Daily Updates - June 9, 2004
Spirit Status at end of sol 148 - 151

During sols 148 through 151, Spirit advanced significantly closer to the "Columbia Hills" and now sits only 220 meters (722 feet) from its first target at the base, a location informally named "Spur B."

Sol 148 was a driving sol, with Spirit completing a 64.7-meter (212.3 feet) engineer-directed drive. This put the rover in position for some sol 149 work with the robotic arm, and provided a great view of the Columbia Hills

On Sol 149, Spirit took a break from driving and surveyed the Columbia Hills with the panoramic camera and mini thermal emissions spectrometer. After that, the rover attained an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer observation of the filter magnet and capture magnet. Spirit takes a look at its magnets every now and then to assess what magnetically susceptible materials have accumulated. The last magnet check was on sol 92.

Spirit used its alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and Moessbauer spectrometer to observe a rock called "Joshua" on sol 150. Unfortunately, the rest of the sol's planned work with the instrument deployment device did not take place because of a command anomaly, which made Spirit think that a collision between the rock abrasion tool and the forearm might occur. Therefore, the tool change and all subsequent arm motions were prevented for the rest of the sol.

Spirit was back to business on sol 151, and finished observing Joshua and the science magnets with the tools on the instrument deployment device. After that, the rover was off, and successfully completed a 73-meter (240 feet) drive toward the Columbia Hills.

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