[X] My Assistant

[glennwsmith]

Here's an obvious scenario that better minds can critique: we will descend hugging the clockwise cliff but also at some safe distance from it (lest a rock should become dislodged during the next wind event or daily thermal cycle and fall on the solar panels), occasionally turning to face it (but still at some safe distance) and using the full reach of the instrument arm to RAT and take micrographs and readings.

[djellison]

• Very confident of getting to the bright rocks.
• Another 'tens' of metres further in - fairly confident.
• Beyond that - all bets are off. We will not venture onto steep sandy slopes unless we know there is bedrock underneath.
• Not sure where this stuff lies compared to Burns cliff - need to do the science to match it up.
• Not going to attempt to get to bright band anywhere else other than Duck Bay. Wouldn't go close to Cape St Vinc. Cliffs are scarey things for little rovers.
• Regional dust storm - about a week old. Tracking it via MRO/MARCI with daily weather updates. It's regional extent - mainly south of Oppy. Don't have predicitive power for it - past experience suggests it may be starting to blow itself out.
• Dust storm blocks out sunlight, less power - but Opportunity is very clean. The storm is a risk- but well position to deal with it.
• Dust levels are the amoung the highest we've ever seen
• Mini-TES of bright band? Not really - from Mini TES it's all rich in sulphates. The differences in Sulphate chemistry we saw at Endurance were only evident in close detail. Primarily the APXS that pulls out the subtle differences. That + microscope. Rat+APXS+MI is what we need to unravel this problem.
• What would be the plan if the dust got worse for Oppportunity? We have experience with Spirit - we had a very dust rover, deep into winter, power levels dip to less than 300Whrs. Before the storm near Opportunity we were at nearly 800whrs, and off the showroom floor it was only around 900Whrs.
• Craig Covault : Anything you want to say about Spirit?
  • Steve mainly 'on' Opportunity but jealous of the Spirit stuff. 'Silica Valley'.
  • Identified another patch of bright soil but different from Gert.Wei, but right next to it.
  • Found rock with crazy nobbly texture ( difficult to IDD with ) - that's also high in Silica.
  • Tried to crunch some with the wheel - and nothing happened - but, right next to it, another piece of rock that did break. 'Innocent Bystander'
  • After studying that - time to get up onto Home Plate
• Total cost - ongoing cost?
  • To date from project inception to 4th extension - a little over $900m
  • Current annual rate is $20-24M
• Spirit hit by dust-devil?
  • No instruments on when cleaned (were using Mini-TES at the time)
  • Last few weeks - several cleaning events - two big ones - Spirit has more than Oppy
  • First jump at about 1320 local - possible direct hit from DD.
  • Imaged rover duck - pattern of removed dust very patchy. Some clean, some not - perhaps has something to do with DD.

And that's a wrap.

Doug