A.J.S. Rayl is a lady called Salley, by the way...

Absolutely superb write-up, as always. These Updates put the efforts of many newspaper/magazine space journalists to shame.

...This update also mentioned a local Venturi effect at Spirit's location, which may be cleaning the solar panels. I think I first read about that concept in this forum, too.

I'm still puzzled by such a big cleaning by Venturi effect knowing how thin the atmosphere is.

The big news – and the best news – from Meridiani Planum this month though is that the team has found a way to mitigate the elevated currents drawn by the rover’s right front wheel motor. “The currents have been more normal than we’ve seen in a long time. While we still see some elevation in that right front wheel current, especially on turns, overall the driving was pretty stable this month.” Laubach reported. That comes as real relief, especially considering that Opportunity still have some 15 kilometers to go to get to Endeavour.

Anyone have any ideas as to what this "way" to mitigate is? Does it involve programming it to turn with the other wheels and leave that one alone?

Happy New Years to all UMSF members and may it be a good year for both rovers especially Spirit.

http://www.planetary.org/news/2009/1231_Ma...ate_Spirit.html

“We’re going to try and beat MSL to find phyllosilicates,” Arvidson announced.

“The wheels are very well-behaved,” reported Callas. “We’re quite pleased with the current levels of all the wheels.”

“The rim is connected and the northern part that is closest, Cape York, and the surrounding hydrated sedimentary rocks at Botany Bay, where we are heading, are on a lower part of the rim, so we just cannot see them yet,” Arvidson reminded.