QUESTION:
How long will you be able to monitor the rover's mission?

ANSWER from Bridget Landry on December 8, 1997:
Since we can only speak to the rover via the lander, and we lost contact
with the lander on September 27th, we can no longer monitor the rover's
mission.  The prime mission for the rover was the first seven days after
landing, and the extended mission was the first 30 days after landing. Since
we were active for more than 80 days on the surface, you can see that we far
exceeded the planned lifetime of the rover.  It is possible, however, that
the rover is still functioning on the surface, even though we are no longer
able to speak with or command it.  The default programming on board the
rover would have caused it to move back towards the lander, if it didn't
hear from the lander for 5 days.  Thus, the rover is either halted
aproximately 3 meters from the lander (it has other commands that forbid it
to get closer than that to the lander, to avoid getting tangled in the
airbags), repeated requesting information from the lander, or it became
stuck on a rock en route back to the lander from its last known position
just outside the rock garden.