Stroupe's Slide Options

[djellison]

Paolo's got his plunge over at Meridiani....and thanks to Ashley's driving, we now have - Stroupe's Slide here at Gusev. It took an email or two to figure out the best alliteration for it. Somehow 'Ashley's Favorable Incline' didn't quite scan, and Home Plate North is just so..dull. And where better to slide, than home plate! Even after as much careful planning ( that some suggested was too conservative ) it was still a major effort to get Spirit safe in time - so kudos to Ashley Stroupe and her colleagues for dealing with a couple of Mars jet-lagged weeks and giving us a shot at celebrating a 5th Martian Birthday.

Get comfortable, we may be here some time

Doug

[nprev]

So alliteration is the base naming convention for MER winter-over spots? I'll make a note of it!

Well done & well deserved, though. Can't believe the talent & dedication of the rover drivers, esp. with that brutal schedule; the tribute is more than apropros. I sure hope these monikers appear in histories a few hundred years from now, to say nothing of being inscribed on the plaques of the MER National Monuments (Republic of Mars, est. 2157...)

[Guest_Oersted_*]

Very fitting baseball metaphor!

I hope we will see some home runs after the winter!

[Greg Hullender]

Actually I was hoping that the next 100 years would be enough time to stamp out alliteracy on Mars.

--Greg :-)

[nprev]

Agh...boooo!!! That pun was so bad that it made my back teeth hurt...

[alan]

Tuskegee panorama so far

[mhoward]

I like this one! What a great overview of Home Plate. It would be even better, asthetically, if they filled in the top of McCool Hill.

[ngunn]

I like this one! What a great overview of Home Plate. It would be even better, asthetically, if they filled in the top of McCool Hill.

Presumably it's far enough away that this could be done from other shots taken nearby. Agreed this is a superb view. I especially like the way the Shark Tooth just breaks the skyline.

[fredk]

Another thing we can see from our current viewpoint is a rock on the NW edge of HP that appears to be propped up on other rocks, with a gap underneath that you can see clear through. It's on the far right of Alan's mosaic, and was imaged by pancam on sol 1423. In 3D it appears that the light patch under the rock is not simply in front of the rock. Here's a cross-eyed anaglyph:


Also, I love some of the shapes in the adjacent slope:

[Tesheiner]

It was noted here or in a status report that Spirit was expected to move down the slope to increase the tilt by mid-january.
The "codes" in the PCDT web are saying it might be happening right now!

CODE

01429::p1201::22::2::0::0::2::0::4::front_haz_penultimate_1_bpp_pri_17
01429::p1214::05::2::0::0::2::0::4::front_hazcam_ultimate_4_bpp
01429::p1302::01::2::0::0::2::0::4::rear_hazcam_penultimate_2_bpp_pri_22
01429::p1314::00::2::0::0::2::0::4::rear_haz_ultimate_4bpp_pri15

Data from sol 1429 should be available later in the day.

[Tesheiner]

Spirit moved and the tilt has changed by about 3 degrees (27 pix. in the rhaz image) so we might be talking of 16 degrees of northerly tilt.
(Sol 1406/1407) --> (Sol 1429)

[centsworth_II]

I hope they're right about getting a minimum of 25 degree tilt
when they want it. This is guaranteed, right?

[Astro0]

The drive looked to be less than 10cm, so if they gained an extra 3 degrees tilt, then I'd say that 25 degrees or more is fine.
After all this time on Mars, I'm sure we all have faith in the MER-PDT (Precision Driving Team)

Astro0

[Shaka]

This is guaranteed, right?

Or double your money back.

[tfisher]

This is guaranteed, right?

If it doesn't work, we'll refund your money. You just have to pay for shipping and handling. ;^)