On The Way To Home Plate, a possible route and calendar Options

[ustrax]

As one year ago the question is launched:
Will Spirit make it?

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b14/ustrax3/hip.jpg

If Ultreya reveals to be nothing worthy then it would be faster, but...

Any other guesses?

[Bill Harris]

That right, I meant "too rugged to the _east_"; I've been looking at an upside-down map to much since Homeplate became visible.

I was thinking that the Sun passed the Southern Hemisphere Summer solstice
at LS 270 (Aug 16) and the Autumnal Equinox occurs in January 2006. The power level may not become critical for many, many months, but it is on the decline and may become an issue eventually.

You are correct, the downhill route to the south is quite favorable!

--Bill

[Bert]

I was thinking that the Sun passed the Southern Hemisphere Summer solstice
at LS 270 (Aug 16) and the Autumnal Equinox occurs in  January 2006.  The power level may not become critical for many, many months [...]

IMHO, power-wise, Spirit might hurry up with that descent into the basin.

Spirit's latitude is 14.57° S. Mars's tropic of Capricorn is at 25.19° S.

The latitude at which the Sun reaches zenith at noon is moving north from 25.19°S to 0° between Aug 2005 and Jan 2006. Some day in between, Spirit will have its "zenith day". After that day, the Sun will be in the northern sky and Spirit will be better on the north-facing far slope of the basin.