http://www.planetary.org/news/2008/0430_Ma...ate_Spirit.html

Good news about Spirit's power situation!

Still some confusion in this report about Oppy's moves:As we discussed before, Oppy actually backed away from Verde at this time.

I wonder which 4 wheels they're talking about here:

A bit of a humorous slip here:I think that should be motor controller board!

And finally the current thinking about approaching Verde:

A question for those who know their way around the Columbia Hills location better than I do: Is the rim of Gusev visible from Spirit's present location? I note from the update that the clarity of the air is the best yet observed by either rover. Will the Gusev rim feature in the Bonestell panorama? Do we have any recent images that show it?

I'm pretty sure it is visible, I remember seeing it while fitting bits of the Bonestell Pan together. I'm not at home right now so I can't find the raw image/MMB, I'm sure it'll be visible in a MMB pan.

James

EDIT: Left side of this http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p...0P2298R1M1.HTML
and right side of this http://marsrovers.nasa.gov/gallery/all/2/p...0P2292R1M2.HTML

Thanks James. I just love clear days and distant views - on any planet. The rim of Gusev is like Ireland or the Isle of Man seen from North Wales - an occasional treat.

Having spent quite a few rain-soaked hols in Betws-y-Coed, wondering if I should go for a wander down to Fairy Glen again or start rounding up pairs of animals and building a big boat, I reckon that seeing across the street would be "an occasional treat"!

Aye, some days are better for mushrooms than mountains to be sure. But there again the rain clears the air beautifully. One wet day on Mars would work wonders. (Maybe mushrooms even. )

Back to the Gusev rim query.

Using AndyG's endless panorama, http://personal.strath.ac.uk/andrew.goddard/pan.html, the azimuth of the distant feature in the two images James linked to would seem to be about 230 degrees. I'm not sure that Gusev has a very pronounced rim in this direction. The good images of the rim from Husband Hill were mostly looking northeastward, beyond 'Thira'. So now there are two questions. Is the Gusev rim currently visible in a northeasterly direction, and what exactly is that distant feature at azimuth 230? I notice there is a very prominent crater just OUTSIDE Gusev in that direction:

Remember how even the hills/crater rim on the near horizon in that image were pretty obscured during the dust storm?

The report said Spirit had a tau of 0.127 on sol 1511, the lowest seen by either rover. I've been wondering how dark the sky looks overhead, and what the hue is like. The sky looks very dark in hazcam views like this one:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...00P1161L0M1.JPG

I don't think we could see the NE rim, since Mitcheltree Ridge is in the way.

I think the feature near az 230 is part of the Gusev rim. The horizon pan in this post shows it at az 225 degrees. Comparing with the orbital view in this image it looks like az 225 is part of Gusev's rim.

It looks like we may be seeing part of that crater outside Gusev at around az 250-255 in the pan I linked to.

What strikes me about the orbital image you referenced is the dark streaks in the middle of Gusev, laid down by the dust devils. Even though the individual dust devil tracks tend to run along the WNW-ESE direction, the cumulative 'smear' they cause, especially in the streak in the center of Gusev, aligns almost perfectly with the angle at which the deep channel enters Gusev from the south, SSE to NNW. The streak to the left of center is also aligned in this direction, but you can't visualize it as an extension of the channel. Is this overall pattern a coincidence, or might it point to the channel affecting the local wind conditions across Gusev?

Thanks for that post fredk, very helpful. I'll be on the lookout for all the distant features that may be present in the Bonestell images, now assisted by those useful links. It would be nice to have an accurate graticule centred on Home Plate for the orbital view to facilitate correct identifications.

I am particularly excited by the possibility that we may be able to see part of that crater outside Gusev. (Does anybody know if it has a name - even an informal one?) Assuming it appears in the Bonestell, comparison with the Everest should make it possible to triangulate distances - maybe even permitting an anaglyph of a feature more than 100 km away!