NASA Opportunity Rover Still Silent Under Massive Mars Dust Storm – Brinkwire

NASA remains convinced that its Opportunity rover on Mars will be able to wake up after the end of the massive dust storm on the red planet, even though it has not heard of it for a few weeks.

May 30, and has since grown to envelop the entire planet. The Opportunity rover is caught in the middle and has been forced to go into hibernation because it will not be able to recharge its solar energy batteries.

NASA hopes the best for the opportunity Rover

NASA is still hoping for the best for its rover Opportunity, which has not sent a photo to Earth since June 10.

"We have not heard from the rover for a few weeks," said Ray Arvidson, principal investigator of the Mars Exploration Rover mission.

According to Arvidson, Opportunity is probably in low-power mode, in which it wakes up periodically to check whether its solar-powered batteries have been recharged. If the charge is still too low, the robot will go back to sleep, which probably happened because the dust storm blocked the sun.

After the storm, Arvidson said that Opportunity should try to wake up. and determine if he has enough charge to send a signal to the Earth. If its power is sufficient, it will let NASA know that everything is fine and will fall back to recharge its batteries.

The Martian dust storm, however, continues to rage, with the astrophotographer Damian Peach creating an animation to show the effects of the phenomenon on the red planet. Peach said that the characteristics of Mars are currently hidden under all the dust.

Will the Rover survive?

NASA praised the sustainability of the rover Opportunity, which arrived on Mars alongside its twin, the Spirit Rover. Spirit's last communication with Earth dates back to March 2010, but Opportunity continued to exist.

In early June, NASA was forced to close Opportunity rover as the Martian dust storm grew in North America. The Opportunity rover then fell silent, as the dust storm intensified to become a phenomenon surrounding the planet.

Without any end in view of the massive dust storm on Mars, there is no guarantee that the Opportunity rover will be able to survive. ordeal. However, NASA remains confident that the rover will reach and extend its 14 year mandate on the red planet and continue to wait for the Opportunity rover to send a signal back home.

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