Spirit - Still Alive - volume 2 - Page 6

L5 views of right front wheel trench over 6 months:

The white band definitely changes in the L5 filters - but lighting changes can not be discounted.

One of the maddening facts of trying to compare the MER images over time is the fact that camera pointing and lighting vary so much that unless a complicated photometric analysis is done hardly than any firm conclusions can be drawn about material changes.

Having said that, I think the observed raw differences are worth noting for further study.

But not by me.

Well here we are,waiting for news,analysis,decisions,anything that will give even a SMALL hope.The seriousness of this boggles the mind we are on another planet.Remote communication,no less.

I don't think the team players in this extraction process will give up. I think we can all be sure of that.
There is not to much to say except,wait and
see.All,you guys who gathered data and pored over it,These forum leaders we have had.To all of you,Well Done.Your work will be admired even after Oppy,and Spirit are memories.When we have bigger,better,faster,smarter,you name it,Rovers on Mars.

Oh God how I hope
Sunday evening central Texas.
Joe Smith
edit: any news,or where I might go to get newa?

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/405915main_mer20091122-full.gif

This blink image shows a curious feature.

Somewhere around the middle left of the image, there is a small mound that seems to be shooting out a "tongue" in the second blink.

It seems too large to be a shadow effect, considering the changes in the other shadows in the image.

Good catch Barsoomer!

Looks like a small rock perched on the edge of the left front wheel trench of Troy finally fell. Maybe the vibrations of the sol 2090 ( Nov 19, 2009 ) move caused the fall?

sol 2086 ( Nov 15, 2009 ) view of the rock:

sol 2088 2090 animation of rocks sliding into the wheel trench:

I found another dust devil....

Sol 537....

Improved...

There is a ship....

There is more....Look closely!..

Drum roll.......

There is life on Mars...Advanced life. More
advance than we.

[link]

Yes the data coming back is great,isn't it.
Here is what I have gleaned
1.Three Left wheels turning and one Right.
2.We are getting our best traction on Right Wheel.
3.And final.Right Rear wheel Stall because it was set for 13 feet,(can I say no traction?)Does this equal out to =run out of traction,of course!

I think if it was me (Thank God it isn't)
I would try to move the wheel with the
traction VVVVEEERRRRYYY!!! slowly and the wheels with the less traction the same speed.
Set for 2 minutes.
And remove,Disable, ALL STOPS and RESETS
going to the motor drive circuits.
Our Spirit would do one of two things
Sink or Swim to a walk.
Joe in Texas
Edit: I could (highly probable) be 360 degrees wrong.

sol 2088-2095 animations of the Great Escape from Troy.

Not much progress on sol 2095.

From the Nov 23 Spotlight on Mars:

The plan ahead for today, Nov. 23, is to sequence a set of diagnostics to explore the right rear wheel stall. The diagnostics will include a rotor resistance test, a possible steering test, a small backward rotation of just the right-rear wheel and a short (about 1 meter, or 3 feet) forward commanded motion of the rover. Resumption of the extrication driving would be no sooner than Wednesday.

Looks like a meter of "driving" resulted in a mm or less of movement. Yikes!

folks>>>
this image of Nov. 24 2009 has a lot of info in it. Can you spot it?

1. Spirit is running in reverse don't forget
2. look at the sandy condition the left wheel is now in and all the 'backfill' it has produced from continuous digging.
3. look at the wheel on the right and look up the wheel track to where it was first 'stuck' and see the swerving track record for its escape or release from the sand. There are 2 locations and the left wheel was just getting into trouble at that point.
4. Yah...it looks like a sandy dry condition out here and not the 'slushy' track splat stuff we have grown accustomed to.
5. Look at the placements of the arm and its RAT device in the sand above the wheels acting like a lever of sorts to re-balance the wheel loads at spin time.
6. the 3 right side wheels must be free from sand and not dug in like the left side. [assumed]
7. perhaps turning the wheels 90 degrees would jump the rover out using the right side as the main drives, at least from this arm-chair observer point of view!

draw your own conclusions,its fun!!!

Ben>>>
In the image below look at that rock>>center>>down>> looks like it may be layered...of what material would you say>>>sandstone perhaps???

see more images on the exploratorium site...today's and yesterdays.

yt
dx

Rather than watching 1 mm moves maybe we should be looking more closely at Scamander Crater. The topographic map is quite interesting.

[link]

From the JPL website, on the Scamander side Spirit found the highest sulfate content measured by either Rover and found sulfate minerals beneath the surface. On the (Home Plate) side this is not the case. So they surmise that Spirit must be sitting over a geologic boundary. And this is pretty sharply defined boundary defined by the crater edge. The crater is 8 meters wide and 25 cm deep with what seems to be a outflow channel running out from the side away from Spirit, towards the plane.

Because this is Mars the word crater conjures up the image of a meteorite strike. But by definition a crater is a bowl shaped depression, the cause of which includes hydrothermal action. Could it possibly be that Spirit has actually stumbled into the remnants of a hydrothermal vent? The possible outflow channel could be a key determinant. But unfortunately the topographic map does not indicate how far this channel extends, or whether it meanders. Understandable tunnel vision concentrating on Spirit I guess.

Ok, a bit of a flight of fantasy I guess. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

I am a bit confused about the Scamander topo map wherein North is to the top.
It was my understanding that Spirit was travelling backword from from west to east and the side away from HP (left) dropped into the "crater"
This is not what the topo shows.

I see no evidence to call this a crater and would prefer to call it a deflation hollow rather than a vent because I think I see several vents in the overall area all associated with resistant HP type beds.
The powdery sulphate material is probably young eolian .

DX; The rock you mention is bedded and may be part of the HP outcrop or part of the sulphate crust that Spirit has broken through.

Re: "I am a bit confused about the Scamander topo map wherein North is to the top."

Here is a NASA map of Spirit's route around home plate that will help situate you. Spirit was moving backwards to the South along Home Plate's West side when the wheels became mired. Now Spirit is moving -- or trying to -- forward, back to the North.

cII, Thanks for the info. I have been off
90 degrees for awhile

Ben>>>
thank you for your comment.

yt
dx

It will be the best time ever for science.You rock hounds,soil analyst will have a field day.What a GREAT? place we have stopped.
Scalamander? my spelling checker doesn't
know.
Interesting things ahead.
1.Twice daily Pancams of Spirits low side.
2.That Mosberger type(closeup-shot)Twice daily
3.Set a Timeline Start for seasonal change analysis.
( I hope everyone seeing realizes that I am making it up as I go)
4.?Possible astronomy??
5.Wind Speed and Direction
6.Data log temp to three zero's
7.Use remaining instruments for utmost
durability and at the same time wring every drop of Science out of of this Scalamander(apologize for spelling).

Lets see what we can learn about this rascall!!We know a bit,,I am not calling no names but there are guys on here that can
see and explain,see and ask,ponder,owww and aaaahhhh,and raise more questions.
Good Days Ahead
Lock and Load
Joe in Texas

Joe in Texas

Some dust devil.

Online original....

Gave some color to the grayscale...

Details of this dust devil revealed.

The reflected halves...

While you await the results of today's "Great Escape" drive, you may enjoy a slideshow of my colorized MI closeups from the past few years.

Just click on the slideshow link and then click on the 4 arrows pointing outward in the lower right hand corner to enjoy the full screen experience.

There was virtually no change on the sol 2099 drive animations.

My guess is that the left middle wheel stalled again.

I noticed on the forward animation that there was a also rock slide on the sol 2092 animation. In fact the 2092 rock is bigger than the sol 2090 rock.

My guess is that the next section to fall is the large soil crack.

What would be the top of the image?

[link]