Spirit Status for sol 2177-2184: Spirit is in her winter position, still embedded in the area called "Troy" on the west side of Home Plate. Efforts continue to prepare the rover for winter.
Because of the low power levels, multi-sol plans are being developed with reduced communication activity to save energy. These plans have a single uplink to the rover and few Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) downlinks to return the data.
The new long-range UHF communication table is on board and various settings for winter are being prepared.
A special Deep Space Network (DSN) test was performed with Spirit to confirm that even during the time of weakest signal, the DSN should be able to detect the rover's signal with the DSN's Radio Science Receiver (RSR) even if the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is transmitting.
As of Sol 2184 (Feb. 23, 2010), the rover solar array energy production was to 163 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (tau) of 0.367 and a dust factor of 0.518. Total is 7,730.50 meters (4.80 miles).
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