Spirit dirtier Options

[dilo]

In the last weeks, you can see again high dust levels on the sundial (perhaps comparable to pre-storm levels) and also lot of dirt/residuals on solar panels, clearly visible in Sol1355/58 self portraits!

Was the dust storm so violent to bring these smal pieces of rocks over Spirit?

[djellison]

I can quite imagine stuff being airborne - or another option is dust pilling up around the complex shape of the PCMA and then falling off with motion or wind.

Doug

[slinted]

Spirit's capture magnet is a mess too:

MI's from sol 1355: http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/...QWP2956M2M1.JPG

Pre-storm comparison from sol 1230: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P2906M2M1.JPG

[fredk]

Yeah, I noticed those marks on the panels some time ago, but the last pre-storm views I could find had no marks. So it does look like an effect of the storm. It would be cool to see MIs of the marks, if the arm could reach.

[djellison]

They can only MI the front few cells - it just doesn't reach further than that sadly

Doug

[ElkGroveDan]

Hey you guys quit posting to this discussion unless it's really true. I got all excited when I saw the topic resurrected.

[Eric Hartwell]

There's a nice color shot of all the dust: PIA10128: Dusty Solar Panels on Spirit "The deck of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is so dusty that the rover almost blends into the dusty background in this image assembled from frames taken by the panoramic camera (Pancam) during the period from Spirit's Sol 1,355 through Sol 1,358 (Oct. 26-29, 2007)."

I've combined this view with PIA03272 (Aug. 27, 2005) for comparison:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ehartwell/2105760368/

[Guest_Oersted_*]

Beautiful comparative view there, thanks!

[BrianL]

To my eye, the "colourization" used on the new pictures seems very dull and washed out, and makes the dustiness look worse than it really is. Are there pre-storm pictures that use the same image parameters that could provide a better comparative view?

Brian

[ilbasso]

To the red/green deficient pair of eyes that I'm equipped with, Spirit's panel's colors in the 2005 part of the shot were also very close in color to the surface - as close a match as in the recent JPL image.

[fredk]

The colours in Eric's comparison do look a little funny. I've done a quick and dirty comparison myself, and only done a linear scaling of intensity on one mosaic to roughly match the overall brightnesses of the ground. The hues are pretty close, and the extra dust on the deck now is very clear:

[slinted]

Great comparison, from both. Fredk, you've done an especially good job matching up the grounds, but I'm not sure that's a fully valid assumption (but great for a quick and dirty...no pun intended...matchup). I don't have anything firm to back this up yet, but I think the ground itself is going to be a bit lighter now as well from the copious dust that's come out the atmosphere. The whole of the Columbia Hills is inside the dark streaks left by wind and dust devils, although some of the newest MRO images suggest that is somewhat subdued now that the storm has passed.

[jamescanvin]

Hey you guys quit posting to this discussion unless it's really true. I got all excited when I saw the topic resurrected.

Aggh! It happened again!

Maybe we need a "Spirit dirtier" thread?

[alan]

Posts moved from Spirit cleaner thread to spare readers from unnecessary disappointment.

[Stu]

Not sure why, but this caught my eye this morning looking at the new rear Hazcams... look how caked with dust Spirit is down there.... between Dec 06 and now the holes have really been smothered by the dust, and the lettering at the top has been completely hidden.