In article ,
Carla Schneider wrote:
Opportunity is located 3° from the Equator and the Season on Mars
is shortly after northern spring aequinoctium.
Martian days are not getting shorter at the equator, and the sun
angle is almost as high as it could be at this

The Sun angle *is* getting worse, because the Sun is moving into the
northern sky, taking it away from the equator, i.e. it is no longer
passing directly overhead.

And there is some slight reduction in day length as well -- Opportunity
being 3deg *south* of the equator -- although I wouldn't have thought it
significant.

So what is the real reason for the power shortage ?
Of course the Mars - Sun distance is slowly increasing but ...

That too. And there is some dust on the solar arrays by now.

But more generally, beware of reading press releases as if they were
scientific papers. A certain amount of sloppiness and imprecision is to
be expected; it's *NOT* the technical people writing these things.
--
MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer
since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. |