Where Next? Options

[general]

From an article in the "Cornell Daily Sun" newspaper:
http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/...4/430bf1e61df0d

"Spirit will now take pictures of the surrounding landscape to look for other craters or peaks before moving on in early autumn."

"Early autumn..." That's more than a month from now

[ustrax]

From an article in the "Cornell Daily Sun" newspaper:
(http://www.cornellsun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/08/24/430bf1e61df0d)

"Spirit will now take pictures of the surrounding landscape to look for other craters or peaks before moving on in early autumn."

  "Early autumn..."  That's more than a month from now  

Autumn starts 4 weeks from now...
Where did they get that information? I haven't read it anywhere else...

[Guest_Myran_*]

General said "Early autumn..." That's more than a month from now"

To me 'early autumn' is here already, but I agree that statement was rather unspecific - it depends on where it was written. or was that 'early autumn' on Mars even?

[helvick]

To me 'early autumn' is here already, but I agree that statement was rather unspecific - it depends on where it was written. or was that 'early autumn' on Mars even? 

Depends on how you define the cut off I suppose but I don't think he's referring to Mars "Autumn". Right now the rovers have just passed the Southern Hemisphere Summer solstice @ LS 270 (Aug 16\17) with the Autumnal Equinox not coming around until the 21st January 2006.

So I'd say we're in for a fairly long session taking extremely high quality panoramas - from what I can gather they will be taking full res images with all filters at minimal compression so the panorama\stitching folks should have loads of fun ahead even if Spirit doesn't move much.

[general]

It looks like Spirit will indeed be making camp atop Husband Hill for a few weeks:

"Spirit will spend several weeks at the summit to measure how much the Sun's rays heat the slopes of distant hills, and how this drives Mars's windy weather. "We're at this hilltop observatory now, so we can make some unique measurements," Arvidson explains.
The rover is getting in position to take a full colour, 360° panorama photograph on 25 August, which should pick out other peaks in the Columbia Hills, along with the valleys and plains on either side."

(Ray Arvidson is a geologist from Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, and second-in-command of the rover science team.)

Full article here:
http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050822/full/050822-3.html

[tedstryk]

I hope they take a super-res set as well as a regular pan. With full color data mixed with a super-res pan in one band, we could have something that will not be beaten for quite a long time.

[Bob Shaw]

I hope they take a super-res set as well as a regular pan.  With full color data mixed with a super-res pan in one band, we could have something that will not be beaten for quite a long time.

Ted:

I second that!

Super-res from the top of the hill would be a really good use of (dwindling) resources!

Bob Shaw

[Burmese]

With both rovers' ability to 'scratch-and-sniff' waning, I would expect them to do more driving and 'sightseeing' and spend less time parked to examine rocks up close, so those analysis of how far they might yet travel should probably lean towards the positive side. I think we can expect Spirit to make pretty good time to Homeplate (and then spend time endeavoring to analyze that feature) and then make good time up the next hill to the south for a winter panorama. Many of the scientists maye be a bit unhappy but they have to face the fact that their instruments are simply at the end of their useful lives. The cameras, MI included are all that the rovers have that have any ability to operate through the coming year. I also expect Opportunity to push hard for Victoria once some examination of Erubus is done.

[general]

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/050826_summit_news.html :


"The strategy at the summit is to use all of the rover’s instruments to observe the soils, rocks, and atmosphere, including observations of Mars’ two moons – Phobos and Deimos.

Then we may move to the south side of the summit to get a full resolution image of the basin to the south. We hope to study the peculiar feature, Home Plate, in the future, as well as get some good images of the possible pathway down the hill to the basin."

Following that, the rover will likely wheel back, possibly to the absolute summit to do more camera work, including scanning back at Larry’s Lookout in the valley to the north. Along the circuit, rover science team members will examine rock targets as they appear of interest. Next, in many sols (Mars days) to come no doubt, the robot will start down the east side of Husband Hill."

[ustrax]

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/050826_summit_news.html :
"The strategy at the summit is to use all of the rover’s instruments to observe the soils, rocks, and atmosphere, including observations of Mars’ two moons – Phobos and Deimos.

Then we may move to the south side of the summit to get a full resolution image of the basin to the south. We hope to study the peculiar feature, Home Plate, in the future, as well as get some good images of the possible pathway down the hill to the basin."

Following that, the rover will likely wheel back, possibly to the absolute summit to do more camera work, including scanning back at Larry’s Lookout in the valley to the north. Along the circuit, rover science team members will examine rock targets as they appear of interest. Next, in many sols (Mars days) to come no doubt, the robot will start down the east side of Husband Hill."

EAST!