Spirit Busy With Imaging

MARSDAILY

It took Spirit three days, sols 620 to 622 (Oct. 1 to Oct. 3, 2005), to acquire all the images combined into this mosaic, called the "Everest Panorama," looking outward in every direction from the true summit of "Husband Hill." During that period, the sky changed in color and brightness due to atmospheric dust variations, as shown in contrasting sections of this mosaic. Haze occasionally obscured the view of the hills on the distant rim of Gusev Crater 80 kilometers (50 miles) away. As dust devils swooped across the horizon in the upper right portion of the panorama, the robotic explorer changed the filters on the camera from red to green to blue, making the dust devils appear red, green, and blue. In reality, the dust devils are similar in color to the reddish-brown soils of Mars. No attempt was made to "smooth" the sky in this mosaic, as has been done in other panoramic-camera mosaics to simulate the view one would get by taking in the landscape all at once. The result is a sweeping vista that allows viewers to observe weather changes on Mars. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell.

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 09, 2005
Sprit is healthy. The team operated in "restricted sols" from sol 647 to 654. (Restricted sols occur when the timing of the communications pass from the Odyssey orbiter is too late in the day to gather vital location and health information about the rover after it executed recent commands.

The team back on Earth must wait until the next sol to find out where and how the rover is.)

The team planned two long Moessbauer integrations and drove 34 meters (112 feet). On sols 653 and 654, the team planned targeted remote sensing of the "East Basin." This is one of the last opportunities to image it before the basin is no longer in sight.

Spirit also completed three overnight observations. The team returns to standard planning sols the week of Nov. 7, intending to continue driving downhill.

Sol-by-sol summaries

Sol 647 (Oct. 28, 2005): Spirit performed a 22-hour reading with the Moessbauer spectrometer and made night sky observations.

Sol 648: Spirit performed a 23-hour Moessbauer reading.

Sol 649: Spirit drove 18 meters (59 feet).

Sol 650: Spirit performed remote sensing and made night sky observations with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer.

Sol 651: Spirit drove 16 meters (52 feet).

Sol 652: Spirit performed untargeted remote sensing and made night sky observations.

Sol 653: Spirit performed targeted remote sensing of the East Basin.

Sol 654 (Nov. 4, 2005): Spirit performed targeted remote sensing.

As of sol 654, Spirit has driven 5,143.63 meters (3.20 miles)

MARSDAILY

Opportunity Dusts Off And Gets Back To Work

Pasadena CA (JPL) Nov 07, 2005
Having weathered a recent dust storm, Opportunity is back to business. Energy levels are on the rise as the rover prepares for its next investigative campaign.

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