* Astronomy

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RE: Mars Exploration Rover Spirit

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Image taken by the Spirit rover on Sol 1118.

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Credit NASA

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Image taken by the Spirit rover on Sol 1119

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Credit NASA

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Spirit Continues Driving While Engineers Check Robotic Arm - sol 1113-l 1117 , February 23, 2007:

Spirit is healthy and making progress on the return trek to "Home Plate." Rover handlers have put use of the robotic arm on hold in order to run diagnostic tests of apparent positioning errors in the placement of instruments on the arm. Meanwhile, Spirit continues driving, searching for dust devils and clouds using WATCH computer commands, and acquiring other remote sensing data.

Sol-by-sol summary:

In addition to daily observations that included measuring atmospheric opacity caused by dust with the panoramic camera, scanning the sky for clouds with the navigation camera, surveying the sky and ground with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer, and taking reference images of the sky, Spirit conducted the following activities:

Sol 1113 (Feb. 19, 2003): Spirit acquired full-colour images, using all 13 filters of the panoramic camera, of a knobby rock known as "Fabien" and targets known as "Kadabra" and "Kaol."

Sol 1114: Spirit rolled slightly backward, turned, and drove 8.61 metres toward Home Plate. Spirit searched for dust devils using the WATCH commands.

Sol 1115: Spirit acquired movie frames in search of dust devils and searched for clouds using the WATCH commands.

Sol 1116: Spirit drove 8 metres, acquired westward-looking and northward-looking images after the drive, and acquired thermal data from a soil target known as "Kabal" using the miniature thermal emission spectrometer.

Sol 1117 (Feb. 23, 2007): Spirit acquired full-color images of the area in front of the rover using all 13 filters of the panoramic camera.

Odometry
As of sol 1114 (Feb. 20, 2007), Spirit's total odometry was 6,969.03 metres.

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SPIRIT UPDATE: Spirit Perfects the Art of Driving on Five Wheels - sol 1104-1112, February 16, 2007:

Rover drivers have now refined their techniques for manoeuvring on only five wheels. All of Spirit's drives during the past week ended within centimetres of the targeted endpoint. Spirit is healthy and has arrived at the rock outcrop known as "Bellingshausen" on the way back to "Home Plate."
On Feb. 10, 2007, the rover's 1,104th Martian day, or sol, of exploration, Spirit experienced a warm reset, during which the rover's computer rebooted and the rover went into auto mode, cancelling activities for the weekend and awaiting instructions from Earth. This is the third time Spirit has experienced this anomaly; Spirit's twin, Opportunity, has experienced it twice. The anomaly is attributed to a well-known condition in the flight software. The rover's handlers sent new commands that activated the master sequence of activities for sol 1107 (Feb. 13, 2007).
During scientific studies of targets known as "Mount Darwin" and "Puenta Arenas" in soil disturbed by the rover's tracks, Spirit's handlers noticed positioning errors in the placement of instruments on the rover's robotic arm. In response, they scheduled diagnostic tests for sol 1110 (Feb. 16, 2007). This left the team with a tough decision: remain at Bellingshausen during the long President's Day holiday weekend or head toward Home Plate with a day of driving on sol 1114 (Feb. 20, 2007).
Tau measurements of atmospheric dust levels were 0.6; while solar power levels were 312 watt-hours (a watt-hour is the amount of power needed to light a 100-watt bulb for one hour).

Sol-by-sol summary:

Except for the sols spent in auto mode, Spirit made daily observations that included measuring atmospheric opacity caused by dust with the panoramic camera, scanning the sky for clouds with the navigation camera, and surveying the sky and ground with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer. Spirit also conducted the following activities:

Sol 1104 (Feb. 10, 2007): Spirit went into auto mode.

Sol 1105: Spirit remained in auto mode.

Sol 1106: Spirit remained in auto mode.

Sol 1107: Spirit drove to the Bellingshausen outcrop.

Sol 1108: Spirit acquired panoramic camera images of Bellingshausen and navigation camera movie frames in search of clouds.

Sol 1109: Spirit turned and approached a rock target known as "Fabian" and acquired stereo images following the drive using the navigation camera. The rover also acquired images with the panoramic camera.

Sol 1110: Plans called for a "rover tai-chi," which involves taking images of the contact ring of the Moessbauer spectrometer with the front hazard avoidance camera before placing the instrument on a target, and for acquiring panoramic camera images of Bellingshausen.

Sol 1111: Planned activities included collecting data on targets known as "Amhor," "Bantoom," "Dusor," "Ghasta," and "Gooli" with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer.

Sol 1112 (Feb. 18, 2007): Planned activities included collecting data on targets known as "Horz," "Hastor," and "Invak" with the miniature thermal emission spectrometer.

Odometry:
As of sol 1109 (Feb. 15, 2007), Spirit's total odometry was 6,965 metres.