Winter Quarters, at Low Ridge Haven Options

[djellison]

Any guesses as to how large the complete 360 colorized pan will be?

Same size, roughly, as the Lion King panorama.22780x4496

Doug

[CosmicRocker]

The thing I wonder about is how long will it be before we have all the frames without any holes in them?

[djellison]

Another couple of weeks I'd have thought. You have to appreciate that instead of having an excess over survivability power of around 750 Whr/s per sol for science and mobility, that excess is near zero currently - so they have to do things very very very slowly.

Doug

[CosmicRocker]

Hehe, I guess it is somewhat like sitting in a room and wondering if you dare to turn on a light, so you can read.

[DFinfrock]

A new update today from New Scientist:

http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/d...good-shape.html

It's mostly about Oppy, but one paragraph hints at Spirit's future plans:

"In three months or so, when the winter is over, Arvidson would like to have Spirit return to an outcrop of rock called Home Plate. "Most people think it's an eroded volcano," he says. Spirit had to rush past the site on its way to its winter haven, so only had time for a quick look."

We have made it past the solstice successfully, and now we know where we're headed in thenext couple of months.

David

[dilo]

some beautiful radent-light views from Sol930 (l247 filters):

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Nirgal]

some beautiful radent-light views from Sol930 (l247 filters):

beautiful ! and very good work with your color balance

do you know if/where there are more of this low-light images taken ?

[dilo]

do you know if/where there are more of this low-light images taken ?

Bernhard, there was a dedicate thread for Oppy radent-light images (look in particular to this image)

...not to mention this masterpiece!

[jvandriel]

Here is a mosaic of images of the mast taken by Spirit

on Sol 935 with the L4 pancam.

Coloured by me.

jvandriel

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[tedstryk]

Impressive SR images...I missed these earlier.

[Jeff7]

Wow. Check out the Sol 920-929 pics. Spirit just about blends in perfectly with the ground now.

[Drkskywxlt]

Wow. Check out the Sol 920-929 pics. Spirit just about blends in perfectly with the ground now.

Looks like we need a dust devil to come by and clean it off. Too bad its still winter and they are more common in summer.

[djellison]

Looks like we need a dust devil to come by and clean it off.

Can someone else take this one

Doug

[Stu]

Welcome aboard Drkskywxlt Good to have you aboard. I'm sure you'll find some fascinating stuff here, I do every day.

I'm no expert on this, but I think it's pretty much been established that a dust devil didn't actually clean Spirit previously, that's a bit of a martian "urban legend" which always makes people here smile or grimace or bang their heads against a wall in frustration. Not your fault.

I'm sure someone else will give you more details about this, but don't worry about asking questions. New members join every day, come here brimming over with enthusiasm and nervousness about posting, and haven't always read up on what's gone before. We were all "newbies" once.

[climber]

Very diplomatic, Stu! I like this.
About cleaning events, I'd like to share one thought.
As the very first cleaning event occured while Spirit was on a crest, we can probably compare what happened then to what happen on Earth, i.e. stronger winds on crests, peaks, pass, etc...Now, on Earth, in the mountains, wind goes uphill on the side of the mountain where the sun heat and goes downhill on the side into the shadow. This is due to heat transportation. I wonder if ther's enough atmosphere on Mars so this phenomenum is valid there too. Even if Columbia's hills are not mountains, may be Spirit can pick up some effects. So, in a sense, even if DD didn't clean Spirit panel, may be DD and winds are due to heating phenomenum. Is this idea too wild? By the way, does somebody know if Spirit found temperatures differences between the summit of Husband Hill and Home Plate?