Sliding into 'Home Plate North', Heading for Spirit's 2008 Winter Retreat Options

[CosmicRocker]

The other day a local museum sponsored a MER lecture entitled "Mars Exploration Rovers: 1389 Days into a 90 Day Mission." The lecture was presented by Dr. David Mittlefehldt of NASA's Johnson Space Center. While much of the presentation covered things MER fans here are familiar with, I did learn some new things. Specifically with regard to Spirit, one of the maps he showed had two WH3 locations on it: WH3a and WH3b. I had to quickly sketch them, so my reproduction may not be precise. The attached map shows their approximate locations on a recent JPL location map.


By the way, did anyone notice the terrific navcam stereo images of Tartarus that came down today? The stereo view really provides an excellent impression of it's depth. Attached below is the anaglyph directly from MMB.

[Astro0]

The anaglyph makes it appear as if Spirit came very close to a nasty drop off.
A few more wheel widths and....

Astro0

[Guest_Oersted_*]

After saying she broke free from the depression

Stuck in a rut and having a depression... poor girl!

[Tesheiner]

Today, sol 1392, was yet another driving sol; the seventh in a row! I don't remember last time Spirit -- well, actually the rover drivers -- did such a thing. Does anybody has the numbers on hand?

Today's move was about 6.5m ENE, according to the tracking web info, and here's the latest navcam mosaic. I don't know if they still plan to stop or pass by the sites 7 and 8 pointed on the official route map (here), but just in case I've circled them on the mosaic.

[Astro0]

Short of having a 'Sarlac' at the bottom, Tartarus was a close call for our little Spirit.


Astro0

[Tesheiner]

I was updating my Spirit's route map to include the so called "WH3 - Winter Haven #3" on the map, and seaching for it on older images I found that Alan already posted some ones here on this same thread. I looked for the navcams taken during sols 766 and 767, which are the closest ones to the planned WH3, and stitched this mosaic below.

Now, each time I look to this picture I ask myself: "where will Spirit be parked?"
Correct me if I´m wrong but I see this place as another sand trap.

[alan]

The drifts I see are on a fairly steep slope. Traversing them going down the slope, I assume they will avoid the rocks by driving towards the 767 position, shouldn't be too much of a problem. The problems the rovers have had so far with sand traps have occurred when going upslope.

[Tesheiner]

The problem I see is that those drifts look to be of "fluffy" sand deposited by wind, meaning that it would be very easy to loose traction on the back wheels due to dragging the broken one, even on a downslope. Off course, it's just an opinion.

----------

On another topic, today (sol 1393) was planned as driving sol however the downlinked pictures show no movement at all (site/drive counters are still the same as yestersol).

[hortonheardawho]

SFX of Spirit at WH3:



with link to sol 766 RAD panorama.

This is my best guess. Spirit will back down the slope? Maybe stop a little higher up the slope to get more tilt?

I'm sure the SFX gurus ( guruae?) can create a better image, but I thought I would try -- since, as Tesheiner pointed out, there was no movement tosol.

[abalone]

SFX of Spirit at WH3:



with link to sol 766 RAD panorama.

This is my best guess. Spirit will back down the slope? Maybe stop a little higher up the slope to get more tilt?

I'm sure the SFX gurus ( guruae?) can create a better image, but I thought I would try -- since, as Tesheiner pointed out, there was no movement tosol.

If might be better to go sideways with the lame wheel on the high side, that would take a lot of weight off it and put more weight on the three good down slope wheels. That would give the option of moving in both directions to maneuver into a favorable position. If they got straight down the slope there will be no going back once they are committed.

[brellis]

Forgive me if this was discussed elsewhere:

Have they considered running a wheel up on one of the rocks to tilt the panels even more? Maybe that would knock some more dust off too.

[Astro0]

Quote: "I'm sure the SFX gurus ( guruae?) can create a better image..."

Only if we can get the new version of the Rover model you are using.
Is this another of Doug's creations or something new.
I recall that the last one was posted somewhere on UMSF.
Could we pleeeease have the latest version? Pleeeeease.

Astro0

[djellison]

Have they considered running a wheel up on one of the rocks to tilt the panels even more? Maybe that would knock some more dust off too.

I assume they'll be backing down the slope. Once they're on it - there's no way they'll be able to drive back up again. If I pick up, rattle, drop and shake my TV around - the dust on the screen wont move

Doug

[centsworth_II]

If I pick up, rattle, drop and shake my TV around - the dust on the screen wont move

And, although the rovers have been jostled on occasion, there has not been a
cleaning event associated with any of the accidental bumps, so there is little
chance of a purposeful bump causing a cleaning event.

[Tesheiner]

Driving activity during sol 1394 succeeded, with Spirit moving right to "Site 7".
Here's the latest navcam mosaic.


Site 7 are those rocks spread near the rover's right wing on the leftmost frame and site 8 is that "big" rock on the background behind site 7.