Post-Conjunction at Home Plate North, Getting ready to leave Options

[Guest_Oersted_*]

I for one am still looking forward to info on an eventual change in power output...

[centsworth_II]

I for one am still looking forward to info on an eventual change in power output...

I'm looking forward to the next Spirit update. If Rover Driver's comment, "around 150Wh", reflects an accurate post dust pattern "change" figure, then apparently there was no change as far as power goes.

[Tesheiner]

FWIW, there is a deck mosaic planned to be taken today (sol 1780) with the navcam.

01780::p1914::02::5::0::0::5::0::10::navcam_5x1_deck_LEYE_3bpp

[Astro0]

While we wait for power numbers, movement, deck pans etc, here's a fun Bonestell polar panorama with virtual rover (and some virtual ground) to enjoy.

...and before anyone says it, yes, there's not enough dust, I know.

Astro0

[briv1016]

According to the tracking site the Bonestall Pan is not fully downlinked yet?

[djellison]

95% of it's down - and of the remaining 5% - it's mostly lower-tier fill in images.

[Ipparchus]

I `d like to propose a route for Spirit, that I think, could possibly make her arrive to Goddard and Von Braun easier and faster. Spirit could drive down the slope she is on, then drive west following her old tracks and climb on the ramp she used on Sol 755 to arrive on Home Plate. After that, she could easily and fast drive on the good terrain of HP and arrive to the South edge where she could find a good ramp (a low-degree slope) to drive down and continue South until she reaches Goddard or Von Braun (the whole route is represented with a red line). Please, tell me your opinion about this proposed route. I would be grateful to have, also, a comment from Paolo, the Rover Driver! I`m sending you a new (my) version of the great post I found in the site. I hope you like it! Happy Birthday Spirit !!! Astonish us more times than you have done before!

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[djellison]

then drive west following her old tracks and climb on the ramp she used on Sol 755 to arrive on Home Plate.

She did that with 6 wheel drive. She can't get up the slope she's on now with 5 wheel drive - I doubt she'd get up the 755 slope with it either.

Whilst straight over home plate would have been preferable - going the 'long way round' has benefits, a trench that will depict the distribution of more silica, if it's there, down one length of home plate will be interesting.

[PaulM]

Now that Spirit is committed to backing off Home Plate, I think that Spirit should retrace its old route back to Lowe Ridge.

My reason for suggesting this is that a route already driven is guaranteed to contain no sand traps. My suggested route may be even safer than the originally planned route diagonally across Home Plate. As was demonstrated on Sol 1384 there are hidden sand traps even in the apparently solid ground on the top of Home Plate.

I understand that the safest way to escape from a mine field is to retrace your old footsteps. This is effectively what I am suggesting that Spirit should do.

[sci44]

With only 150W/h available, wont most of the driving be short hops mostly within the field of view for the Navcams/Pancams? Wouldn't that help avoid that danger? Unless there is a good reason, I would have thought it better to cover new ground..

[mhoward]

She did that with 6 wheel drive. She can't get up the slope she's on now with 5 wheel drive - I doubt she'd get up the 755 slope with it either.

The interesting question is, could she now make it up the slope slightly to the east? Hard to say.

[djellison]

She did get onto Home Plate with 5WD after the Silica / Innocent Bystander etc. campaign

Doug

[mhoward]

She did get onto Home Plate with 5WD after the Silica / Innocent Bystander etc. campaign

True, and I'd like to think she could make it. That said, a trip around to the west has some appeal, despite the lurking danger of getting stuck.

An anaglyph view east-ish:

[BrianL]

On the other side of the planet, there seems to be a high level of confidence that the purgatoids can be identified and avoided, or should embedding occur, that the rover can be easily extracted. Does that same confidence exist with Spirit's "purgatoids", such as Tyrone or Tartarus? Can areas of likely or even possible embedding due to the dragging wheel be identified before being driven into?

Also, why not put the stuck wheel in front? Would this not give earlier warning of increased resistance to movement while the driving wheels are still on fairly solid ground?

[djellison]

Also, why not put the stuck wheel in front?

Significant testing and experimentation shows that dragging is the better driving method.