[X] My Assistant

[OWW]

Hi, this is Jeff Fabretto with the Mars Exploration Rover Flight Director report for January 31st 2005. Both vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity, are healthy.

And today I’d like to talk a little bit more about Opportunity and why we’re doing some of these long drives. We’re up to a recordbreaking 154 meter drive on sol 362 and the image that you’ll see today, what you’ll notice in it as you go from one side of the image all the way to the other side of the image, is that the geography of Mars in this area that we’re driving in changes wildly after so much of a distance. So what we’re doing is, we’re driving along on Mars and we’re gonna watch this topology of Mars change under our very own wheels. And we’re hoping every day to move just a little bit further and see what it’s like here on Mars. And a little bit further and see what it’s like on the next day. And we’re hoping to make these huge jumps and as we move along this area, there’s all these little tiny craters all along this area that we’re in. And we’ll stop occasionaly, we’ll look into these little craters and we’ll move on. And hopefully, we’ll keep on going each and every day and find new and exciting things.

And that does it for the Mars Exploration report for January 31st 2005.