[X] My Assistant

[OWW]

Good morning. My name is Joel Signorelli and this is the Flight Director report for the 7th of April. We had two mini milestones on Spirit and Opportunity last week.

Opportunity’s odometer just clicked over 7 kilometers and that’s 7000 meters. Now its original requirement was to only drive 600 meters, so they’ve bested that distance by over 12 times the original requirements.
Last week, Opportunity was driving about 50 meters per sol as it’s dashing its way towards Victoria Crater where it is going to spend the winter. Along the way it was taking pictures of outcrops and doing atmospheric observations.

Now on Spirit, it just passed sol 800. Now both vehicles were designed to last only 90 sols, so Spirit has lasted more than nine times its original requirements for working on the surface of Mars.
Now driving hasn’t been so easy for Spirit recently. Spirit’s fifth wheel has been locked and so it can’t rotate. It’s been bogged down in this kind of sandy, loose material last week. So there has been a change in plans. Instead of trying to go to McCool Hill for its winter haven, it’s going to backtrack to a place just passed recently called “Low Ridge” and that is where the vehicle is going to be spending its winter.

So that’s it for today. My name is Joel Signorelli and that’s what’s happening on Mars.