Now we're going to the top folks!!!!!!!!!!

After the tune-up, Spirit will head back along the face of the hillside, looking for a ridge crest that would be gentle enough to use as a path. The incline must be less than about 20 degrees for a safe ascent.

“We see some interesting formations up the hill,” Callas explained. “It looks like there are stratified layers below the summit.” Spirit will study these layers using the same instruments the rovers have used on other rock layers.

From its present position, Callas estimated that Spirit’s route to the summit is about 500 meters long, with an altitude rise of about 80 meters. Operators estimate it will take several weeks to get to the first outcrops, and perhaps a month and a half to get to the summit.

“It will be a dramatic elevation”, Callas continued. “We should be able to see the entire ring of Gusev Crater’s rim on the horizon”. Long exposures will be needed to pull the stark silhouette out of the haze, he admitted, but that view alone -– and panoramas of nearer regions –- will make the climb worthwhile.

Further, there may be a path down the other side of this hill, into intriguing regions of dark soil seen in photographs from orbiting spacecraft. The route could well be shorter and safer than earlier suggested paths that circled the base of the hill.

“It’s safer because we’re in more sunlit terrain,” he explained. “We have to avoid the shadows of the hills –- shadows are lethal to the rover,” he said. “We wouldn’t have enough battery power to get back out if we got into one.”