[X] My Assistant

[Tman]

On sol 513 nearby Methuselah Spirit looks westward at his planned new path: http://www.greuti.ch/spirit/spirit_navcam_sol513b.jpg

On sol 514 he left so the well known place finally (I guess):
rear http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/re...00P1312R0M1.JPG and
forward http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/fo...00P1212R0M1.JPG

And shyly he takes a look round the corner: http://www.greuti.ch/spirit/spirit_pancam_sol514.jpg

[4th rock from th...]

Some corrected hazcam images, forward and backward.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[dilo]

Some corrected hazcam images, forward and backward.

Really going up!
Maybe they decided to climb the apparenly rockless way above the rover, clearly visible in the beautiful Tman simulation...

PS: it seems to me that there is a wide arguments overlapping between this thread and the other one "Where Is Spirit Right Now?!". I suggests to transfer all discussions in one unique thread!

[dvandorn]

I'm concerned about the "rockless area," since the last attempt to scale to the summit through a fairly rockless area ended up with Spirit slipping down as much as she climbed up. I think it likely that any rockless area on the slope of this sized Martian hill is going to appear rockless because the rocks have been covered in wind-deposited dust, and therefore will be harder, not easier, to climb for the MER's wheel design.

What we want is a path paved with a large population of fairly small rocks that are well-seated into whatever soil fills the inter-rock areas. That should give Spirit the best chance of success, I would think.

-the other Doug

[RNeuhaus]

I'm concerned about the "rockless area," since the last attempt to scale to the summit through a fairly rockless area ended up with Spirit slipping down as much as she climbed up.  I think it likely that any rockless area on the slope of this sized Martian hill is going to appear rockless because the rocks have been covered in wind-deposited dust, and therefore will be harder, not easier, to climb for the MER's wheel design.

What we want is a path paved with a large population of fairly small rocks that are well-seated into whatever soil fills the inter-rock areas.  That should give Spirit the best chance of success, I would think.

-the other Doug

I think it is relative. I have the impression that the upper hill has less wind-deposited sand than the lower lands. I am not so concerned about the acumulation of sand on the upper lands. There Spirit can climb a higher slope toward to Husband Summit than the ones of Meridian Planum with very tricky uninform sand textures.

On the other hand, the kind of land on upper is more pavemented than the lower lands due to the wind blown erosion. The above lands have less sands than the lower lands. It might explain that the upper lands is more windy than the lower lands.

Rodolfo

[dvandorn]

Ah, but you also get windblown deposition on hills, too. Especially in "wind traps," like the subtle bench that lies between Spirit's current position and the summit of Husband Hill.

Add to that the fact that what your impression tells you is harder-packed pavement was unclimbable on the north face of the hill, and I think it's going to take more in-situ observations to determine the truth of the matter...

-the other Doug