[X] My Assistant

[BrianL]

I began to lose my excitement about imagery processing . I'm a little tired of making big panos (maybe is it due to my very old laptop...).

And so, we see the dark side to repeated mission extensions. The strain on the amateur community becomes palpable. Support technology becomes old and needs replacing, ennui sets in.

So, ya want to go ramblin' about on another planet for another year, do ya? Sure, here's a pile of money. Sadly, they never consider the cost in human lives in these decisions.

Perhaps it's time we had a support group forum on this web site. A place where desperate people can go and say, "I'm sick of the Mars rovers and... and... I need help". If we can keep one member from reaching the point where they head out to the backyard at night, get that big red dot in the sky in the crosshairs of the high powered rifle, and start blasting away hoping for a lucky shot... well, I think it will have been worthwhile.

Hang in there, Ant.

Brian

[MarsIsImportant]

Ah, certainly things are not quite that bad!

..a hgh powered rifle? Perhaps a computer upgrade would be better.

[edstrick]

<spreads peanut-butter and grape jelly on a mis-punched hollerith card, takes a bite, and remembers the "good old days">

[kungpostyle]

I haven't been around much so sorry if this has been pointed out already.



Did a clump of dirt hit the sundial and magnet?

Did non-magnetic dust blow off the magnet onto the sundial?

[Aussie]

This happened between Sols 1397 and 1398. The sweep magnet magnet doesn't seem to be the source of the dust although it has settled primarily between the sundial post and the magnet. An accumulation shaken off the post doesn't seem plausible and any wind gust capable of moving this dust from the sweep magnet would surely have caused a cleaning event. Can greater minds than mine provide the answer?

[sattrackpro]

... An accumulation shaken off the post doesn't seem plausible and any wind gust capable of moving this dust from the sweep magnet would surely have caused a cleaning event. ...

I agree - particularly about the magnet being a source - hey, that stuff is being held pretty firmly.

It is likely that a clod of dirt got kicked into the air by MER movement - pretty unusual, considering the very slow pace - but not impossible, given the right set of circumstances.

One scenario I can think of would be the weight of the rover snapping a piece of shale-like stone, causing an end of it to pop upward with enough force to toss a small bit of dirt into the air, part of which landed where we see it.

Considering the number of thin slabs we've seen (particularly around Home Plate,) and the uneven nature of the ground in spots, I'm surprised we haven't noticed even more evidence of small bits of dirt being tossed around by rover movement.

[slinted]

I'm just getting caught up on the latest rover doings now that I'm back from fun-fun holiday travels.

The clods appears on 1397 after that sols drive. (before: Sol 1397 12:44:23, after: Sol 1397 13:40:28)
Here's a comparison of the navcams from after the drive on 1397, and the sol before (click through for full res):

[kungpostyle]

Looks like a jolt to the rover. The dust seems to "mush" out in all directions.

[nprev]

Totally weird (and thanks very much for this excellent animation, Slinted!)

Notice that in the sol 1397 frame there appears to be additional material to the lower left of the sundial, as well as some on the lower bolt fitting of the left-hand pyro (?) mount.

I'd buy off on kicking up dirt clods, but how come we haven't seen it before? Are we perhaps seeing wind-transported "fluffy" clods instead sticking to the top of Spirit?

[Aussie]

Great animation Slinted, and a lesson to those of us that obsessed on the Pancam and forgot about the Navcam. Looking at the Navcams over a few weeks it seems as though dust that had accumulated against seatings and cable runs suddenly spread out. It would have taken a reasonable impetus to lift the dust onto the sundial and sweep magnet and given the snail like pace of the Rover the possible contenders would seem to be a wheel falling off a rock or 'juddering' as the defunct wheel met a fixed rock. She tore up a bit of dirt on that drive so my favourite is 'juddering'.

It does drive home just how dirty poor old spirit is.

[djellison]

You've got accumulations of dust on the UHF, the LGA, the HGA, the PCMA...there are lots of places from which an accumulation of dust might be dislodged by wind and end up landing on the 'dial.

There's a bit of fluff on top of our Sky+ box, under the TV. I don't know how it got there - but you know what, I'm not going to spend too much time trying to figure out how it did

Doug

[dot.dk]

There's a bit of fluff on top of our Sky+ box, under the TV. I don't know how it got there - but you know what, I'm not going to spend too much time trying to figure out how it did

Doug

Also waiting for a cleaning event on that?

[Nix]

I wiped my monitor today from an inch of dust

Nico

[nprev]

Wish all I had to do was fight some dust; my scouts tell me that the roaches are massing for an attack on my kitchen. It's quiet; too quiet...

[Del Palmer]

There's a bit of fluff on top of our Sky+ box, under the TV. I don't know how it got there - but you know what, I'm not going to spend too much time trying to figure out how it did

The fluff has always been there -- it comes as standard with every Sky box.