[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

[CosmicRocker]

I can't help but wonder, as we descend steep and slippery slopes, will we observe negative slippage...where visual odometry shows greater distance travelled than the wheel rotations?

[mhoward]

I don't remember seeing the dark drifts northeast of Husband Hill before. Pretty neat. In the Pancam images they look very dusty.

[john_s]

I don't remember seeing the dark drifts northeast of Husband Hill before. Pretty neat. In the Pancam images they look very dusty.

Cool! Those drifts are clearly visible in the orbital images, where they look just like "Ultreya" but smaller. So now we finally know what Ultreya's going to look like. I wonder why their color is so dramatically different from the bright drifts on the summit and elsewhere?

[CosmicRocker]

Cool!  Those drifts are clearly visible in the orbital images, where they look just like "Ultreya" but smaller.  So now we finally know what Ultreya's going to look like.  I wonder why their color is so dramatically different from the bright drifts on the summit and elsewhere?

Actually, John, I think some here realized a while back that the dark patches were probably aeolian (wind constructed) features, thanks to the excellent image processing of some of our members. But the recent glimpses of some of them totally caught me by surprise today. They really are very dark. I've been puzzling over their origin for some time, and the ground-truth rover images really made me pay attention to them today. They are very cool, and I suspect others wonder why the color is "so dramatically different."

Here is my best guess as to their origin. As they say, take it with a grain of salt. A lot of dark minerals are denser than many light colored minerals. As rocks break down into their constituent particles on Mars, they are moved by wind. Less dense particles will move farther than more dense ones.

Either these dark patches are examples of the wind uncovering previous concentrations of heavy minerals, or they are aeolian placer deposits of heavy minerals, winnowed from the nearby hills by the stonger gusts and dust devils. It may be something like the 'black sand' one finds after panning sediments for valuable minerals.

I'd like to hear some other hypotheses...

[Bill Harris]

I noticed those "dark patches" in a couple of areas in the Columbia last year when the discussions about the "Ultreya abyss" started. There are two other dark patches in the Columbia Hills besides Ultreya: these and one other to the South. I've attached an image by someone else (sorry, I don't recall the source of the image) and I've added the third dark patch shown with a red arrow.

Although they could be a chance placer deposit of heavy minerals, I'm inclined to think that these are areas where a dark, heavy unit is uncovered. Although The Abyss was an interesting tale, these dark sands are a important part of the puzzle and we'll know more once we get a closer look.

--Bill

[jvandriel]

A panoramic view down to Haskin Ridge.

Taken with the L0 Navcam.

jvandriel

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[abalone]

Looks like Spirit has started heading off down the ridge

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[djellison]

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_images/635A_L7.jpg (1.2mb)

Prospecting for a bit of a view into the Eastern Basin ( which we've not seen very well yet )

I'm not 100% sure - but are we seing the near rim of Thyra, the far rim of Thyra, and then the rim of Gusev on the Horizon in order?

Doug

[Tman]

Err I or comes the rim always a bit better visible

You're right Doug, it should be visible in this order (also from the summit ago)

[Tman]

Err I or comes the rim always a bit better visible 

You're right Doug, it should be visible in this order (also from the summit ago)

Hey something went wrong - I only was editing my last post!

[Guest_Edward Schmitz_*]

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/doug_images/635A_L7.jpg (1.2mb)

Prospecting for a bit of a view into the Eastern Basin ( which we've not seen very well yet )

I'm not 100% sure - but are we seing the near rim of Thyra, the far rim of Thyra, and then the rim of Gusev on the Horizon in order?

Doug

Yes, I'm pretty sure that's what we are seeing.

ed

[dvandorn]

...I think some here realized a while back that the dark patches were probably aeolian (wind constructed) features, thanks to the excellent image processing of some of our members.  But the recent glimpses of some of them totally caught me by surprise today.  They really are very dark.  I've been puzzling over their origin for some time, and the ground-truth rover images really made me pay attention to them today.

Most of the other dark features seen in the MOC imagery aren't at *all* obvious from the ground, at least at Gusev. Maybe it's mostly a matter of the dark sands collecting in crater bottoms, and the crater bottoms sitting low enough as to be hidden by the rims when seen from any real distance. But even when we've looked directly into craters that look very dark-floored in MOC images, like Bonneville, they just aren't nearly as dark from the MER perspective.

These patches are the first things I've seen that look *exactly* as dark in the MER images as they do in the MOC images. That's what perked up my interest.

-the other Doug

[Tesheiner]

From the current mission update webpage: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status.html

SPIRIT UPDATE: Spirit Wiggles into a Sturdy Workspace - sol 626-633, Oct 17, 2005:

...
As of the end of sol 633, (Oct. 13, 2005), Spirit has driven 4,993 meters (3.10 miles).

Taking into accout last drives downhill Spirit has already passed the 5 km mark!

[djellison]

I tink 900 sols and 6000 m would be a major milestone - that would be exceeding the two main mission requirements by an order of magnitude

Doug

[RNeuhaus]

Most of the other dark features seen in the MOC imagery aren't at *all* obvious from the ground, at least at Gusev.  Maybe it's mostly a matter of the dark sands collecting in crater bottoms, and the crater bottoms sitting low enough as to be hidden by the rims when seen from any real distance.  But even when we've looked directly into craters that look very dark-floored in MOC images, like Bonneville, they just aren't nearly as dark from the MER perspective.

These patches are the first things I've seen that look *exactly* as dark in the MER images as they do in the MOC images.  That's what perked up my interest.

-the other Doug

I don't expect that Ultreya Abyss is coverd by very dark sand as shown by the MOC pictures. I agree that its color would be somewhat lighter. Other deduction is by its geographic situation would be impossible to create a such so dark sand except only close to any volcan or downpour of land or something alike.

Rodolfo