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Spirit Reaches Columbia Hills
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
On sol 156, Spirit roved 42 meters (138 feet) closer to a vantage
point where it could observe the hill outcrops. Some of the images that
Spirit sent back revealed a small and unusual rock
that piqued scientists' interest and was informally named
"End-of-Rainbow." Part of the sol 157 plan was to observe
End-of-Rainbow and use the alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, Mössbauer
spectrometer and microscopic imager to study the "Shredded" soil
target. However, the command load for sol 157 never made it to Spirit.
Further analysis indicated that the problem had to do
with the frequency drift associated with the colder temperatures on
Mars as the planet moves into its southern winter season. This was an
anticipated problem, and the rover team has already
imposed some strategies that will help to prevent the problem in the
future.
