I'm a newbie here, but not enough of a "newbie" to appreciate the good work you do here. Great image. Looks like Spirit has it's work cut out for it. It would be cool if Spirit could get a good pic of it's heat shield inside that crater and perhaps some rock outcrops like Opportunity is looking at.

Added 21.6m for Sol 044

Updated to comply with a nasa release.

Doug

new picture:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/pre...-map-A061R1.jpg

April 8th update

(Click here for zoom)

Luca

Is it possible to update these maps everyday?

I don't know, I just found the last one at NASA official Spirit site

But I read somewhere in a forum that NASA does not post maps daily, only once per week or less.

Luca

Besides maybe an image or two a day with the updates, they appear to only be releasing synthesized images in batches at the press conferences, which are now once ever two weeks. So, write 'em a letter requesting a daily route map, hopefully they get enough feedback to implement one.

.....talking of updates, where have the new images from Spirit and Opportunity gone?

They're here at last:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/

Tom

They updated about 1 minute after i posted lol.

Some of the Spirit images could from Sol 102, Spirit travelled 64 m on sol 100, and was due to drive again on sol 101.

The images from pancam show a very different view, the rover could be approaching the second impact crater:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/pa...00P2378R1M1.JPG

New Route Map for Spirit - it's travelled further in the last 15 sols than it did in the first 90
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/pre..._map_sol107.jpg

Why not to show it?



big

BIGGER

Luca

I would guess Spirit has travlleed as much as 200m since that map was made, and may be perhaps halfway to "Lahontan Crater" by now.

Opportunity sol 91


Luca

New intersting 3d "path map" released:
map

Luca

New map for Opportunity:



Luca

Sorry, lousy picture quality. It's a snapshot from the flight director's update quicktime-movie.

Tom

UBER version of the above

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...vmap-B140R1.jpg

Doug

Another fine map from sol 187:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/pre...map1-A190R1.jpg

And another from sol 238:

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/pre...l238-A256R1.jpg

I wish JPL would put out a zoomed in map of the hils with their intended route on it. Last images I saw seemed to indicate Spirit is on the move again but it's hard to know where they're headed.

They're basically heading up the ridge toward Husband Hill. They've not made a lot of progress though - infact, as I read it -

Doing science
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...1121L0M1-BR.JPG

Backed up a bit
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...1212L0M1-BR.JPG

Turned left a bit
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...41P1201L0M1.JPG

Drove forward a bit
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...45P1212L0M1.JPG

Then forward a bit more

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/fo...45P1212L0M1.JPG




Doug

Here's the latest:

Where do you find these Pando?

Doug

They are forwarded to me by a good friend. I can't really say much more than that

Well - whoever they're from - please send my very very sincere thanks on behalf of the whole forum. It's very much appreciated. The press may have forgotten that they're still hard at work, but we havnt, and we watch in complete awe!

Doug

A look at where spirit has been. View from sol 149

Thanks alan,
This gives us a very different perspective. It looks like it's going to be a long climb.

Spirit's path from Clovis

From space.com:

November 23

Mars Rover Spirit Takes a Brake

Busily surveying the Columbia Hills at Gusev Crater, NASA’s Spirit Mars Exploration Rover continues to suffer a bit of a “brake down.”

Rover drivers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California continue to deal with Spirit wheel and brake issues. While surpassing its original warranty, Spirit has intermittently sent information in recent weeks that the brakes on two wheels were not releasing properly when the rover received commands to set a new course.

Recent images relayed by Spirit’s navigation camera show in graphic detail what ground operators are dealing with. A westward view from the robot shows the effects of dragging its right front wheel, explained Leo Bister, Spirit mission manager.

The image shown here was taken on November 19, during Spirit’s 313th day of martian operations as the rover drove backwards for about 98 feet (30 meters) on the day the picture was taken, Bister confirmed to SPACE.com .

This type anomaly has not been observed on the Opportunity rover as it wheels around Endurance Crater on the other side of Mars.

-- Leonard David

I think they are completely wrong in that article. The dynamic braking problem is not the one causing for the wheel to drag through the soil.

The braking problem is related to the relay that locks the wheels during driving so the wheels won't turn or steer (not to be confused with rotating). They identified the issue as a faulty sensor on the relay, and are now ignoring it, so the problem is somewhat solved at this point.

The wheel dragging is a completely different problem. It's the wheel motor that rotates the wheel, and it is causing excessive current draw. The motor or the gears are starting to wear out and so they are dragging the wheel on purpose to spare the motor (or gears) as much as they can.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this all a bit of recycled 'news'? ( Except the 30 meters bit, didn't know that ). I hope the title should not be taken seriously... It has been three days since Spirit moved. Long weekend this time, or 'broken down'?

I think they're still moving:

21 Nov: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/fo...00P1110R0M1.JPG

23 Nov:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/fo...00P1214R0M1.JPG

Yes they are! Vrooommm vroomm:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/re...00P1310L0M1.JPG

Nice NavCam image of where we've been:

http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/na...00P0745R0M1.JPG

Vroom, vroom is right. New location, view from sol 149

How do you determine that Spirit is at the location marked 316? That seems pretty far away from the ridge and I don't think Spirit has got that far off its path.

I believe we are still close to the centerline on the ridge continuing straight towards Husband Hill...

I found spirit's location in a nav cam image fron sol 310

then matched rocks in the panarama from 149

From a long time ago and a position far, far away

Thats odd, it worked in the preview.
Panorama from sol 149 again, fixed broken link.

NOW it makes sense - if they traversed straight up the ridge - they solar arrays would be orientated WNW. By going to the left edge of that image - then up along near the skyline - they're orientated N / NNW - much better from an energy point of view. Excellent work Alan!

I'm really pushing the resolution on this orbital view

Boy, I think you're off here. That light patch that shows up in the SOL 316 picture is very close up. Were it the same one in the distant color pan shot, it would be huge and those rocks you point out wouldn't even be seen they're so small. My guess is that you're right up through around 305 or 306 but then the rover starts climbing to the East. I doubt you can even see the area it's in right now from that distant pan. But who knows? I could be very wrong. It's why we desperately need an overhead route map drawn by the engineers driving the rover.

azstrummer, this is as close as you can get. Trust me. I also think alan is a bit off there. The rover is still on the north side of the ridge which is connecting the West Spur with Husband Hill.

That makes much more sense. In this pancam shot from Sol 315, the two "notches" on the hill ahead are clearly visible and if Spirit had gone north, the perspective would've been much different.

JPL included headings in the navcam panorama for sol 313 so I did some triangulation.
This is what I came up with