[X] My Assistant

[OWW]

Hi everybody, this is Jeff Fabretto with the Flight Director report for November 10th 2004. Today we’re doing something a little bit different and we’re gonna answer some questions from some of our webviewers. So we’ve got two questions today.

One is from Bob Kelly of San Antonio, Texas. And he asks: “What is the coldest temperature both Spirit and Opportunity have experienced thus far, and what low temperatures the rovers might experience during the upcoming Martian winter?”
Fortunately for us we’re coming out of the Martian winter and we’ve experienced our lowest temperatures. And the temperatures we’ve seen so far have been about –110 degrees Celsius, that’s –212 degrees Fahrenheit and we’ve detected those temperatures out on our solar panel, on top of the rover. The ambient temperature, the air temperature if you would at that time, is probably about –140 degrees Celsius, so about –284 degrees Fahrenheit.

Our next question, from Paul Murphy of Dublin, Ireland: “If the rovers develop no faults, what would be the maximum time they could be operational on the surface?”
Gosh, if nothing went wrong we could survive forever and ever, but things do go wrong and things are developed that they only have a certain lifespan. Currently, probably the thing we’re talking about most is our batterylife. Our battery degrades over time and we should see that degrade maybe about 600, 700 sols, but maybe another 400, 500 days we can operate. However, every day we look at things that are wearing or are getting old. They have to survive in these extreme temperatures and they have to survive for nobody can go back and fix them. We have already survived three times our expected life on both rovers. We’re happy with that and every day we get another day of science of of these rovers we’re really, really pleased.

So, that’s it for today and as far as the Flight Director report, both vehicles are still healthy and we’re doing some great science and we’ll talk about that more next report. Thank you.