Spirit's New Adventures, The Mission Beyond 1000 Sols Options

[Stu]

From the latest MER Status Report...

Sol 1023 (Nov. 28): The panoramic camera took images of targets "El
Dorado" and "Prat" as well as thumbnail images of the sky. ..

"Prat"? sigh... that poor, poor rock. I know it's probably been named to honour some scientist, but someone should have told the MER guys what a "prat" is over here in England... would have saved that little rock a very hard time when it's older...

[tedstryk]

Perhaps the rock has a crack in it.

[jamescanvin]

Here is poor Prat - doesn't look like one.

[Stu]

Just goes to show that beneath the surface of every poor prat there's a complicated creature with lots of hidden layers...

[Ant103]

And Prat in colors

[jvandriel]

Here is the complete 360 degree panoramic view

taken on Sol 1037 with the L0 Navcam.

jvandriel

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[jvandriel]

and a polar view from Sol 1037.

jvandriel

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Guest_Myran_*]

Lot of layers, yes thats the word Stu. That port prat doesnt even have the looks for this neighborhood - while it sits there falling to pieces it looks quite more like a runaway from Meridiani.

[fredk]

From the planetary society update:

"...then heading back to Home Plate, the formation that science team members believe may be the remnant of an explosive volcano. After that, the rover may head southeast, lured by a bounty of new unusual rocks and formations the MER team can see in an image recently sent down from" MRO.

And

"If Spirit does head southeast from Home Plate, to some of the intriguing targets now visible in the HiRISE image, that means it will be going in the opposite direction of McCool Hill, where the team initially had planned for it to spend its second Martian winter."

Obviously an error here - McCool Hill is southeast from Home Plate!

There's certainly interesting stuff in all directions, but do people wish to speculate where would be most interesting to go after Home Plate now that we all can see the hirise image?

[jamescanvin]

Kind of a watershed moment with tosols drive (1039), Spirit has lost her north tilt, we have left the 'haven'.

James

[hugh]

do people wish to speculate where would be most interesting to go after Home Plate now that we all can see the hirise image?

Von Braun looks like it would be the next interesting feature going southwest, and pancams from its base should be spectacular even if the rover can't climb up to its "cap".

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Can anyone who downloaded the full size image of Spirits landing site post a crop of the terrain just to the south of the Columbia Hills that Spirit might visit after returning to Homeplate? Thanks

[alan]

James posted a small section of the 'promised land' here
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...ost&p=76795

[Pertinax]

I'm excited to see that Spirit may head off to the southeast after HP (and hopefully VonBraun as well). Looking at the last crop Emily posted containing Spirit's current position and the sand-trap she fell ill in, eastward and just on the other side of the sand-trap is another 'strikingly' circular feature (the one Korolev and Faget are part of) that seems to be one of the more interesting accessible features (and now with better imagery to navigate around the "obvious" sand-traps. A relative of HP, impact, or other. If this feature is indeed what is interesting the folks at JPL, it will be exciting to see.

Nothing new and mars-shattering I know, but interesting. Any thoughts?




-- Pertinax

[Marz]

Kind of a watershed moment with tosols drive (1039), Spirit has lost her north tilt, we have left the 'haven'.

James

Watershed might be a prophetic word to describe the latest MI picture from Spirit!

Is this a sign of liquid water on Mars... more specifically, a drop of water that has refrozen? (look at the left center of this image)

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/mi...00P2979M2M1.JPG

Could this be a drop of oil lube from Spirit's arm, or melted frost on the arm that trickled down and dropped, or something completely different? I don't think it's a camera artifact, since the drop has displaced dust on the surface.