Land of Salvation, What Ails Thee? Options

[ustrax]

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Each roving day as the last.
Beyond the horizon, beyond the border, roving until the last Sol, through lands of wonder, towards unexpected goals. Each roving day as the last.

Beyond the Columbia Hills, island in a sea of basalt, towards the East, lays Terre de Salvaesche, Land of Salvation, where Parzival reached the Grail’s Castle and found the answer for his Quest. Impossible quest…Incredible quest!
Towards a Kingdom where forests of mesas and knobs rule, where, from the North, the hills of Thira announce their protection, glowing in dark red under Mars’ dusk, where sand tides fustigates its beaches, where boulders align along paths that lead no where.
Land of Salvation! Home of the Grail! Receptacle of Answers!


The Land of Salvation…how valuable is it in scientific terms?
Aren’t we seing there, far in the horizon, signs of a past where glaciers imposed they’re presence on Gusev crater? Aren’t we seing there signs of an ancient, majestic, ice kingdom retreating? Aren’t we seing the reliques of a battle between the fiery lava and a mighty frozen kingdom?
This special cookie of yours sees…and dreams, a time where glaciers and volcanoes coexisted, where gentle waves, reflecting a dim sun, danced a silent tune on the surface of kettle lakes.

Just close your eyes for a second, imagine yourself standing in the plains, contemplating that enticing, unknown, territory, imagine, the sound, the light and the landscape in front of you, imagine your inquiring march, dustful step after dustful step, getting closer and closer to the Land’s walls…

The rovers are our eyes on Mars we read…I want to see myself standing in the plains, contemplating that enticing, unknown, territory.
Just close your eyes for a second, for the time you which, and imagine, the sound, the light and the landscape, in front of you.

You, Counts of Engineering, Barons of Algorithms, Dukes of Geology, fan the flames of the bonfire with your words of Impossibility!
Give me distances! Give me the cold truth about the Spirit! But give me also what could we earn from this quest...

An aging, crippled rover, a too vast desert to cross…
An aging, crippled rover, is for now dreaming, listening to a distant murmur in the mute vastness of Gusev:…”Ride, boldly ride”…

Land of Salvation, unreachable they say…

Recommended reading: Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival
Recommended soundtrack: Richard Wagner's Parsifal

[Phil Stooke]

I think that the hilly area at the south end of the Columbia Hills is another bit of the same material you are looking at here... and it might still be reachable.

Phil

[Shaka]

Son of Magellan, we hear.

[nprev]

Ultreya, my friend...the horizon is not there to be reached, merely approached asymptotically again and again and again...

[ustrax]

Shaka...give me charts and beacons to misplace!

Phil, it might be similar, but isn't at a considerably lower level?
My interpretation is that in the area South of Thira there would be the chance of finding a ground of a different nature than this basalt floor we have found roving towards the Columbia Hills.
A question, ngunn made reference to this already, take a look at this image, in the NE corner of it lays a curious feature, like a big mesa with a pit all around...what can that be?

nprev...the drums echoe in the distance...

[Shaka]

That's no "pit"; that's an abyss!

[BrianL]

A noble goal, I vote yea (knowing full well I don't actually have a vote).

Where would you target initially, and how long a journey given the reduced mobility and those pesky immobile winter months? Want to throw in a route map with winter havens? SS will need these details for his proposal.

[stevesliva]

I propose we rename it the Land of Salivation.

[ustrax]

I propose we rename it the Land of Salivation.

BrianL, this is, I have notion of it, a goal that when compared with Oppy's trek towards Endeavour makes of this one a stroll in the park...but hey! What we're aiming here is to find the grail, and that has never been an easy quest, doable, quest...
Thinking with no limits of time and a Spirit of surprising us even more on its longevity, after reaching the Promised Land in the Columbia Hills and do what has to be done there and finding a way out there seems to be a couple of straits that could deliver us back to the plains, now where to?
And with what goals?
-the rover could study the line dividing the plains unite from the Promised Land one;
-Head towards the small Eldorado,huumm...let me think about an appropriate name for it...got it! Ys!
Compare with the big brother to the north;
-Head SE towards the crater close to the foot of hill, it looks like it has some sort of promontories, thing we haven't seen yet at Gusev;
-Then, from this image, I would head towards the crater right above the big one marking the halfway between Columbia and Salvation;
-Then, obviously the big one...
-Full speed (may full speed mean what it can mean for Spirit) towards the East, passing betweem the two craters and then...;
...we're at Salvaesche's shores! Mission accomplished!
Simple...ain't it?

I'll draw the line tomorrow...now my head hurts...

[djellison]

when compared with Oppy's trek towards Endeavour makes of this one a stroll in the park

With five wheel drive?

[ustrax]

Doug, I believe I didn't expressed myself correctly, I meant to say that it was Oppy's trek that could be considered a stroll...not Spirit's...
Yes...I am aware...even so...total madness...

And, while in delirium, I'm sure a software improvement will make things work out just fine...

[Hungry4info]

The Spirit rover is crying...

Asking a dying rover to take such a trek is, asking an ant to circumnavigate a city... backwards while dragging it's messed up leg in the dirt the whole way. I think this will kill our ailing rover.

[BrianL]

The Spirit rover is crying...

Easy Doug, don't take it literally. Deep breaths...

[nprev]

Sometimes what kills me is that the journeys of the rovers ARE epic...but so few people know of it. So many people are suprised when I tell them that the MERs are alive & well; they just can't believe it.

Out they go, though, out they go. Our hearts & minds ride with them; surely no one can deny it. When the history of our time is written, they'll get one hell of a lot more than an honorable mention. Their voyages might well mark the very moment when we perceived at a gut level that we can be a multiplanet species...and, more importantly, that we need to be.

[Stu]

I know what you mean. I've put my thoughts on this subject here.