Spirit - 2010 Winter@Troy, The first stationary science campaign Options

[Astro0]

Well, with perhaps a few more weeks of tilt-enhancing drives to go and then settling in for the winter, I thought it might be a good time to have a thread dedicated to ideas and observations that will come. It's likely that we won't hear much from Spirit during the coldest part of winter (April-June) possibly longer. There'll hopefully be beeps to tell us that she's still alive.

Already there are plans for radio science and determining the fluidity or otherwise of the Martian core, plus weather observations, surface changes etc.
What else could you think of that Spirit could do? Remember that she's not going anywhere (vonBraun is out)

In the meantime, have you sent your postcard to Spirit yet?! It's a great idea from the Mars outreach team.
http://beamartian.jpl.nasa.gov/spiritpostcards
What would you say to Spirit?

[tanjent]

I think we need to distinguish between maximum noonday sun angle and maximum daily insolation. I don't know which is more important to Spirit's chances of waking up. It is correct that there are two times when the sun is overhead at noon from Spirit's 14-degree-south position, one before the solstice and one after. But during the time in between, the sun should overshoot the zenith at noon and describe a circle around it, so if Spirit's panels were pointed straight up, the average insolation per day should continue to increase until the solstice. I think that's the case anyway, but I admit I can't produce the trigonometry to prove it. Any ship's captains in the audience? It also seems to me that the fact that the panels actually point a few degrees south probably accentuates the solstice peaking of daily insolation even further.

But as far as the likelihood of Spirit's getting back in touch, the problem is far from symmetric. Each sol of increased insolation that goes by without a signal basically reduces the likelihood that Spirit's silence is due to insufficient sunlight. As you slide back down the autumnal side of the solstice, you know that you have have visited these intensity levels once already and they have not proved sufficient to solve the problem. (Yes there could be cumulative charging of the battery going on, but my practical experience with batteries here on earth kind of argues against that.)