[X] My Assistant

[djellison]

Currently it's Mid Southern Hemisphere Summer - the sun is 85.5 degrees above the horizon at noon for Spirit.

100 sols from now - that figure will be 74 degrees and it will be Early Autumn
200 sols from now - 56 degrees, Mid Autumn
300 sols from now - 50 degrees, Early Winter
400 sols from now - 60 degrees, Mid Winter
500 sols from now - 81 degrees - Early Spring.

Basically it's the 150 to 450 sol's in the future period that will be the worst of it

That's all using the mars24 applet - our resident Purveyor of Whr's might be able to do a better job

Doug

Off topic posts from after 30 October moved to new thread:
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=4837

Alan

[dilo]

In the last weeks, you can see again high dust levels on the sundial (perhaps comparable to pre-storm levels) and also lot of dirt/residuals on solar panels, clearly visible in Sol1355/58 self portraits!

Was the dust storm so violent to bring these smal pieces of rocks over Spirit?

[tasp]

Just brainstorming an idea or two;

* We probably haven't noticed a 'node' or something where dustdevil tracks consistently cross, and we would be able to park the rover(s) for an enhanced shot at a convenient cleaning, but in the unlikely event this hasn't been looked into before . . . .

* Any convenient nearby large appropriately spaced boulders we can park between for an enhanced venturi effect to keep the prevailing winds at a higher speed to reduce dust rate accumulation ?

* or parking 'downwind' of a suitable large boulder or cliff and being in a leeward spot of dead air where deposition rate is low?

* How 'supple' is the suspension system for the undercarrriage at this point? Has the dust 'froze up' the shocks yet? Giving the rover(s) a bumpy ride might knock some dust off, but if the suspension system is still isolating the deck from bumps, then this probably won't work.

* any dust free spots nearby that seem to have (as yet) mysterious dust repeling properties? Go park there and figure out what is doing it.

[climber]

* Any convenient nearby large appropriately spaced boulders we can park between for an enhanced venturi effect to keep the prevailing winds at a higher speed to reduce dust rate accumulation ?

I believe that venturi effect was involved on the very first cleaning event that caught everybody by surprise. At this time, Spirit was sitting on the "north col" of Husband hill.
Nevertheless as centworth point out, we'll not move for a while and if we rove again after winter, I guess that "north col" of Von Braun would be the right place to get some Venturi effect...unless you can point out the 2 right boulders !!!

[slinted]

I believe that venturi effect was involved on the very first cleaning event that caught everybody by surprise. At this time, Spirit was sitting on the "north col" of Husband hill.

The sol 420 event? Maybe there was some local enhancement to those winds, but functionally I think being anywhere within the center of Gusev would have been enough. See Spirit's cleaning event: The view from space

[stewjack]

See Spirit's cleaning event: The view from space

I don't have a professional interest in unmanned space flight. That may be why, although I remember viewing the beginning of that linked page almost a year ago, I never read any further than the first paragraph. I totally missed the point of the article! I thought it was about the fact that Mar's had lots of seasonal dust devil tracks, and I already knew that.

I am glad that I got a chance to re-read the full article. If the last two sentences are still accurate, I may not be the only person to skip over the article.

... there hasn't been a publication (or at least a conference abstract) on this event. Maybe it's not that surprising to the professionals?


Jack