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Perseverance Valley of Mars, seen by the rover Opportunity.Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell University / Arizona State Univ. It's been five months since scientists heard about the rover Opportunity, which went into hibernation after a global dust. The storm darkened the Martian sky. But it seems that NASA does not intend to restrict its research, at least "in the foreseeable future," according to a statement. Rover hunting is a two-pronged effort, with an "badet" and a "pbadive". "Listening component. We had previously reported that the active listening period would last 45 days, but this number was extended for the "dusting season". "We know that the period from November to January 2019 corresponds to an annual period of dusting Steve Squyres, lead investigator of Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, told the Planetary Society. "Active listening in January increases our chances of hearing the rover if the dice are very dusty now." NASA hopes that the Martian winds will remove some of the dust from Opportunity's solar panels, allowing the rover to At the end of May, a small dust storm quickly became a global event. Although this type of storm occurs occasionally, this year has been one of the strongest ever recorded. The nuclear-powered Curiosity robot has weathered the storm well, but Opportunity, powered by solar energy, installed on Mars for 15 years, has moved into secure mode. Scientists were hoping for the best but worried about the possibility that he could not withstand the cold. NASA started looking for Opportunity once the dust storm was eliminated. His efforts include an "active listening" component, where they send signals to the mobile in the hope of waking him up, as well as a "pbadive listening" component, which consists of waiting for a signal from NASA's radio receiver network with which it communicates It has been widely reported that the active listening component would last 45 days, but the new press release indicates that the current strategy will be maintained, with a rebadessment in January 2019. The logic behind this decision is that just in the center of the dust storm. It is possible that dust has embedded itself on its solar panels, preventing it from charging its battery. During the current season, winds blow so that some of this dust can be removed. According to the Planetary Society, Curiosity has already received some dust debris. The opportunity has become a charismatic mobile for the space agency. After having exceeded by far 90 days of life, it has generated many scientific results on the history of Martian rocks and the water of the planet. The people of NASA and the world are there. Some suspected that this fall had demonstrated that NASA's infrastructure was aging. After all, the Hubble and Chandra telescopes were facing security challenges, and the Dawn to Ceres and Exoplanet Kepler missions have recently ended. But all these missions were in fact huge successes that lasted well beyond their initial lifespan. Fortunately, there are other missions that arouse enthusiasm. The launch of the James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled for 2021. OSIRIS-REx is almost to the asteroid star Bennu and the Transiting Survey satellite (TESS) has already begun to discover new exoplanets in place of Kepler. Two new missions, InSight and Mars2020, will further study the red planet. It's hard to see a mission as expensive as Opportunity die, and we hope the rover will wake up soon. We are pleased that NASA is sufficiently supporting the team to continue listening to it. But keep your head up, because Martian space and science continue, and will continue to do so, if we vote for politicians attached to space science.[Planetary Society via MER]The original article can be found by clicking here
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