[X] My Assistant

[stewjack]

Now that we know where we are going, I thought we could use a topic about our future route. I hope that a few images will get the rover rolling - downhill.

READY START

BACKGROUND
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From Steve Squyres Misson Update
Octoberber 4, 2005

Extending eastward from the summit of Husband Hill is a broad ridge that we've named Haskin Ridge. It trends ENE from the summit, does a little dog-leg to the right, and then trends ESE for a bit. Right at the dog-leg there's a pretty steep step, which we're not certain we can get down. So we're going to descend the upper portion of the ridge, right to where the step is, and assess the situation. If we can see a safe route, then we'll continue down onto the lower portion of Haskin Ridge.
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My Image of Haskin Ridge
I tried to get the best image of Haskin ridge that was available, and this is a crop from a true color TIFF summit panorama, located on the the Cornell Pancam web site. I converted the tif file to a gif file to save some download time.

Warning : File Size : 1.7 MB
Cornell True Color Pan of Haskin Ridge

Reference
WEB page of Husband Hill Summit Panorama
Warning: File Size : 80 MB !!!!
Preliminary Spirit Pancam of "Husband Hill Summit" Panorama

Jack

PS If you can't see the "steep step" that Squyres mentions - try this orbital image. I believe that the "steep step" is the dark shadow cutting across the ridge that is located directly under the word CRATER. I think that it is also visible in the true color pancam image, but it is less obvious.

Orbital View of Husband Hill and Basin

[mhoward]

I don't see any road hazards ahead
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/na...BMP1908L0M1.JPG

Indeed, I think we're perhaps halfway down the shelf. I guess the dropoff wasn't such a big deal after all.

[jamescanvin]

An analysis of the latest hazcams (651)

Here
and here

Shows that Spirt is currently on a ~16 degree slope

Looking at the latest navcam images e.g this one. A quick analysis on a few rocks on the road ahead shows that the slope is a pretty constant ~17 degrees.

No problem!

James

[abalone]

An analysis of the latest hazcams (651)

[url=http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/forward_hazcam/2005-11-

Shows that Spirt is currently on a ~16 degree slope

Looking at the latest navcam images e.g this one. A quick analysis on a few rocks on the road ahead shows that the slope is a pretty constant ~17 degrees.

No problem!       

James

Anaglyph of latest hazcam

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[jvandriel]

A panoramic view of Haskin Ridge.

Taken with the R0 Navcam on Sol 649.

jvandriel

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Tesheiner]

Bookmark sol 653:

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653 p2095.10 5 5 0 0 2 12 pancam_cal_targ_L256R27
653 p2095.10 5 5 0 0 2 12 pancam_cal_targ_L256R27
653 p2095.10 5 5 0 0 2 12 pancam_cal_targ_L256R27
653 p2297.04 45 0 0 45 4 94 pancam_east_basin_pt1_L256R27
653 p2298.04 55 0 0 55 4 114 pancam_east_basin_pt2_L256R27
653 p2600.07 2 2 0 0 2 6 pancam_tau
653 p2600.07 2 2 0 0 2 6 pancam_tau
653 p2626.02 36 0 0 0 0 36 pancam_sky_radiance_thumbs_L457R247
653 p2744.03 1 1 0 0 0 2 pancam_prepoint_Odyssey_L1

[Burmese]

Sol 651: nice angle on home plate and pitchers mound

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...BMP1908L0M1.JPG

[dvandorn]

Still can't see all the way into the Inner Basin, though. It's beginning to look intriguingly dark as the land slips behind the hill, though.

Again, this is one of the very few places at Gusev that looks as dark from the ground as it does from orbit...

-the other Doug

[jvandriel]

A 360 degree panoramic view of Husband Hill and Inner Basin.

Taken on Sol 649 with the R0 navcam.

jvandriel

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[jvandriel]

A 360 degree panoramic view lower on Husband Hill.

Taken with the R0 navcam on Sol 651.


jvandriel

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[jvandriel]

Looking down on Haskin Ridge with the R1 Pancam.

Taken on Sol 651.

jvandriel

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[alan]

Something from OWW's transcripts of the director updates I found interesting

On Spirit, today is sol 653. She just completed about a 15-meter drive on sol 651 and is inching her way down Haskin Ridge on the other side of Husband Hill. Yesterday we had a big end-of-sol science discussion and determined that our long term goal was to get to place called Home Plate by around sol 800. And that is more for energy reasons rather than science reasons so that we can get better tilts for the upcoming winter.

Early April, just in time for baseball season

[dot.dk]

Something from OWW's transcripts of the director updates I found interesting

Early April, just in time for baseball season

I wonder what they are gonna do with Oppy. She must be in as much need of power as Spirit is. How about getting to the rim of Victoria for some nice north facing tilt perhaps

[Jeff7]

I wonder what they are gonna do with Oppy. She must be in as much need of power as Spirit is. How about getting to the rim of Victoria for some nice north facing tilt perhaps 

At the rate it's going, and with the current power levels (528watt-hours I believe is the latest figure) it might not make it that far. Maybe park on a slope of Erebus and hope for a good stiff breeze. It'd be nice to get Opportunity as clean as it was back in Endurance crater. Back then, it still looked factory-fresh.

[helvick]

At the rate it's going, and with the current power levels (528watt-hours I believe is the latest figure) it might not make it that far. Maybe park on a slope of Erebus and hope for a good stiff breeze. It'd be nice to get Opportunity as clean as it was back in Endurance crater. Back then, it still looked factory-fresh.

The latest numbers are low because Tau was still high after the storm last week, not because dust had actually settled on the panels. Since they gave us a power number (593) and Tau (1.6) for Sol 627 I can make a pretty reasonable estimate that the total loss due to dust on the panels is currently 22%. SS has said they are not worried about storms like this increasing the rate of dust deposition so the numbers should climb back up to 650 watt hours as the atmosphere clears and tau drops back towards 1, maybe slightly more if it clears up fast.

Judging by the power numbers given to us in this update Tau rose to around 2.4 on Sol 628 (479 watt hours), 2.45 on Sol 629 (470 watt hours) and then fell back to 2.3 on Sol 630 (496 watt hours) so this was (I think) much more severe than the previous Tau=2 dust up back in June.

The big question (for me) is whether the dust settling behavior as martian autumn proceeds through to winter will be different to last year. If it is the same (~27% power loss due to dust at Sol 196) then we could be looking at close to 50% loss of power due to dust at a time when total insolation is around 74% of current levels. That would leave the poor beastie with only about 260 Watt hours per sol on or about Sol 870. That's if she's absolutely horizontal - some clever aiming\tilting could still keep it high enough not to be a deathly health hazard.

[Bill Harris]

This is a really, really odd rock seen on the way down the ridge. Deep blue sand underneath, plus a yellowish cast to the soil on the right side of the image.

I don't even want to speculate...

--Bill