[X] My Assistant

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

(1) "It's very unlikely that dust devils scrubbed [MER-A's] solar
arrays; instead, [the rover cameras] indicate an unstable atmosphere that
would produce cleansing winds. Spirit was located near a ridge when this
happened, where greater winds would be expected".

(2) The end of the latest MER mission extension was deliberately set for a month
after the Martian winter solstice in Sept. 2006, to see whether the craft are
still viable in increasing sunlight for still another extension.

(3) MER-A's recognition that "Methuselah" and Larry's Lookout are part of the
same layered bedrock unit makes them "the first mappable geological unit in
the Columbia foothiils," says Squyres. "The beds dip to the left and they
line up with beds across the valley -- they all tilt down to the left."
They do indeed have a hard top layer below a softer lower layer, as
indicated by that spectacular overhang at Larry's Lookout; but their
connection to water is as yet uncertain. The rover will spend fully 2 weeks
studying Methuselah, and then return to climbing Husband Hill and maybe then
descending its south face.

(4) The salt patch accidentally uncovered by MER-A's wheels -- mostly sulfates
with some phosphates -- is so richly hydrated that the Mini-TES detected the
bound-water line for the first time on either mission.

[CosmicRocker]

Just try to imagine the mixed feelings the geologist-mountaineers must be having.

Seriously, though...Where is that target east of LL? Where was Jibsheet? (perhaps that is the roughly sail-boat shaped rock seen a while back with fine layering?) They apparently want to do some detailed stratigraphic work here, now that they have a relatively continuous outcrop along strike.

I'm still stuggling with what they mean by "the eastern side of the Lookout." Does that mean Spirit will be heading back downhill?