[Joe Hadenuf]

It's my opinion thay those are not bounce marks within that area, as it seems to close to the craft to be bounce marks. How could it have been still bouncing yet come to a stop that close to the marks? Given the surface gravity, it just doesn't seem likely.

[Orion78]

It does seem too close to be bounce marks. Perhaps it was mostly rolling and not bouncing though. I read somewhere an estimate of how far away "sleepy hollow" was from the rover, I will try to dig it up.

[Orion78]

The mission's scientists, who are getting little rest as they examine the pictures from Spirit, chose the name "Sleepy Hollow" for one of these circular depressions. This one is about 9 meters (30 feet) across and about 12 meters (40 feet) north of the lander, Squyres said.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/2004/5.cfm

[Orion78]

Rebounding like some alien beach ball, the spacecraft will bounce as high as 20 meters (66 feet) on its first bounce, taking several minutes to come to rest somewhere in a landing "footprint" measuring 110 kilometers by 15 kilometers (68 miles by nine miles).

According to this article, the highest bounce is about 66 feet, which is only twice as high as "sleepy hollow" is wide (30 feet). Also, as posted earlier, "sleepy hollow" is about 40 feet from the lander.

If you look at the marks inside "sleepy hollow", you see one is near the edge and one is roughly near the middle, which would put the marks about 15 feet apart. If that is the case, I don't think it shouldn't have been bouncing very high at that point.

I am no expert, but it doesn't seem that unreasonable for the spacecraft to bounce like that then roll to a stop 40 feet away. I don't know. What do you think? Anyone else out there have any input?

[Orion78]

Here is a picture of the airbags that gives a good sense of their size.