[ad_1]
NASA is stepping up its rover recovery efforts, revealing that its latest Mars Reconnaissance Observer data shows an increasing amount of sunlight reaching the vehicle. Given the additional sunshine, NASA says its Opportunity team has begun sending more orders to the mobile – instead of sending these orders only three times a week, scientists are now sending out orders several times a day.
READ: NASA Forms Rover Opportunity Rescue
Unlike the Curiosity rover, which continues its operations on Mars, the Opportunity rover depends on sunlight for power. It was a problem earlier this year when a dust storm formed on Mars, eventually spreading to the entire planet and blocking the sunlight.
Unable to use its solar panels, Opportunity finally entered a mode of low power consumption to preserve the little charge it had left; everything was silent in the months that followed.
NASA reported in recent days that the Mars dust storm was dwindling; his most recent measurements show favorable amounts of sunlight reaching the solar panels of the mobile. As such, the space agency began sending several orders to Opportunity daily using NASA's Deep Space Network.
NASA has already stated that even if it is optimistic about the rover, it is possible that the opportunity is not the same once it wakes up … assuming that communication can be restored at all. There are many unknowns involving the vehicle, which could have suffered a problem during the storm that prevents it from resuming communication with its team on Earth.
Although communication is restored, NASA has stated that it is possible for the batteries to have permanently reduced capacity, which can cause problems to provide enough energy to complete the missions or keep the vehicle warm enough. Although communication takes place for many months, NASA officially gives the robot 45 days to respond to an end-of-mission problem.
SOURCE: NASA
Source link
