But will Spirit be actually roving anywhere more than a few metres from its "wintering" spot on Home Plate?

Are there plans to explore the Columbia Hills further or will Spriit stay in and around Home Plate for the rest of its days? It would be nice if Spirit could move to a new location that is some - not necessarily all that far - but some distance away, as it's been a bit frustrating to see it confined to HP for years now.

Yes, the plan for a long time has been to head over to von Braun after winter. It was expected that Spirit would have to descend off HP from the winter haven, but we heard a while back that they were going to attempt to climb back on top where the terrain is easier to drive on and also a lot shorter to get across to VB. From the first bump it's looking good for the shortcut.

full quote removed - mod

Whew! It's good to see the wheels are still ready to roll. I can't wait for Spirit to begin spying on dust-devils and checking out new territory soon.

Yes, it truly is fabulous news to notice Spirit's stuck wheel advance in that move. I was expecting the rover to mostly rotate around that wheel's location, but the wheel clearly was pushed forward as the rover rotated modestly. I'm hopeful that she'll be able to continue to climb up at this location.

Really love the subtle details visible on this pic... Mars is such a beautiful, beautiful place, isn't it?

Click to view attachment

Yes it is. I always thought of it as smaller than that though. (cough ahem)

I've made a remapped version to compensate tilt of the rover

And here is our 'Spirit pancam image of the week' in context of the rest of the Bonestell pan that has been downlinked so far. (hugely reduced in size at this time)

Click to view attachment

James

Spirit has finished sending the top row

01681 13:22:12 p2293.09. 1 0 0 13 13 13 13 pancam_bonestell_col27_pt1_L234567Rall

Bonestell panorama update with complete top row
Click to view attachment

edit: another bump tosol?
01713 p1213.00 0 0 0 0 0 0 ultimate_front_hazcam_3_bpp_pri15
01713 p1290.08 0 0 0 0 0 0 front_haz_lefteye_half_bpp_pri29
01713 p1312.09 0 0 0 0 0 0 ultimate_rear_hazcam_2_bpp_pri15
01713 p1807.02 0 0 0 0 0 0 navcam_1x1_RvrAz_4bpp_pri_17

Sol 1713 - next tilt change (about 2 or 3 degrees)
before:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/re...08P1313R0M1.JPG
after:
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/re...15P1312R0M1.JPG

Single sol drive distances:
While Oppy drove a record distance of 220 meters on its sol 410, its sister Spirit only set a record of 124 meters during its sol 125.
Other references of single sol drives for Spirit?

Another bump was planned for today (sol 1715). Still waiting for data downlink...

Some data has hit the database - if the numbers can be believed then it was a <1cm drive. Quite a contrast to Oppy!

Still heading up the slope

Slippage?

No - they're intentionally just doing tiny steps - to keep the best angle for the sun.

Doug

Today's bump probably revealed a potential problem. Spirit on the left side moved a few centimeters, but on the right side shifted slightly down and rover turned a few degrees. This does not look too good.

The right front wheel is dead. As long as the rover can pivot on that wheel and get the other 5 all on the top of Home Plate, all is good.

Spirit only has to move downhill and to the east a few meters and it's back where it climbed up on the top of the Plate on sol 768. If it can't go uphill it hasn't really lost anything, as long as the sun angle is good enough for the time being.

Here's an animated gif of today's bump. Originals here: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/fo...cam/2008-10-30/
Click to view attachment

Phil makes a good point. For some reason - I've seen (and held) the assumption that we head west, down the west side of HP, toward VB and G. We don't need to - we can still cross home-plate if we just go East a bit to where we last got on to it with 5 wheel drive.

Doug

Looks like another drive is happening tosol (1716).

I wonder if we'll see them turn the wheels to try and control the yaw caused by the dud wheel - the turn does look a little worrying from the drives so far.

Good point about the nearby point where we know Spirit can climb HP I had been lead down the same line of thinking as Doug before now.

James

After today's bump right wheel is dangerously close to the edge.
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/fo...27P1213R0M1.JPG

I don't know about "dangerously". "Worryingly," certainly

Here a little animation based on the tracking data. I don't know how exact this is, but it seems to more or less match what we seem in the hazcam images.

Check out the new Planetary Society rover update on this topic... I like the bit about the "pioneering racketeers Werner von Braun and Robert Goddard". I don't know if they would really approve of that!

Phil

\begin{annoying I-said-that-a-long-time-ago mode}
I said that a long time ago.
\end{annoying I-said-that-a-long-time-ago mode}

We know we can get up onto HP with five wheels at the sol 1306 ongress point. But there certainly may be other spots between WH3 and the 1306 point that are also doable with five wheels. I've always been puzzled by the talk of taking the West Valley route.

The West Valley route holds the possibility that we will see deeper exposed strata in the HP structure than hitherto. Since the valley is mostly sandy, we should be able to plow through it with the stuck wheel dragging behind. I think it is worth seeing, more so than another transit of the top of HP.

Just like the Tyrone area, which was mostly sandy.....errr....hmm.

There's sand, and then there's sand.

I agree that West Valley offers a good look at the stratigraphy of HP, but the likely exit path off HP - which would be down the slope of Low Ridge at the SW corner of the Plate - would give us a look at that end of the exposure. I expect Spirit would stop at the bottom of Low Ridge and look at the edge of the Plate.

Phil

The west and SW sides of HP clearly seem to display the greatest vertical relief of the entire escarpment, so I also agree that the west side is likely to contain the largest stratigraphic section. It seems to be the most eroded side. We know that there are traversable exit ramps from HP on the NW and NE sides that have been used in the past, but it is not obvious to me that either of those would necessarily be used for the next exit. Scanning previous route maps, it appears that Spirit can traverse similar distances per sol both on top of HP and around it's perimeter (if Tyrones and Tartari can be avoided). I'd like to suggest that a convenient exit ramp to a direct route to VB exists on the southern end of HP, near the sol 1346-1347 locations.

We were excited about the drive from HP to von Braun about a year ago, as some of the best 3D imagery came together. Some of my favorite 3D anaglyph views of the southern end of HP to VB are in that thread. I had hoped to figure out how to repost them as thumbnails in this message, but that isn't going to happen. I think I can post links to the images, though...

http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&id=12332
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&id=12350
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&id=12353
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&id=12363
http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.p...st&id=12381

It appears that there may be comfortable drives down on either side of the feature we previously described as the "anvil." Spirit could investigate a fairly tall stratigraphic section of HP at a road cut near the base of that ramp. Here comes the sun.

Why would you imagine a northern side exit?

I don't imagine that an exit on the north side would be a good idea unless the routing decisions were being driven by factors other than efficiency. For instance, if potential science targets on the east or west sides of HP were given higher priority than a quick route to the south, or if Spirit could not climb to the top at the current location, a northern exit might be chosen.

Some here have suggested exit routes. We already know that there are several places on the northern side where Spirit has roved onto HP, off of it, or both. I was simply trying to expand that discussion by suggesting an untested exit at the south side of HP which could offer important, early science returns, as well as an efficient path to VB. I don't know which factors will be important to those planning this fascinating drive. I'm simply guessing without insider information, which is what many of us here really enjoy doing.

Yes, it's a shame people like Paolo have to come in here and give us facts.

While Opportunity rolls, Spirit rocks!
I can't recall seeing the RF wheel changing direction in a long time.
I wonder if Paolo can let us in on some of the action?
Click to view attachment
Animation (FHZ and RHZ views)

Mmm, might it be that they want to pivot the rover around the FR wheel?

Since we reached the current tilt levels MER-A right front wheel has stopped making uphill progress. We have been trying different techniques but so far there has not been much progress. Since the terrain might be slightly smoother on the right side of the rover we are trying to see if we can make better progress by crabbing slightly to the right.

We have other more radical maneuvers we might try but that will have to wait after conjunction to avoid the risk of getting the rover to an unfavorable position. The current position should allow survival of the rover past conjunction.

Paolo

My idea would be to try a drive with just the right rear and middle wheels. Maybe that would get the right side pushed forward?

My guess would be that they turned the wheel to minimize the friction of the wheel treads. It makes sense to turn the treads parallel to the push direction, if that is the corner of the rover they wish to advance. I too, would have expected a pivot around the RF wheel, but perhaps that would have resulted in an unfavorable tilt angle

The latest FHAZ images from 1724 have me worried. Forget the driving challenges, we've got bright skies and not-very -dark shadows again. Dust storm like conditions. Maybe I'm over reacting, but it looks murky all of a sudden.

Comapre
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all...13P1213L0M1.JPG
with
http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/spirit/fo...18P1213L0M1.JPG

Doug

That's not good.
Any info on the tau or Wh?

It isn't dust storm season yet. This summer is when we will start having to watch out for that.

Seasonal or not - that's a big tau jump we're seing there.

Doug

We're past the Ls of the first tau>1 dust storms from the first Mars year, and past the point where tau jumps from winter levels to perihelion levels for all 3 mars years (thats 0.2 to 0.6 for Spirit). But Doug has a good eye--that's the earliest season tau~2 dust storm for either rover. It is not really unseasonal, it is likely just the rover is closer to the center of one of the local/regional dust storms that pop up from time to time. In this season, it is reasonable to hope that the peak is brief. But Spirit desperately needs a cleaning event prior to any long storm.

I agree that this looks like a big jump in tau. There have been recent increases - from this latest Spirit update:

Unfortunately it may be that the "distant" storm activity has gotten a lot closer. We can hope that this is just a small, local storm that will pass soon. I agree that this isn't global dust storm season, so we shouldn't be seeing a repeat of last summer's big storm. But then of course available power and temperatures are a lot worse than during last summer's storm...

Ever the optimist.....wasn't it the case that both rovers experienced cleaning events immediately prior to the big storm last year?

Yup - just before the 'big storm' - Spirit was up to, if I remember, 750 Whrs.

Sol 1104 - 310 Whrs
Sol 1219 - 600 Whrs
Sol 1240 - 750 Whrs
Then the storm hit....
Sol 1245 - 490 Whrs
Sol 1265 she was down to 261 whrs

Infact the mission updates recorded an increase in Tau AND an increase in Whrs at the start of what became that storm - an 8% cleaning event ( hitting that 750 figure ) - kept Spirit just ahead of the weather for a few days. Dust storms and cleaning events sort of go hand in hand at Gusev meteorologically I guess. I'm wondering now, what was the tau like during that first round of cleaning events up near Larry's Lookout.

The Larry's Lookout major cleaning was around tau~1, near the peak of a tau~1.3 dust storm, the 3rd or 4th such storm Spirit had seen. The biggest cleaning events have tended to be a bit later in the year, but that may be overgeneralizing. Even 261 Whr looks really good compared to what has likely been happening.

89WHrs!!

http://jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2008-206

Wow, hasn't this been a lousy week on Mars!