Stuck Rover - Sol 833 hazcam pics (flat-stereo pairs)

[Fox2]

Hazcam pics showing that the engineers tried to climb
a dune & take a short-cut...getting stuck. :(

Not only that but the pics show a second set of tracks
indicating that they had tried once before and failed,
backed up & tried again.

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[JusUK2]

Post by Fox2
Hazcam pics showing that the engineers tried to climb
a dune & take a short-cut...getting stuck. :(
Not only that but the pics show a second set of tracks
indicating that they had tried once before and failed,
backed up & tried again.
http://members.tripod.com/~tucoan/spop/op-sol833-back.jpg
http://members.tripod.com/~tucoan/spop/op-sol833-front.jpg

Maybe they were trying to get to a specific target like that weird looking
mini-crater thing in front?

[Sir Charles W. Shults III]

This will be tough for them to live down. They have already been made
aware of the nature of the dunes and the poor traction, and having been
stuck once (and nearly stuck a couple of times since), you would expect that
this would have been avoided.
The dunes are up to half ice crystals, and very fluffy. Driving into
the stuff just compacts it and turns the interior to the consistency of mud.
It only dries out on exposure to sunlight and thin air, leaving the stuff
packed in the cleats.
You can see how sunlight warming the dunes causes the salts to migrate-
see the linear layering patterns on them? This is due to some of the ice
melting and then refreezing. And frost heave is what places all the
spherules and stones on the surface. There are virtually no rocks or
spherules under the soil because of this. You can see this any time they
trench or even in the crash site of the heat shield.
Seems like they never learn.

[Fox2]

Post by JusUK2

Post by Fox2
Hazcam pics showing that the engineers tried to climb
a dune & take a short-cut...getting stuck. :(
Not only that but the pics show a second set of tracks
indicating that they had tried once before and failed,
backed up & tried again.
http://members.tripod.com/~tucoan/spop/op-sol833-back.jpg
http://members.tripod.com/~tucoan/spop/op-sol833-front.jpg

Maybe they were trying to get to a specific target like that weird
looking mini-crater thing in front?

You're probably right.
There seems to be a curst about an inch thick covering the
softer material & when they broke the crust on the first
try, they should have tried again in a different spot.
The new pics show progress in backing out. :)

[John Doe]

thanks for the great photos, I live near K.S.C. and have been following
the missions since it's lifoff.
If I didn't know better I'd think my wife was at the controls, gettng
stuckonce is bad enough but doing it a second time is just really reall
bad.