[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.

[wyogold]

(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".

maybe but it is much neater to think a dustdevil did it. plus not that we can see how many dd are around its not that much of a reach to beleive it.

scott