter than last.

VERY colorful!

On our way to the "Promised Land," in the Martian spring, we'll come back to HP for a lot more poking around... there's just too much of interest here to avoid taking longer to see what can be found.

Most tektites are pretty irregular in shape, and normally quite rough... concretions are produced by deposition from aqueous solution in rock - so I'm not inclined to believe we are seeing either.

What we do see appears to be many small and various sized vacuoles, most round, some not. Some of those cavities seem to have a spherule inside the cavity! As if the contents of a former protected vesicle (bubbles?) hardened.

What this looks like is light volcanic matter, complete with many small pockets of gas – some of those pockets replaced by mineral deposit – others not. Yet it is obviously layered.

I’d speculate numerous small deposits laid down by frequent small to medium expulsions by volcanic action that would have the heat and gas to form bubbles.

I've found tiny 'apache tears' in ash layers – droplets of ‘volcanic glass’ that falls into soft ash and hardens. But what we’re seeing here is definitely not that kind of ‘nodule’ – that is, if indeed some of those cavities contain a spherule.

Below is a snip of one image enlarged, with green arrows pointing to what may be tiny spherules, and some red arrows pointing to cavities with possible spherule content and a couple of other round-ish objects.

Does anyone else think these are spherules? Or, is what we're seeing a trick of lighting and high magnification...

- We’ve become incurably addicted to reliable, fast, normal image arrivals. Now we’re being starved – for some unknown reason...

BUT – I think I’ve figured it out. NASA is being upstaged here – very embarrassing. There’s no need for traffic to the NASA rover websites, because all of us addicts are here. Worse yet, we see almost immediate super pans here – amazingly accurate and fantastically beautiful.

Solution – cut off the source of this competition. Instant fix. Now the traffic numbers justify the money spent on the NASA websites.

Others here, including myself, have 'leaned' that way for some time - particularly since the ground around HP, and all nearby environs, are laterally strewn with rocks that have been identified as being of volcanic origin. But these rocks are not seen in any abundance very far from HP, indicating a one-time or short-period minor expulsion.

It looks very much as if HP is sitting in the remnant of a volcanic vent (the source of the apparent ash that makes up HP) that not only created HP, but also burped up the volcanic rock around it. Apparently, the vent was active for some time, never too violently, but long enough and frequently enough to pile up many very localized ash layers. Another item that argues somewhat for a vent, versus an impact crater, is that impact craters are more round than is HP.

It would make sense that PM may also be the remnant of a small vent. However the problems with this theory are, what caused the slab-like feature to the immediate East of PM that does not look to be as white or 'ash-like?' Was there a vent there, and if so, why is it's vent wall now seemingly non-existent, and why is it so much lower in elevation than that of HP? Obviously, vent walls don't have to be high at all, nor made up of a great amount of lava, but you would expect there to be at least some - more than we are seeing immediately surrounding HP.

The biggest question of all, though, has to be - why is there so much volcanic rock in this localized area around HP - and not hardly any less than a couple of hundred meters away?

I'm not a French speaker... but, Let the good times roll, should be 'Laisser le bon rouleau de temps' - 'Laissez les bons temps rouler' would be 'Leave good times to roll' - at least, so says a couple of translation services on the net.

And yes... THANK YOU James, for that quick color image!

We need teleportation on the next rover -

Then, we could just pick up a lot of these loose rocks and have them at JPL in 4 or 5 hours.

Yes - there was that fantastic plunge off the side of Bonneville to Lahontan... then Spirit ran from Sol 120 to 130 before Spirit took a breather 130-131 - 10 days of flat-out run-as-far-and-fast-as-possible. I think the shortest run of that series was Sol 128-129

(corrected above - long run was post-Lahontan, not post-Bonneville)

I think there were some other series on the run to the hills that ran close, but none quite as far-'n-fast as the 120-130 series - but... I could be wrong.

(141-148 was one other 7 day-flat-out, I think.)

See this link for older 1.11MB road-map.

"It looks like slabs are breaking off intact, the way shales do." - Dan

Sure does... one thing is really apparent now that we are close - this has many, many layers - and as you can see the top isn't flat at all - it has many layers.

This is going to keep many people guessing, untill much spectrographic work is done. It wouldn't surprise me if we spent a whole week or more climbing around, over and through this whole area.

Is it really? How about the top layer of PM? It isn't flat, but an apparent duplicate of the same kind of material that makes up HP lops off over the edge - or, is it the same material... then, there is that slab to the SE of PM, it also appears pretty flat... but, it isn't the same kind of material, is it?

I lean away from HP being a deposit blown in or carried in by wind, water or liquid CO2 - seems more likely to me that Richard Trigaux was closer with his suggestion of small volcanic chimney(s) - but rather than being filled by outside forces, HP could have came up the chimney as hot semi-liquid material that didn't overflow... just stopped rising where it sits today. That sort of small vent action could explain the material that lops off over the side of PM too - sort of freezing in place.

Whatever it is - the speculation here has been most interesting and fun! Hehe... though, at times I think I learned more about British ball games than about geological formations.

Tesh, it would be very nice to see another loooong run up to near the edge of HP today!

( I missed the day we would get to the 'pass' through Mitcheltree Ridge by only one day - but I now think the day we roll on top will come a tad earlier than Sol 749-50 though. )

I'm guessing those small (almost hidden) ridges between where we are and HP could preclude a >90m run today, making us lucky to see a medium long run - followed as you said, by a two day layover for the weekend and another run up somewhere along the edge, possibly along the West side where Rodolfo sees a 'maybe' climbable route... something like:

Tesh, methinks we'll see tomorrow that 'Baby Mound' is a bigger critter than some might think - if it is indeed the top of that mound to the West of HP.

The top of it looks almost as high as HP itself - and if I don't miss a guess, we might run right straight up to the exposed edge of HP in about three days... for some extensive layer examination before we consider going for the surface itself. If so, we're going to be sitting right beside 'Baby Mound' for perhaps quite a while...

Looks like we've reached a top-over point - and see a pass through what might be the extension of Mitcheltree Ridge. The bright sandy spot (in green elipse) seems to mark the point in prior posts that looked to be just North of that ridge.

If so, there was a substantial drive today!

Yeah... sort of ruins the speculation about either being formed through some wet sedimentary process, doesn't it? Maybe, volcanic, hot 'n thick, nearly cooled last-cough burble to the surface of... what kind of stuff - and maybe not.

We are seeing elements and processes that have little to do with what we see in earthly parallels because we don’t have ‘water’ that is mostly sulfuric acid, an atmosphere of carbon dioxide and temperatures that run to minus 140 degrees at night. Speculation I think is hobbled by lack of familiarity with the dynamics involved here.

Hehe... well, 'mine' (avatar) is a pic of Goldstone - but three of 'mine' (at work) are 32 meter (105 ft diameter) Rohr antennas used for international telecom (Central and South America and for many of the Pacific Rim nations.)

We also have a couple of newer and smaller 9 meter jobs... once a long time ago I piddled with the freebie webpage that comes with my ISP account, and people always wanted to know about my workplace, so I pointed them there... you might find this page interesting. The main page has a couple more of the site (9 meter foreground and control room.) Here is a link to an old pic (pre 9 meter installs) of the site from up on the hills behind.

Interestingly JPL was interested in the possibility that we might help download Mars traffic in the future - by adding a two foot skirt and making one antenna 34 meter X band capable. We're about 40 miles from JPL... and the plan isn't dead yet.

Yes, I agree there's a slope there, but perhaps the least rocky portion of that extention of the ridge may be about the center of the elipse.

We'll have to top that ridge at some point - and it may be there, but if not, other choices don't exactly jump out as such...

Amazingly, they're getting faster - the latest 'Detailed Taverse Map' is up at:

Mars Rover Site

But DON'T stop yours, Tesh!

Well, the route now looks fairly clear - up to the point of the continuation of that rocky ridge. Finding a clear and easy path at that point looks tricky - see red circle.

Dilo, I think the original of this pic may have been yours, but I've not found it to give proper credit (I've messed with it to bring out the rocks. They seem larger in the most recent pics than may have been thought...)

Tesh - do you think the sand-pile in the green circle is the one we see on sol 738? If not, which might it be?

Tesh, your route may lead to an entry from the south. I piddled with sharpening to bring out rocks a bit, and get a better look at Mitcheltree Ridge. It is very rough - except for one little spot on the south side. The green line points to this 'maybe' spot.

I'm sure that will be on the agenda, without fail... what I'm beginning to wonder is whether or not there IS an entry to the area from anywhere along Mitcheltree Ridge where the rover is now.

Seems they always find a way when none is readily apparent... I just hope we don't see having to go all the way around to enter from the west or northwest, since that option doesn't look so hot either !