Mars Rover opportunity still silent under the raging dust storm

Opportunity of NASA Mars remains a giant dust The storm continues to swirl on the red planet

The storm began on May 30 and has developed to encircle the entire planet a few weeks later. With so much dust in the air, the Solar Energy Opportunity could not recharge its batteries and went into a kind of hibernation.

"We have not heard from the rover for a few weeks," Ray said. Arvidson from the University of Washington in St. Louis. Arvidson is an assistant principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover mission, which originally consisted of Opportunity and its twin, Spirit. The duo landed at various locations on Mars a few weeks apart in January 2004.

Opportunity continued to roll, long after Spirit's death. Opportunity has not sent a photo to Earth since June 10, NASA officials said. Spirit has long been silent, bogging down in the sand in late 2009. His last communication with Earth was sent on March 22, 2010.

The opportunity is now likely in a low-power mode, " in which the rover wakes up, checks his power and, if too low, goes to sleep again ", Arvidson In Outer Space

"At a time when the storm is calming, Opportunity should wake up, decide that it has enough power to transmit a low gain antenna signal by saying," I'm awake and OK but I go back to sleep again, "he added." This should happen to every soil until he decides to return to full operation. "

(A soil is a Martian day , which is about 40 minutes longer than one day Earth.)

"We listened, but not yet low gain antenna communications. Arvidson said: "The storm has become global and continues to rage," said Jim Rice, head of the geology team for the Mars Exploration Rover Project at the Mars Space Flight Facility of the University of Toronto. State of Arizona.

But, he added, "I am always confident that we will get there."

Leonard David is the author of "Mars: Our Future on the Red Planet", published by National Geographic. The book is a companion to the series of the National Geographic channel "Mars". A long-time writer for Space.com, David has been reporting on the space industry for more than five decades. Follow us on @Spacedotcom Facebook or Google+. This version of the story published on Space.com.