Is this the summit of Husband Hill?
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/na...IHP0655R0M1.JPG

Yes to me it seems we're finally there, congrats to all involved in the MER project!

Ooops... apparently not yet

But the road to the top seems to be wide open

It seems that Spirit Just has to stand on tippy toe now to see 360 Degrees around Gusev.

Roy F

I'm sorry to brake the happiness, Spirit is not again on the Summit if you look to entire Sol578 panorama...

The perfectly flat horizon induced me too to the wrong conclusion, in fact rover is on a slope of about 5deg... (not visible in the flattened Pano).
The polar projection below exhagerate the way up...


Edit: general, only now I see your self-correction and Pano!

that's a very nice 360 pan! dust devils in the background as well.
but maybe not as nice as the one coming up from the summit

I'm really hoping that the summit pan they take will include some nice dustdevils. It would be fitting to capture some nice ones and have the summit pan include some evidence of the dynamic mars we now take for granted. Also hoping they include the deck sequence that captures the solar panels so dilo can do his superb overhead projections and include a self portrait. Perhaps you could combine that with dougs elevation model and give us a overhead pan projected onto the actual morphology of the hills.

i am fully expecting at some point to see a 3d model of the hils, viewable from any angle, with imagery from the rover projected onto it, and i'm thinking that a collaberative effort on this board may be able to beat the jpl folks to it.

I bet Spirit will reach the summit by the end of this month, and then enjoy a well-deserved Labor Day weekend taking in the view

Using the Joe Knapp's MER Stereo Parallax Calculator, I made some range measures from hilltop:

(number in the parhentesis refers to rck dimensions). It seems we are about 30m from summit...
Here also a vertical projection of terrain around Spirit (4cm/pixel, 6deg slope):

Verry nice panorama dilo...
No Hi-res version for us???

Is Spirit already at the summit as of sol 581?

Until now I was 100% sure about it. The "other summit" we see here (navcam: 2N177951055EFFADNDP0645R0M1, pancam: 2P177952739EFFADNDP2369R1M1) was below the horizon so it couldn't be higher then the current position...

But note that the images are taken from a vantage point 1.5m higher then the terrain -- the mast. And see what happens if we add a 1.5m high sort of "monolith" on the top of the other summit: Click to view attachment

Taking this into account, that rock is some 0.78 deg above the horizon, which makes it higher then the present position.

... and a rock at 49m and 0.78 deg above the horizon makes it only 30cm higher then the place Spirit stands now. Not too much.

Tes, probably you're right. That rock could be the definitively Husband summit. But now, how can Spirit it mark? She has packed in no flag?!

Spirit's RAT may be worn out, but it can still brush rocks, right? Why not leave a distinctive mark on "Summit Rock" with a pattern of brush marks?

Maybe something as simple as this (I hope this spaces out right):

O O
O

Sort of a "Kilroy was here" kind of mark...

-the other Doug

Try to RAT it's name and date on the "summit-rock" with it's last bits of diamond teeth left ?

I see no other option: only staying up there forever. But that's not a good idea: still a lot of work to do !

Well - sad thing is that a little brush mark wont last very long.

The rat may be dead - but I'd use it anyway - just to grind a mark in a rock if not a proper rat hole.

Otherwise - perhaps a trench?

Doug

More images after another drive

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/navcam/2005-08-23/

It probably makes no sense - but to see the horizon over the summit, from Hazcam pics is a watershed as far as I'm concerned

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/re...00P1312L0M1.JPG


Doug

And a (quick and dirty) panorama.

Unfortunately one of the frames was not downloaded yet -- the one facing east -- so the pano is uncomplete. And no way to get a flat horizont with autostitch due to the near features.

Can anyone spot Larrys Lookout in this lot? It's a bit confusing down there.

Doug

I don't think Larry's Lookout can be seen from this location:

Doug,

Dunno if you read this post, but on today images I see the same as yesterday.

No - there was a drive -

These new images are site AE drive 00

The previous images were site AD drive ND

Not to mention the fact that the F/RHAZ shows driving

Doug

By "the same as yesterday" I was meaning to say that we see the same features looking downslope to the north.

Y was not trying to say there was no drive inbetween.

Look what's on the way!...

'582 11:53:31 p2299.03. 1 0 0 0 0 0 54 pancam_tennessee_valley_6cx3r_L456'

The only danger is that there is concern that using the rat in its current condition might damage Spirit's electronics.

I think the bigger danger is to the IDD. If you've ever had a power drill bind up, you know that your arm feels a big jolt. I think there is evidence that this can happen (or maybe it actually has happened) with Spirit's RAT.

Here are a couple of polar versions of pans from the summit:

sol 581:

Click to view attachment

sol 582:

Click to view attachment

The originals are of course borrowed from previous posts... jvandriel and general (582, I combined parts of them) and Tman (581). Thanks to you all.

I think general is correct, Larry's Lookout can't be seen on 582. But there is a very Larry-like feature behind Spirit, which I think must be the feature labelled 'another outcrop/lookout' on the recent maps. It is at the east end of the big trough labelled on earlier maps.

Phil

Fantastic work Phil, Thank you a LOT!

I could be wrong, but it seems to me that the stones on top of Husband Hill are not lying around just randomly, but are all facing the same direction

Wow!!!!!

Cool as a Martian winter night!!

Yup, and the word I suggested earlier was 'bedding'...

Three Theories:

1. Eon's of wind from the same direction (west to east in this case) has slowly eroded rocks into the same direction.

2. A single large impact nearby re-aligned the rocks.

3. The rocks were already aligned in the same direction (having been deposited like that from the formation of the Columbia hills) and were eroded out.

Ha ha, i remember the sol 30 days, looking at the hills in the distance and saying "no way"..

Way!

-the other Doug

The first item has a full panoramo of Spirit's view of Husband Hill.


MARSDAILY

- Spirit Looks Back Up Husband Hill

http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Spirit_Lo...sband_Hill.html

Pasadena CA (SPX) May 02, 2006 - This field of sand ripples now separates Spirit
from the slopes of Husband Hill, where NASA's rover will spend the Martin
winter. It has been 200 sols, or Martian days, since Spirit started its descent
from the top of the peak to its current position on a formation that mission
scientists have named Low Ridge.

- Opportunity Encounters Rolling Ripples

http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Opportuni...ng_Ripples.html

Pasadena CA (SPX) May 02, 2006 - NASA's Mars rover Opportunity continues to cut
southward across a plain marked by large sand ripples and a pavement of outcrop
rock.