From the latest update:


Does anyone know what the temporal resolution or sampling rate of miniTES is? Could it be better than pancam and so better resolve the brief transit?

Another weird idea about the eclipse. Instead of taking a movie of the scenary around, can Spirit take the IDD's shadow before during and after pending it's in the correct position? Any benefit of that?

It's not really about benefit - it's about cool factor...little else really

Doug

Lots of new super resolution images posted at the Pancam site
http://marswatch.astro.cornell.edu/pancam_...t/superres.html

Hu hu hu hu !

Amazing !!!!

Any ideas what formed the tiny spaghetti like features on the top of the accretionary lapilli?

Dust/sand grains or ...?

It would be nice to see another MI at a different illumination angle.

They really do convincingly appear more like lapilli all the time, don't they.

As for the spaghetti-like things, there are views available of the same area with different illumination. The shadowed version is somewhat suggestive of a dust layer adhering to the underside of the layer, but I suppose it could be other things, like remnants of a lower layer of angular clasts, a weathering rind, or a salt deposit. Curious...

Can the TES derive any meaningful information about the "spaghetti's" composition from such a limited (in terms of surface area) sample? Seems as if there's a lot of interesting questions with regard to Martian minerology here that are worth investigating (esp. the influence/effects of atmospheric characteristics vs. mafic influences).

The Pancam L2 view on Sol 1081.

jvandriel

aside from the spaghetti on SOL 1080, which i nterpret as dust clumping like rime ice, im intrigued by the bright speck at lower right, some sort of crystal facet reflecting the sunshine? the views without the sunlight only show a somewhat uninspiring out of focus speck in the same place.

How come we havent seen any crystals in the sediments so far (or have we?), seems the conditions should have allowed some crystal growth, but maybe they are just salt crystals and dont weather very well..

I have seen quite a few bright specs in images from both rovers, and have also wondered if at least some of them were flashes from crystal faces. Most of them are too small to determine what they are, but occasionally there have been larger areas that resembled specular reflections to me. The one that comes to mind at the moment is Bounce Rock. Some images of it seemed to display a lot of specular reflections, but I can imagine it may be simply a saturated exposure.


As for seeing crystals of any kind, I think we've seen several examples, though not as commonly as I would have expected. I think I have seen crystal shapes or cross sections in quite a few of the rocks Spirit has looked at with the MI. Opportunity did catch at least a few images of crystals surrounding some concretions (upper right in this: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/pre...-B038R1_br.jpg), and there were the hopper crystal outlines seen at Lemon Rind.

First time I've tried this...

Click to view attachment

("Fast Show" voice: "Isn't Ultreya BRILLIANT???!"

Some lovely layered rocks here too...

Click to view attachment

The vugs are found aplenty in the weatherd rocks, but i was hoping to see some remaining crystals, although i guess they'd likely all be salt crystals of some sort and would be long gone, unless we could do some ground breaking to find unweatherd ones. as for other crystal types that might last longer, i guess we have to look somewhere else...

Nice picture of bounce, i didnt remember noting what looks like a some soil and blueberries in a depression on top of it, so now how did the bloobs get up there??

More exciting astro-astronomy plans from the latest update:Does anyone have access to software that can show us the sky from Mars? What will the elongation of McNaught be that morning?

JPL's Horizons puts the Sun-Observer-Target angle at slightly below 10 degrees for sunrise on sol 1083. Thankfully, the lower dust levels will give a clearer view at sunrise than we would have seen last week. This should be very cool!

Some Pancam images came down, taken about 5 am local Mars time on Sol 1083, facing east. I don't see the comet, though.

Maybe Oppy will have better luck?

Thanks for pointing them out - I saw that they were L7's and ignored them, thinking for sure they'd use L1, the wide open setting. But then considering how close to the sun McNaught is, the sky may be so bright by the time the comet rises that L7 will work. And perhaps L7 will cut through the dust better than L1?

Sweet. An image of McNaught would be a nice feather in the cap for one of these Renaissance Rovers. Apparently Opportunity will also make an attempt. I'd guess they'll have more opportunities to try to catch it in coming sols.

I'm sorry. I might not have been clear about that, as there are also vugs in that image. I was referring to the sharply angular grains hugging the blueberry in the upper left corner. This section of rock seems to have undergone some recrystallization that caused it to change rather dramatically in appearance as compared to other parts of the section in Eagle Crater. They too might be merely the preserved shapes of previous crystals that were later replaced by another mineral, but I can't speak to that. It appears likely that this was the Whatanga contact we saw in Endurance. Does anyone know where that name comes from?
Click to view attachment Ok, I'll stop talking about Opportunity in a Spirit topic.

Added a few images.

The Pancam L2 panoramic view taken on Sol 1081.

jvandriel

Good work...I also played around a bit with Sol 1081.

Spirit may have finished work at this outcrop because the plan for tosol (1087) is .

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pa...CGP2749R7M1.JPG

comet????

Unfortunately all there seems to be is cosmic ray hits. Notice how they're both above and below the horizon.

I was wondering what the faint brightening was running across this left pancam view from the morning of sol 1083 comet search. Now that we have the corresponding right image we can see that the faint band is actually the horizon line and the left frame is actually mostly glare, perhaps from the rising sun?

I think there must be a bug in the naming there - those two images can't have been taken at the same time - they are totally different pointings.

Doug

Doug, you actually can see the horizon line in that left frame, if you look very closely. It matches the location from the other left frame that morning. (The 2 right frames that morning show that the camera didn't move between shots.) It's just that the image of the sky in the left frame in question is almost completely swamped by some glare that's mostly in the lower left of the frame. If you look at the thumbnails it's pretty clear.

Well that is just astonishing...totally bleached out. Bizarre

Doug

The Panoramic view on Sol 1087.

Taken with the L0 Navcam.

jvandriel

Here is a mosaic taken with the Mi cam on Sol 1085.

jvandriel

We have some fresh images from Spirit at the exploratorium. It moved again on sol 1089 towards Tyrone and is currently midway on this trek.
http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/navcam/2007-01-25/
http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/navcam/2007-01-26/

This is my attempt of sol 1087 navcam mosaic including Spirit's current position.
Click to view attachment

Here we are : 1000 sols over garenty

The panoramic view looking back.

Taken wth the L7 Pancam on Sol 1087.

jvandriel

Who'd have thought they'd need drive direction imagery after spending eleventy seven million sols parked in the area.

Doug

It could be that in the meantime some rock toppled or a meteorite impacted a large hole

Hmmm... back to the 'popcorn sulfides'. I wonder if we dare try to travel along them to get nearer to the morass, or if this location becomes our perch to mini-Tes the area. Do the codes show more driving tomorrow?

You know, from here, with the benefit of hindsight, I think the area where Spirit got stuck looks like the big sand trap that it turned out to be. I still think there is a way around to the south - but I gather from the Mission Update that they'll be heading back to Home Plate after finishing at Tyrone. There is certainly no shortage of targets around here - I hope Spirit can keep going for a long time.

From the statements of SS and others in the hierarchy, I conclude that climbing McCool, or any other hill with lots of exposed bedrock, is now in the 'too hard' basket. I concede that it would be a form of Russian roulette, with the stuck wheel. I think the PIs will be looking for scientific targets Spirit can reach while plowing through sand, probably from Home Plate toward the south.

According to the jpl spirit update, 10 metres is as close as they dare get:

Another small step on sol 1094.
This is the current position, as seen from the previous one on sol 1092.

Click to view attachment

The full sol 1092-1093 Navcam pan:

Here's a polar version of mhoward's new panorama. The tracks show up really well.

Phil

Click to view attachment

What happened to "the Abyss"? Those two dark streaks one third in from either side... Was a new layer of sand dumped in the middle of it, and are they the edges of it? - Sorry if this has been observed before, maybe it is just me not following the mission close enough.

You can catch up what has been happening on El Dorado in this thread.

The rover is currently (as of sol 1094/1095) at about that distance. Well, between 10m and 13m; Tyrone is quite big. But that seems to be not close enough so yet another move is on the plan: sol 1096.

I hope that's the last one (*). I'm eager to see this little machine on the way to Home Plate again!

Edited: (*) I think it'll probably be the last one. If the plan is to study Tyrone with the pancam and mini-TES, there is no need (imo) to spend more then the weekend on those activities. Let's see if we can say "Good bye Tyrone" by next monday.

Nice polar, Phil, thanks.

From the latest Plantetary Society update, an explanation of the interest in returning towards Tyrone:andAfter homeplate, the plan is toYes!

Here is the complete Navcam panoramic view taken on

Sol 1092 and Sol 1093.

Taken with the L0 Navcam.

jvandriel

Another panoramic view of the wheeltracks in front and at the back of Spirit.

Taken with the L0 Navcam on Sol 1094.

jvandriel