Spirit Sol 779

The long-baseline stereo drive went reasonably well, though we still ended up with about two degrees of southerly tilt somehow. For that and other reasons, we're ready and eager to move on.

This one's an easy drive, a straight shot down a channel toward McCool Hill. The channel opens up into a broad plain that shortly starts rising toward the hill, pointing our solar panels more and more northerly as it goes. Where we want to be is still about 150m away or so, but today we'll chew off a 35m chunk of that, and we might get where we need to be in a couple of weeks or so.

That won't come any too soon. It seems like the height of Martian summer wasn't that long ago -- Spirit was practically a brand-new vehicle, with 850 or 900 Watt-hours per sol. Luxury. We're now around 350 and dropping. For reference, we need 250 or so merely to survive.

Just as when we were approaching Husband Hill, we're in a race against the sun. One false step, and we're dead. Welcome, as they say, to Mars.