Winter Quarters, at Low Ridge Haven Options

[DFinfrock]

Since Spirit is no longer "Running for the Hills" and it appears that she will be staying at Low Ridge Haven for the next eight months or so, it seems like a good time to start a new topic.

I thought we could start with the great panorama stitched by jvandriel, and then altered by Tesheiner. We are going to become very familiar with this view in the coming months.

David


[attachment=5107:attachment] (286k)

[john_s]

I'm just bumping this thread because I agree that it's time for a new topic devoted to Spirit's new home. Post here, folks!

[alan]

A quick measurement of the thin layer

[ElkGroveDan]

Are you certain about that 16cm measurement? I get 6.2992126 inches.

(Just doing my part to bump the new thread too.)

[RNeuhaus]

A quick measurement of the thin layer

So fragil that some gushing wind may break it off. I have also measured it but I got different result. According to GIMP tool, the given distance is 130.9 pixels. Then, the picture has 1024x1024 pixels (this is of 1 Megapixels) and its proportion is 2.8346 has pixels/mm (36.124 cms width and 36.124 height). Then the size of "flying stone" is 46.18 mm (130.9/2.8346). How do you get to measure it as 160 mm long?

Changing the topic, around the Low Ridge Heaven has many strange and rugged stones (ones which has undergone a process of great temperature that has produced bubbles of gas) that might be of volcanic or impact origns. So Spirit with its limited permissible autonomy can visit some stones facing to the northern side.

One of interesting lava rocks http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pa...00P2535R1M1.JPG

Rodolfo

[Phil Stooke]

Here's a polar view of The Low Ridge Haven (Heaven's a slightly different place, Rodolfo, so they tell me).

It is from jvandriel's pan in the previous thread.

Phil

[RNeuhaus]

Interesting picture. The north side is found the Columbia Hill? On that view to North, the Home Plate is found. Now, the south side has more naked stones than anywhere from Low Ridge Heaven. I deduct that the prominent wind comes from between southwest-south direction. The East side is seen the McCool Hill. The Spirit was trying to climb toward west. On around west-south side, where there is a small cone, is a famous cut bright cone, Pitcher Mound.

I suspect that the climbing direction of Spirit will not meet soft sand unless that westward surface, there is a thin layer of sand and below of this might be a outcrop. Thus, Spirit will be able to climb even further to catch a better wind.

Rodolfo

[Bill Harris]

Whew, I'm glad that she made it to safe Winter Quarters.

I've been off all week, went to St Louis Missouri for a meeting. I was sans a public 'puter and didn't get a chance to check in.

--Bill

[aldo12xu]

Cool image, Phil. Aesthetically and science wise. The Low Ridge layering seems to strike east-west below the rover and then changing to a more northeasterly strike. But the rocks exposed near Mitchelltree (which should be on strike) seem to have curved formed. Or is this an optical effect created by the polar projection? I'll try to sketch some images after the long weekend to clarify what I mean.

Here's a view of the Mitchelltree curvilinear bedding I was referring to, Navcam from sol 806.



By the way, is there any chance Spirit would be able to make a quick run to the north facing slopes of Pitcher's Mound during the winter months?

[RNeuhaus]

Pitcher's Mound is on the west side of Spirit, its official name is Von Braun (not sure). The distance from its position to Von Braun is around 129 meters in a straight line. That is a tough distance for 5 tired wheels and the rover drivers must select the best route with thiner sand surface and estimate carefully about the power required to reach on PM before it is dead. It would be a very dramatic story.

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/tm-...from_sol594.jpg

Rodolfo

[Shaka]

129 meters is almost certainly too wide a gulf to 'sprint' across safely, but the point is that Low Ridge extends for some distance to the west from Spirit's present location. If we can map a sequence of safe north-sloping oases along the ridge, we might be able to narrow that gap significantly over the coming months. We might then be able to see enough isolated knolls across the gap to make the trip south feasible. Assuming we still have a significant interest in Von Braun, we might be prepared to take the risk. From there, in spring we would have a choice of directions, to south Home Plate or the Promised Land.
We need an energy map of Low Ridge first.

[RNeuhaus]

If we can map a sequence of safe north-sloping oases along the ridge, we might be able to narrow that gap significantly over the coming months. We might then be able to see enough isolated knolls across the gap to make the trip south feasible.

Good idea, it is doable as the best with small and firm steps trying to reach the VB. The wildest idea is to try to climb a rock on the way by one of the wheels to get a correct north face tilt.

Rodolfo

[BrianL]

Whew, I'm glad that she made it to safe Winter Quarters.

Daddy, I'm bored. There's nothing to do here. When do we get to go? Can we go now? I'm booooored. Dad-deeee....

OK, maybe I get blase easily about seeing activities from the surface of another planet, but do the rest of you think you can get through this Martian winter without these thoughts creeping into your head? At least during the first winter, they were still moving around from place to place on a large hillside. There's really no place to go now safely, is there?

I fear following Spirit's activities for the next few months will be much like visiting friends who feel the need to trot out their pictures from their holiday tour of the plains states every time you visit.

"Look, there's Irma in front of the World's Largest Ball of Twine...."



Brian

[Shaka]

The wildest idea is to try to climb a rock on the way by one of the wheels to get a correct north face tilt.
Rodolfo

We probably need to practice this kind of 5-legged acrobatics. We don't want to take 3 or 4 sols to get properly perched.
I'm not sure how many sols we could afford.

[algorimancer]

So fragil that some gushing wind may break it off. I have also measured it but I got different result. According to GIMP tool, the given distance is 130.9 pixels. Then, the picture has 1024x1024 pixels (this is of 1 Megapixels) and its proportion is 2.8346 has pixels/mm (36.124 cms width and 36.124 height). Then the size of "flying stone" is 46.18 mm (130.9/2.8346). How do you get to measure it as 160 mm long?

Rodolfo

I verified the measurement, measuring to the right tip of the projection, and got 18 cm with about a 1 cm error, basically in agreement with alan's measurement (he set the right side of the measurement a bit to the left of where I did). I'm not sure how he did it, but I used my own app, AlgorimancerPG, which you can find at http://www.clarkandersen.com/RangeFinder.htm. I'm not familiar with GIMP, so I don't have any idea of why it offers different results.

[dot.dk]

I just looked at an image from when Spirit was on top of Husband Hill... How clean she was back then

So I made this gif to show the current dust buildup



A breath of wind could be used indeed

[RNeuhaus]

A breath of wind could be used indeed

Good example, everybody knows that Spirit is dirtier in basin than on the top of Hill. She started to get dirtier during his transverse from El Dorado to HP.

Hence, I saw that the upper of hill (see me previous posts) where there will be more breeze (see more stones and tail marks of ripples behind any stones) and it will help to blow out the powder.

Rodolfo

[sattrackpro]

Here’s a Q&D pan from the 4/15/06 (Sol 811) pancam directory of exploratorium - a look toward Husband Hill and the edge of HP. There’s an interesting spot in the tracks here (second image below) where it looks as if the right front wheel may have failed to rotate momentarily, a few meters before it failed completely. Maybe, maybe not... it could just be a patch of soft-dust-ridge the wheels went through, and it does have some cleat marks, however they aren’t uniform.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[ElkGroveDan]

By the looks of the soil you are using images from different filters. I think it might be more accurate to use images taken though the same filter.

[dot.dk]

By the looks of the soil you are using images from different filters. I think it might be more accurate to use images taken though the same filter.

It's two navcam images
So no filter issues.

[ElkGroveDan]

It's two navcam images
So no filter issues.

Dang! I've been taking photos since Viking, and I'd swear that first one was through a red filter.

Nonetheless, dusty it is!

[Ant103]

Dusts Devils, Spirit Want You

[djellison]

It's OK Bob - I'll take this one...

Dust Devils did not clean Spirit.



Doug

[Shaka]

You ought to consider programming a 'hot key' for this reply.
But I seriously worry that we may be getting more and more anxious for ANY sort of wind event as the months wear on at Low Ridge. Dust strangulation would be a particularly agonizing way for Spirit to go.

[djellison]

Common missconceptions require frequent correction.

I can see how and why it started - but the relation between cleaning and dust devils is simply that summer has stronger winds, and the summer also has more DD's. The connection is also furthered by the fact that we were in a topographically adventagous place during the summer.

Doug

[Bob Shaw]

Doug:

For this, you don't need an FAQ list, but instead a FIA list.

That's Frequently Ignored Answers...

Bob Shaw

[jvandriel]

Here is the complete view from Low Ridge Haven.

Spirit looking back at Husband Hill and surrounding.

Taken on Sol 811 with the R1 pancam.

jvandriel

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[sattrackpro]

In case you haven't seen it, a new rover update was posted on the marsrovers website HERE, dated the 14th. The 'news' is that the increase in power is, "50 to 60 watt-hours per sol" - which only "gives the rover enough energy for about one hour of daytime remote science."

Unfortunately that isn't much of an increase - but it at least allows some of the 'science' that many have longed to see.

[sattrackpro]

One more item from THIS LINK - we ~could~ be sitting virtually in one small area for 8 months... maybe - some of that determined by lowered driving ability. Here's part of the text.

"We have to use care choosing the type of terrain we drive over," Dr. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, a rover planner at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said about the challenge of five-wheel driving. In tests at JPL, the team has been practicing a maneuver to gain additional tilt by perching the left-front wheel on a basketball-size rock.

Spending eight months or so at Low Ridge Haven will offer time for many long-duration studies that members of the science team have been considering since early in the mission, said Dr. Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, deputy principal investigator. These include detailed mapping of rocks and soils; in-depth determination of rock and soil composition; monitoring of clouds and other atmospheric changes; watching for subtle surface changes due to winds; and learning properties of the shallow subsurface by tracking surface-temperature changes over a span of months.

[Bill Harris]

There is nothing wrong with Spirit being a sessile observer for a while. This will give us a chance to do a long-term observation of the aeolian processes that we've seen many signs of. Remember where Spirit was at Sol 90: between Bonneville and The Hills and very dusty. This trek has been miraculous.

In an ideal world, the right front wheel should have conked out while she was doing a survey on top of VonBraun, now that would be a heck of a view.

--Bill

[RNeuhaus]

"[i]We have to use care choosing the type of terrain we drive over," Dr. Ashitey Trebi-Ollennu, a rover planner at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said about the challenge of five-wheel driving. In tests at JPL, the team has been practicing a maneuver to gain additional tilt by perching the left-front wheel on a basketball-size rock.

That is very good news. The problem can be solved by small steps toward the desired destination. It was what I was thinking in my recent previous post!

Rodolfo

[Burmese]

At least this low ridge has a lot of interesting things for Spirit to look at. And it seems to be closely associated with Home Plate so what she discovers here will undoubtedly tell a lot about that feature. Had she made it to the side of McCool Hill I am not sure we would have had as rich a target environment (for a -very- slow moving rover now).

[RNeuhaus]

Had she made it to the side of McCool Hill I am not sure we would have had as rich a target environment (for a -very- slow moving rover now).

During this fall and winter. It would be impossible for Spirit to catch the spoted places (korolev or Faget places) where are Spirit would be able to survive with the minimum energy buildup. From where Spirit is to these spot would not be able to advance as long as the battery is depleted. The problem is that the Spirit range autonomy has reduced much with one of the stuck wheels and low solar energy. Maybe, after spring, with dust devils to clean its solar panels and plus much solar energy, Spirit would be able to advance slowly toward to McCool Hill.

However, many people from JPL has felt that they need more time to study around HP so it is most probably that Spirit won't go to McCool Hill but back to HP. That is 20% effort and 80% science philosophy.

Rodolfo

[djellison]

with dust devils to clean its solar panels

OK, now I KNOW you're having a laugh....



Doug

[slinted]

A solid cleaning event would be nice, but Spirit probably has a long wait in store until the next one. The first, and I believe the most significant, cleaning event was on Sol 420, one sol before the first dust devils were spotted. That was LS 173, and we've got until January 26 of 2007 before that time of year will roll around again.

[RNeuhaus]

OK, now I KNOW you're having a laugh....



Doug

My previous post I was saying that the Dust Devil will start to phantom on Gusev Crater in the next spring. Luckly, it would hit on Spirit. I remember that I saw a picture with one big DD roaring on the south basin of Columbia Hill. But, now, the weather is becoming cooler and cooler, that the DD won't be able to appear unless the breeze might happen in some time.

As I remember that there is another cleaning dust method. This has happened to Oppy when it was roving inside the Endurance crater. One martian early morning, the panel solar was covered by a very thin film of ice during the sunrise, later, the panel solar became clean due to the water cleaning. It might happen the same to Spirit during the early winter morning. Isn't that a bad news?

Rodolfo

[Jeff7]

OK, now I KNOW you're having a laugh....



Doug

We're all going to say this soon, until you completely lose it. We'll see you outside of Bill Harris' house one day at his 1/4 scale MER model, with a mini tornado generator machine, screaming "dust devils don't clean solar panels!!! BAHAHAHAAA!!!!!"

[Shaka]

"dust devils don't clean solar panels!!! BAHAHAHAAA!!!!!"

O.K. Let's keep the discussion at UMSF fair, considered and scientific whereever possible. To whit, dust devils are not known to have caused any MER panel cleaning events to date. Other forms of wind gusts that can occur at night are most likely responsible - why don't we give them a name, say, "gust angels". Pray for gust angels at Low Ridge Haven, but don't spurn a wayward DD that might show up instead. Since DDs vacuum up dust from the surface of Mars, they might well be capable of doing the same for Spirit. Angels or devils, it's the effect we need!

[DFinfrock]

OK, now I KNOW you're having a laugh....



Doug

What I would like to see now is one of USTRAX's famous posters. An ad for the Martian Dust Devils cleaning service seems to be in order.

David

[bergadder]

OK, now I KNOW you're having a laugh....



Doug

I know where the filters can be obtained:
http://www.appliancefactoryparts.com/vacuu...nds/dust-devil/

[jamescanvin]

I like the look of this for the coming sol :

CODE

814 p2280.05 52  0   0   52  0   104  pancam_McMudro_pan_col_1_L234567Rall

The first column of a pan in all filters (I would assume a 360 )

Not only that, but with 52 images that means it's going to be 4 frames high!


James

[djellison]

I'll get Helen to take a picture of me infront of some posters I'm putting up at the BAA conference this weekend, then someone can annotate appropriately

Doug

[TheChemist]

Some wishful thinking

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Nix]

Not only that, but with 52 images that means it's going to be 4 frames high!
James

Looking forward to that one!

Nico

[Tesheiner]

If they keep this pace of one row a day (let's hope not), it means a little less then one month to finish the 360º panorama.
I'm wondering if the atmosphere would be stable enough during all this time, otherwise we would have similar problems as on previous panoramas (Everest?) trying to match frames taken on different sols under different illumination conditions.

[djellison]

The alternative is to have it done in 4 columns at a time - and then the join between the 'batches' is bad

Doug

[MahFL]

Some dramitic low angle sun illumination pics from Spirit's Pancam today

e.g. http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/...00P2408R1M1.JPG

[general]

Some dramitic low angle sun illumination pics from Spirit's Pancam today

e.g. http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/...00P2408R1M1.JPG

Lovely picture - notice how the pattern of the sand ripples of Eldorado changes from west to east.

[Stu]

GORGEOUS image MahFL, thanks! Seems years since we were looking down on those ripples, doesn't it?

[Ant103]

Wowww O_O, it's wonderfull! This is a spectacular view!

[dilo]

Wowww O_O, it's wonderfull! This is a spectacular view!

Agree, is truly spectacular view!
This is a crude manual stitch of 4 images centered on Husband hill:


Incidentally, on the same Sol Spirit take also this intriguing view joining various symbolic elements (sand, rocks, tracks, solar panels, cameras mast shadow...)

[RNeuhaus]

Some dramitic low angle sun illumination pics from Spirit's Pancam today

e.g. http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/...00P2408R1M1.JPG

For my, that is one of the most beautiful scenery on Mars. This landscape express that this land is not dead, this land has some pattern of organization done by the winds, the consistent composition of sand, localized, and delimited. These combination of true, has striken to my mind to ask "Is there something expression of that scenery?".

Rodolfo

[SigurRosFan]

A hell of view!! It looks so real!

Marco, thanks for the mosaic!

Great view of Lookout Point ...

Inner Basin:

[Nix]

Now there's El Dorado amazingly glad to see it this way!

Nico

[Shaka]

This is a crude manual stitch of 4 images centered on Husband hill:

I don't know about "crude manual stitch", Dilo caro, but for me this is an image that is spiritually uplifting.
What's more, it simply begs to have Spirit present, gazing into the setting sun.
Astro0! Where are you? Let this be your masterpiece!
.
edit: Call it, Sunset of Spirit

[dilo]

Dear Shaka, this was done by approximately rotating and joining single images through a photoretouch program.
This night I cannot go to sleep before this complete version: now made with AutoStitch, not easy due to strong differences in contrast/luminosity and for this reason required also lot of post-process adjustments, but I think the image is worth (hey, missed horizon on the right appear a little odd to me!).
Now Nirgal and Astro0 can do some magic on this!

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Bubbinski]

Great panorama, Dilo. That pic is one of the best, most evocative I've ever seen. Makes Mars feel like a real "place", not just a point of light in the sky. That something could look so familiar yet be so very far away is something I am having a hard time wrapping my imagination around.

[Phillip]

Wunderbar. Magnifique. Extraordinary. That panorama is a keeper. Thanks Dilo.

[dilo]

...Thanks to all but especially to Spirit!

(anyway, there is some strange thing on this "lookout hill", recalling me Nazca features... )

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[aldo12xu]

Not to take away any pending thunder from Nirgal or Astro0, but here's my attempt at artistically rendering dilo's superb panorama. I'm fairly new at this, so feel free to let me know how it can be improved. especially in terms of sky color.


http://www.marsgeo.com/Photos/Spirit/BestC..._HP_HHill_c.jpg

[MichaelT]

Very well done aldo12xu!

Thanks, Michael

[jvandriel]

Here is the same 360 degree panoramic view from Sol 807

with additional images from the solar deck taken on Sol 813.

Taken with the L0 navcam.

jvandriel

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[jvandriel]

and here is the panorama concentrated on Spirit. ( I have changed the

view direction 180 degree.)

Maybe one or both panorama's good for colourization by one of

the other members of this great forum ?

jvandriel

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Stu]

dilo, aldo... (cough, splutter!!!) you can't just go posting images like that without warning, it's not fair!!! I'm going to be in hospital for a week with the pain of my jaw hitting the floor!!! Just... just stunning....

Seriously, how do you guys DO that??? You take those grainy black and white images off Exploratorium and turn them into... that!! It's like me doodling a sketch of a stick man and the Mona Lisa appearing when my back's turned! We all owe you a huge thanks for the many, many hours you've put in on those images, taking us to Mars and turning it into a real place more than ever before.

That's one of my favourite pans yet aldo. Good work.

[paxdan]

Here is Jvandrial's pan in polar form. I'm just happy that spirit has ended up in such a visually interesting area.

[ilbasso]

...Thanks to all but especially to Spirit!

(anyway, there is some strange thing on this "lookout hill", recalling me Nazca features... )

That appears to be the "J" from "JPL" - everyone knows that MRO is actually carrying a powerful laser to etch advertising slogans into the Martian terrain. That's how NASA is going to pay for science missions from now on.

OK, it COULD happen?!

Think Chairface Chippendale from The Tick, who started writing his initials on the moon with a powerful laser until he was stopped, after getting through CHA.

[aldo12xu]

Hi Stu, thanks for the compliment. Nirgal and Astro0 are the real experts, though. But I'm glad I can make a reasonably artistic contribution. And your renditions are pretty stunning as well, especially the view from the rim of Victoria Crater and we're still 2000 metres away!! Now, that's impressive

[dilo]

Aldo inspired me, cannot resist to do my personal colorized version! (80% of original size, "artificial" sky).
Enjoy! (and thanks, Stu, for the nice words)

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[climber]

Thanks so much to have turned Spirit's picts into THIS !
All the area look much closer than ever. Very inspiring and uplifting. THIS must make it to Planetary Exploration books.

[stevo]

Oh my Lord, that is stunning. you guys are very, very good.

[Shaka]

Magnificent.
Astro0, your canvas awaits you.

[Stu]

Going to be serious for a moment here. In times past, explorers such as Lewis and Clark recorded the landscapes of the so-called "Frontier" with pencils and in paint, not just for posterity, to record the details of the places they had seen, but so that the people "back home" could see those places and, possibly, be moved and inspired to go there and see them for themselves. Other painters, like Albert Bierstadt, travelled out to the Frontier to paint its sunsets, horizons and wonders; his paintings of Yosemite are the finest ever created, with breathtaking colour and energy, and have inspired generations of people to travel to the valley and experience its wonders for themselves.

The panoramas you've shown us today have the potential to be just as important, I really believe that. Possibly more than any before, they show Mars as a real world, they bring it to life. Show the average man or woman in the street a Viking, Pathfinder or for that matter MER image andthey'll just see rocks, dust dunes, a pink sky... show them this image and they'll see the beauty of the light there, the stark grandeur of the landscape, and the true beauty of the New World. I know this for a fact because I printed out and showed that panorama to people at work today, and several of them were stunned. And I mean stunned, they just stared at it quietly. One told me she finally, finally "got" why Mars fascinates me so much. You really should try and get that panoram - both versions of it - Out There to the public, via magazines, websites, newspapers, whatever means you can. That's a genuinely powerful, evocative image. It deserves to be seen by as many people as posible.

But something else occurs to me. Today we treasure "antique" pictures, paintings and photographs made decades or even centuries ago that show how our town/city/country used to look. I am 1000% sure that in years to come, that panorama of Husband Hill, with Ultreya/El Dorado branded on its side, will adorn the walls of many habitats on Mars, treasured by colonists and settlers as a snapshot of how their home used to look, back when it was "the frontier".

Good work guys.

[Astro0]

Hi All,
Well, what can I say....that panorama is certainly one of the most dramatic images of the MER mission so far. I've been catching up with all the Rover news in the past 24 hours, having just returned from two weeks at JPL, Goldstone and KSC on a bit of a fact finding/education mission of my own.
Getting to have a look at Spirit and Opportunity's unnamed sibling in the Mars pit was a real treat, as well as meeting and lunching with some of the people who help to make the MERs happen.

I can't wait to get back into the swing of producing some new SFX images, and this panorama is certainly near the top of the list - although I think that it is 100% perfect as it stands in either colour, B&W, full or cropped field of view. Excellent work by EVERYONE

Cheers
Astro0

PS: Have to say that I got a real buzz at seeing one of my SFX images (Oppy Leaves Eagle) up on the wall in one office space at JPL - "I was over the moons of Mars!"

[Bill Harris]

Oh mercy me, you kids have outdone yourselves.

A camera can create an image, but only a mind can create art.

--Bill

[MizarKey]

That's got to be my favorite panorama to date.

Hey, can one of you show the route Spirit took coming off the hill? Alan? Of course it should be posted in the Route map folder, but I'd love to see the route our plucky rover took getting off the hill...especially if were 'stretched' a bit to look 'hillier'.

[Shaka]

Something tells me this won't be the last low-sun panorama Spirit takes this winter. Next we should get a look at sunrise, though McCool Hill may cast a shadow over the scene. Some real clouds over Husband Hill would also be superb.
How prescient of JPL to send Oppy to do its wonderful crater science, while giving us the Spirit of Exploration among the scenic wonders of the Columbia Hills.
May all its future Martian study sites be as inspired!

[dilo]

Good idea to put Route map...
I'm sorry, in the previous released image there was an error about Sol number, here corrected version:

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Borek]

It's a stunning image, for sure.
But if you ask me what is my favourite picture from a MER, then it surely is the first big color composite picture from Spirit when it still was on lander. I set that image as a wallpaper at work on a 21" monitor. That high res picture really created an intense impression, that the screen is just a window to Mars and that I really can reach through it and touch the rocks on the surface. I remember the sense of awe when I looked at this pic.

Borek

[Nirgal]

dilo, aldo: awsome, phantastic work !!

For the last couple of weeks I have been only occasionally checking the Opportunity board (
waiting for for new images of Victoria.) thought that we wouldn't see many new images from the "winter-parked" Spirit ... But little did I know what phantastic new images I was mising here in the Spirit board

hats off and Kudos for your great panoramas & colorizations ...

hopefully I too will find the time again to do some more image processing work
which I had to neglect recently because of other obligations (job, etc.)

[Tesheiner]

Dilo & Aldo,

Incredible job!
One of the best panoramas ever worked.



Astro0,

I'm looking forward your SFX version with Spirit on the foreground and it's looong shadow.

[Nix]

Wonderful work you guys -I had a go at this one too. It's been a while since I've done anything with the raws (time... ) but here's another version of this marvelous scene...



Nico

[imipak]

...!

Gosh, that really is rather good. I'm afraid the colour printer at work is going to be ticking up a few unauthorised copies tomorrow!

[Martial]

Wonderful work you guys -I had a go at this one too. It's been a while since I've done anything with the raws (time... ) but here's another version of this marvelous scene...

Nico

it would bee very interesting to have drawing on this picture the way of Spirit on this face of Husband Hill
Thank you all

[djellison]

Unfortunately, most of Spirit's traverse since leaving the summit of Husband Hill is obscured by near-field topography.

Doug

[Bob Shaw]

Doug:

Have you been reading too many press releases? What's wrong with saying: 'You can't see there from here'? Or something equally, er, you know? Wossisname. Nothing wrong with plain English, oh no.

Can't get the staff.

Bob Shaw

[alan]

I like the look of this for the coming sol :

CODE

814 p2280.05 52  0   0   52  0   104  pancam_McMudro_pan_col_1_L234567Rall

James

Nice, they named the current location after a base in Antartica.

[lyford]

Nothing wrong with plain English, oh no.

Eschew Obfuscation!

[Bill Harris]

Eschew Obfuscation!

Gesundheit!

[edstrick]

Walter Gesundheit?

[climber]

You mean, the one from Mc Mudro ?

[Tesheiner]

They seems to have corrected that sequence name. It's now written as McMurdo on the tracking web.

BTW, the second row (of 27?) in that sequence is planned for sol 817 (tosol).

CODE

817 p2281.05 52  0   0   52  2   106  pancam_McMurdo_pan_col_2_L234567Rall

Slow pace on both sides of Mars.

[dvandorn]

In re the truly lovely images of Husband Hill from Spirit's winter quarters:

Very nice, but not quite right. The automatic gain compensation of the imaging processes (stretching contrast, etc.) has rendered the extremely relatively dark El Dorado / Ultreya feature to be the same albedo as the surrounding, much brighter, hill and valley.

This would be a *perfect* image if El Dorado / Ultreya appeared as dark, in relation to the surrounding terrain, as it should be.

-the other Doug

[mhoward]

I think it's actually the filter, or perhaps the filter and the lighting. The images are in R1 and R7; I think R1 has been used for the mosaics so far.

[slinted]

I think the lack of contrast in El Dorado / Ultreya is more an issue of filter choice. So far we just have R1 (blue) and R7 (Pancam's furthest IR). As we learned from the close-ups, the sands there are as bright if not brighter than the normal Gusev sands in blue, but dramatically less bright in red. When we get some L2s or R2s, I'll bet the dark sands pop out again.

[mhoward]

Doing an R711 combination seems to work moderately well:



It's hard to get the balance right across multiple images, though.

[climber]

Here we go again on the science side of the pictures!
You're right and I agree and I also say that the lower light the lower contrast. BUT, on this particular case, us, as UMSF'ers as well as as the general public who's paying for this, we've got even more return (ROI ) than we'd expected in our wildest thought.
How poetic I am...

[Phil Stooke]

Regarding the idea of plotting the route on this great new pan:

The route from the hilltop to Eldorado could be mapped very nicely. To the right of Eldorado, the prominent mound is Comanche. Miami is just above and somewhat to the right of it... yes, quite a bit could be plotted. But everything after Eldorado is lost.

But I don't have time to do it.

Phil

[Nix]

Nice to see that R1-7 combo Michael, hadn't taken the time to do it myself.

Individually, the shorter wavelengths will typically render darker areas brighter than they are while the longer (L/R2 for instance), like Slinted states will render the dark areas dark -or rather less reflective than they actually are under Martian lighting.

One can compare this being valid by looking at some radiance data from Opportunity dunefield scenery, while waiting for the 'right' data from Spirit sol 708 from El Dorado..

The reflected glare visible in the scene is also cause for the low contrast in some areas, due to the low sun-altitude. But I don't mind, the effect is indeed a very dramatic scene.

Nico

[Shaka]

They seems to have corrected that sequence name. It's now written as McMurdo on the tracking web.

That's a relief. For a moment I was afraid that global warming had forced a name change.

Individually, the shorter wavelengths will typically render darker areas brighter than they are while the longer (L/R2 for instance), like Slinted states will render the dark areas dark -or rather less reflective than they actually are under Martian lighting.

The discussion by Nix et al. about the albedo variations of Eldorado is one we have touched upon repeatedly in past months. I have tried to contribute my understanding of how incident light is reflected, trapped and scattered by bodies of well-sorted and rounded basaltic sand on Mars. I'm sure that wavelength selectivity of different Pancam images will contribute to how bright or dark the sand looks in an image; ('bluish' sand will look 'blackish' through a red filter). But much of the variation also occurs in Navcam views, with unvarying wavelength biases. These variations conform to a fairly simple dictum: The closer the incident angle of illumination matches the viewing angle, the darker the sand will appear. Orbital midday pictures of Eldorado (and most Martian sand dunes) look black because both light and viewing are from above. From Spirit's present location on the surface of Mars, Eldorado looks bright because there is roughly 90 degrees between illumination and viewing angles, regardless of time of day. From the summit of Husband Hill we were looking down on Eldorado, the angle difference was usually less than 90, and Eldorado looked dark.
The basaltic sands of Mars reflect back very little light; they scatter more to the sides; they absorb and trap a lot. I hope this is helpful.

[atomoid]

the incident angle shouldt matter too much sine the sandfield is not flat but wavy that vaiation should override and make somewhat insignifficant any change incident angle. otherwise ultreya would be very mottled looking based on its topography.

after cancelling out the effects of the filter used, i thought the 'lightening' of ultreya had more to do with the dynamic range of the exposure compressing the contrast between the soil values when a signifficant portion of the image is the sky, causing the white set point to hog the higher end of the dynamic range and robbing the darker portion of it contrast range.