The spacecraft remains in good health and is currently about 80 million kilometers from Earth. The only activity performed this week was to continue gathering sun sensor data to characterize its performance at large sun angles. No additional degradation of the sun sensor has been observed since launch. The total flight time since launch is now 135 days, and we have 78 days until Mars arrival.
The flight team is completing preparations for next week's Operational Readiness Test #5. This test is a five day simulation of surface operations using the flight system testbed and Mars sandbox. A significant number of science team members and participating scientists will be in attendance, and are already here this week conducting test and training activities.
The project completed the first of two sessions on lessons learned during the Mars Pathfinder development effort. The first session focused on system level issues and was well received by a lab-wide audience. The second session is scheduled for April 28, and will cover subsystem lessons. Both sessions are being videotaped, and the presentation material will be gathered into a single "book".
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