Where Is Spirit Right Now? Options

[Phillip]

I've taken those contours - generated an elevation map - and came up with these...

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_images/elev_1.jpg

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_images/elev_2.jpg

Doug

Can anyone identify Spirit's Sol 549 location on these (magnificent) elevation maps posted by Doug? I am having a difficult time estimating distance to summit based on 549 pictures. The summit seems very, very close (10 - 15 meters?), but the distances also seem very deceptive.

[alan]

about where the trough crosses the last contour

[GregM]

.

[edstrick]

Assuming trafficability on the top of the hill is decent, which I expect it will be, they should drive to the south roll-off and take two panoramas looking south with some tens of meters baseline for long-range stereoscopic analysis. One could be single-filter black and white to save bits. They should then to to the east-northeast flank and do the same looking down across the big bowl to the east of the smaller crater like bowl overlooked by Larry's overlook and then do the same to the east-south-east.

Such multispectral and long-base-line monochrome stereo mosaics would be the single most valuable imaging product of the entire Spirit mission, and would be of crucial value in decyphering the complex and confusing stratigraphy and geology of the hills.

[MichaelT]

As I write this, MER-A will be ambling up to the top of the hill in a few hours. The hill will have been climbed and where Spirit is in terms of its long journey that began at the base of West Spur won't be too important any more. They will be at the top of the hill and that

What great news
I can't wait to see those pics!
Congratulations to the rover team for this fantastic achievement



Michael

[general]

New traverse maps!
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/tm-spirit/index.html

[aldo12xu]

Are those strikes and dips they've added to the traverse map? If so, we're looking at strikes of 180-190 degrees south and dips of 10 to 30 degrees west, which is different from what we saw at Methuselah and Larry's Lookout.

[general]

What is "Li's sol564 loc" ?
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/tm-..._A565_3_br2.jpg

[TheChemist]

No idea ....
In the broader map the same spot is identified as "Sol 564 OSU position"

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/tm-...MERA_A565_2.jpg

IIRC, Li is a professor and his lab is doing independent image analysis for JPL.
(I remember something like this was mentioned before in this forum, if you search for it you 'll find it.)

[general]

Looks like the calculations by two science teams result in different locations for Spirit.

http://shoreline.eng.ohio-state.edu/

[Burmese]

They are probably using the OSU work as a check against their own position estimates. That there is a substantial difference has apparently become noteworthy enough to mark it on the traverse map.

[TheChemist]

The position of the two summits has also changed considerably compared to the Sol558 map
In the attached image I have marked with red circles the previous summit locations.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[alan]

They are probably using the OSU work as a check against their own position estimates.  That there is a substantial difference has apparently become noteworthy enough to mark it on the traverse map.

Been there

[djellison]

I wonder how much the route maps will change once we have a HiRISE image of the place

Doug

[RedSky]

New Spirit route map out today at JPL (Aug 15)...

Plus, this perspective:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/tm-...n_sol149Pan.jpg