Extricating Spirit, Digging out from Troy Options

[PDP8E]

Here is an animation through the right rear hazard cam of the extrication so far.
It spans Sols 2072 to 2099
I have processed out the shadows.



Cheers

[fredk]

Details of the current plans from the latest update:

Analysis of a right rear wheel stall back on Sol 1837... suggests that the stall may not be terrain related, but could be internal to the wheel motor and gearbox. To investigate this, three sets of rotor resistance tests at cold, ambient and warm temperatures were commanded over Sols 2104 (Dec. 3, 2009), and 2105 (Dec. 4, 2009), to check the health of the motor windings and motor brushes. A small right rear wheel motion in the direction of the stall was also commanded on Sol 2104 to see if the stall persists.

[Astro0]

Is it just an illusion, but does that RR wheel look turned nearly perpendicular to the LR wheel as it emerges from the soil?

[jamescanvin]

I see what you mean! I think that it is an illusion, my take is that what 'emerges' is soil churned up by the RR wheel, the wheel itself is behind the bogie arm and totally buried.

[fredk]

Sol 2104 RR diagnostic rear hazcams are down. I don't see any sign of motion in the surrounding soil, but the RR movement was supposed to be small.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/re...cam/2009-12-04/

[PDP8E]

Here is an animation from the right front hazcam of the extrication.
It spans Sols 2072 through 2099
The contrast has been enhanced and shadows diminished.



Cheers

[Guest_cassioli_*]

hi read around that there is a SW onboard Spirit which allow determining if wheels are slipping when rover is moving, by comparing odometer to hazcam pictures; but I also read that this SW has been disabled for some reasons!
Is that true? I can't find any link.

[Tesheiner]

AFAIK, that's visodom (VISual ODOMetry) and it certainly is being used; it's not "disabled".
Two corrections: it uses navcam images and the "slip measurements" are not done while the rover is moving but after it is already stopped by comparing pre-drive and post-drive images with the odometry based only on the wheel turns.

[PDP8E]

While we are all waiting for further Spirit extrication news ...
here is an animation taken from the Left Rear Hazcam for Sols 2072 through 2104
The contrast has been enhanced and shadows diminished.
I finally built a little batch file that does all the rigmarole to do the enhancements
(10 mins from raw images to finished animation)



Cheers
(it is snowing in New England tonight, 2 inches so far...)

[craigmcg]

John Callas on NPR's Science Friday Dec 4, 2009:

http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200912042

[fredk]

Thanks for the link. He says if we can't tilt Spirit to the north, there's a "real risk" she won't survive the coming winter.

[Hertzeg]

Can they tilt (in some way) Spirit to the west, away from Home Plate?

[Astro0]

Tilting deeper into a sandtrap? Not a good idea.
If your intention was to get away from Belly Rock (aka Pointy), it has already been suggested that it doesn't look like it will be big issue.
No official word yet, but Spirit has a long way to go.
Best way to get a gap between Spirit and Belly Rock is to continue doing what they're already doing...drive forward which will take Spirit up and out

Remember to read the Spirit Extrication FAQs

[Hungry4info]

I thought that, with the recent cleaning events, we were likely to survive the winter at this spot. Has this changed?

[fredk]

Hungry: we've been accumulating dust since the last big cleaning events (dust factor has decreased from almost 85% to 57% in the latest report).

Hertzeg: It's an interesting thought. If sinkage turns out to be a problem as we try driving out, we may end up inadvertantly testing something similar to your suggestion. As Astro said, it seems likely that Belly Rock is floating on the powdery layer rather than on the firm ground beneath. So the best strategy is to keep to the right (east) as we drive out, so if there is firm ground below within reach, we're most likely to reach it. You'd think it'd be good to have wheels hit hard ground below. But actually I'm not sure what would happen if we did. The wheel would still have to move powder from in front of it to behind, and would that be easy with hard ground immediately below the wheel?