The West Valley Route Options

[lyford]

At Doug's talk at JPL he made mention of how eagle eyed the UMSF crew were with the comment (I am paraphrasing) "If anything moves on Mars, we'll catch it. - even Spirit." It seems like she was parked for so long, with only incremental changes in location.

It's almost overwhelming to see whole new views from Spirit - I am so glad our rover is living up to its name again.

[Shaka]

Seriously, Rui, how can you boldly ride like a conquistador, if your eyes are always full of tears?

[climber]

Where to next? Dusty patch on the left, lots of rocks in the center, go to the right?

Using anaglyph I can see this one:

[djellison]

If Spirit could get to the red "X", t

It would be a miracle to get to that sort of location given her lack of mountain-goat ability. AND....late evening shadowing on the arrays....eek

Doug

[climber]

It would be a miracle to get to that sort of location given her lack of mountain-goat ability.

I wonder if trying to climb "spiraling" instead of straith as was done to get back to HP would help.
This will loook a bit like the traverse to get to Larry's lookout: http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...ic=44&st=86
Now, which way would be the best regarding the RF (and sun illumination,etc...): going clockwise or counter clockwise?

[djellison]

Larrys Lookout, remember, we had 6 wheel drive - and that was a many-hundreds-of-metres zig zag.

At VB-we're looking at maybe 10-20m to zig-zag. If it were me trying - I'd just about circle the thing, then zig zag the best approach to the northern face.

[SpaceListener]

The knowing that Spirts has 5 wheels. One is fixed. The best terrain for this kind driving is rolling on surface with least sand and stone since they provide greater friction to roll. Hence, the best driving is going in zigzaging avoiding these obstacles. The surface with least sand and stones will provide to Spirit greater slope angle capability to climb.

[climber]

At VB-we're looking at maybe 10-20m to zig-zag. If it were me trying - I'd just about circle the thing, then zig zag the best approach to the northern face.

We're coming from the North, don't we? So you're talking about a full circle?
Personaly, I'll go for the west ridge: from West to East...

[Tesheiner]

Few images in the latest batch, but enough to confirm the mobility info from the PDT: today's drive was around 6m towards southeast.
Now, if Mike could post an MMB panorama with a virtual rover on it...

[mhoward]

Yes; an interesting move. Can't say that I understand it yet, but hey, it's movement.

[fredk]

It seems like a reasonable move to me. We talked before about how it makes sense to hug the side of HP as closely as we can during the drive through West Valley, to maintain as much elevation as possible. It looks like the plan will be to try to cross the smooth sandy patch up ahead at the base of HP. We can't cross sandy terrain that's at too much of an incline, but I'd guess that this patch is pretty close to level.

As for the approach to VB, I'd argue for the same thing: keep to the east as much as possible, so we have as much elevation as we can when we hit VB. In fact, with luck, if the slopes and surfaces are OK, we may be able to drive right up to Goddard (possibly even entering it on its SE side), and then continue switch-back style up VB, getting close to the cap rock:

This sketch was based on the orbital anaglyph, trying to keep high and follow not too steep paths. But I have no quantitative idea of what these slopes are like. The operative words in all this are "with luck"!

[mhoward]

I think you're perhaps right, fredk.

Here's another view of the sol 1871 position, this time as seen from the sol 1869 position.

[ngunn]

I think you've got that exactly right. Von Braun may be inaccessible, but Goddard should be OK (maybe even providing a new 'winter haven' on the drive-on-and-tilt-off principle). The science may be the same at both sites. Anyhow it makes historical sense - Tsiolkovsky, Goddard, von Braun in that order.

[Astro0]

Certainly this path looks inviting compared to the rocky road on the right.
That's what probably scares me about it.
Tread carefully Spirit!

[ElkGroveDan]

As one who has hiked, biked and driven on desert terrain, I'd say keep left, or go way to the right among the rocks. If I was in an off-road vehicle in this scene I'd put it to the floor and hit that sandy stretch going into a left turn, wheels spinning, and send that sand flying into the air off to the right, to the hoots and cheers of the people in the vehicle behind me. i.e. it looks soft, and it looks deep.