[X] My Assistant

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Do you think it's likely that Opportunity will spend the rest of it's operational life inside Endurance crater? I'm certainly getting that impression from some of the recent news briefings.

If it survives the winter, perhaps they'll go for a nice spring drive

[djellison]

Do you think it's likely that Opportunity will spend the rest of it's operational life inside Endurance crater? I'm certainly getting that impression from some of the recent news briefings.

If it survives the winter, perhaps they'll go for a nice spring drive

I dont imagine they'll decend a great deal further into the crater - and to be honest, I think it's succesfully traversed up AND down the hardest part of the drive it might encounter.

I think they may well spend another few weeks here - rating and spectrometer work on the rocks further down the crater wall - then leaving for the heatshield and perhaps the etched terrain to the south - maybe finding a small rock with which to tilt the rover sunward for a couple of weeks during solar conjunction.

I fear for Spirit more than Opportunity - Spirit hasmore than twice the metres on the clock and is mechanically beginning to show age in that one wheel which could be an oman for wheels dying one by one - or just a bit of a freak.

Doug