[X] My Assistant

[djellison]

If you're using Firefox - open all the L's or all the R's of this lot in tabs, and then flick thru them..

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/spirit_n449.html

Looks VERY much like the navcam movies that Oppy was taking when trying to climb from Wopmay to Burns Cliff - stuck in the dirt spinning wheels and digging into the ground a little

I dont think it's a trenching op - as they wouldnt do a navcam movie for that -it'd be FHAZ.

It's certainly been a quiet and confusing few days in MER world hasnt it

Doug

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Are they looking for another route? Going down the hill a bit.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu:16080/mars/spi...DWP1212L0M1.JPG

Perhaps they will turn the rover around and try going up bacwards...I think they are better going uphill backwards.

[TheChemist]

Are they looking for another route? Going down the hill a bit.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu:16080/mars/spi...DWP1212L0M1.JPG

Perhaps they will turn the rover around and try going up bacwards...I think they are better going uphill backwards.

They have gone considerably down, so maybe they are looking for a different route after all.

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/na...DWP0745R0M1.JPG

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Maybe they should have stuck to the original plan of going around the hills

[Nirgal]

a new view in the latest rear hazcam (contrast enhanced)

I've wondered why they don't attack the hill in a more "sideways"
or "serpentine" like manner, just like a mountain-road that never goes
to steep, but "zig-zags" to the summit.
Is it because the side-tilt would be to much for the rovers then ?

[Deimos]

a new view in the latest rear hazcam (contrast enhanced) 

I've wondered why they don't attack the hill in a more "sideways"
or "serpentine" like manner,  just like a mountain-road that never goes
to steep, but "zig-zags" to the summit.
Is it because the side-tilt would be to much for the rovers then ?

I suspect if you drove straight across the slipperiest areas, you'd go forward some and slide down some. Picking an angle of attack that was guaranteed to get you up some seems difficult, if straight ahead doesn't get you going up. As a hiker I'd look for switchbacks around the worst areas more than switch backs just for the sake of zig-zapgging. There may be a lot of sideways driving, but probably just to look for safer routes up.

[alan]

Why back up so far instead of just driving farther to the right? Perhaps they have seen something interesting in that outcrop behind Spirit.