Spirit's science at Home Plate: SAFE!

With the MER budget scare having blown over, now is a perfect time to reflect on the science at Home Plate - and beyond – that Spirit has yet in store. Rather than vent frustrations about the near-disaster of a 40% funding slash, I'd rather be reminded that we're lucky – astoundingly lucky – to be operating spacecraft on the surface of another planet. And for Spirit, I think the best is yet to come.

Right now, Spirit is tilted towards the Sun on the north edge of Home Plate, where the rover will stay until sometime in October, when spring arrives to the south of Mars. So – you may say – if Spirit can't drive for 6 months anyway, why not just hibernate the ol' girl? I've heard that argument before, and here's my response: Spirit may be a quadriplegic right now, but she's not blind. The MER team has a rigorous winter science campaign planned for Spirit, including the mother-of-all-panoramas: a 360-degree view of the winter scene, from the rover deck to the horizon – that's over a hundred individual snapshots stitched together, taken in 13 unique filters. Here's a sneak preview of what we have so far, pieced together from "blue" filter images:

It will take months to finish shooting this panorama, called the "Bonestell Pan". But when it's done, it'll be spectacular. Last winter, when Spirit was parked at Low Ridge, we collected the equally monstrous McMurdo Pan, which is arguably the most scientifically- rich product that Pancam has acquired. There are plenty of Ph.D. theses in that panorama – including mine. Over the next few months I'll be mapping the extent of silica-rich material over the entire 360-degree McMurdo Pan, and when this winter is done, I'll do the same over the Bonestall Pan. In the end I'll be able to say something about how widespread the hydrothermal activity might have been in this area.

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