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The huge Martian dust storm that has fallen on the NASA rover Opportunity has gained momentum on a global scale – and Curiosity is now in the line of pattern.
A striking image shared by the space agency today shows the dramatic atmospheric changes brought about by the event "hovering around the planet" in recent weeks, with sites that were once-in-a-lifetime clearly visible now obscured by the red tinted dust
The fate of Opportunity remains uncertain, the Curiosity rover, equipped with a nuclear battery, managed to document the snippets of the event that s & # 39; worse.
Now, according to NASA, the fog blocking the sun has reached the highest levels ever reached.
A side-by-side image of the images captured with the Curiosity rover's MastCam shows how extreme the storm was, comparing the drilling site to Duluth. May 21 and 17
Although Curiosity is on the opposite side of the red planet, growing dust has made its way over the past few days. Over the past weekend, the dust in his neighborhood has more than doubled. The mist, known as "tau", now exceeds 8.0 at Gale Crater, according to NASA.
"The Tau was last measured close to 11 on Opportunity, thick enough so that accurate measurements are no longer possible for the oldest active rover in Mars," notes the US Space Agency [19659008]. In the midst of the unprecedented dust storm
On June 12, the Opportunity rover was silent when engineers tried to contact the 15-year-old rover but did not hear it.
At a press conference on June 13 involved in the Opportunity mission confirmed the rover was "asleep" as he waits for the storm that blocked the sun – effectively cutting off his power supply.
The storm has been growing since the end of May, and in mid-June had already covered 14 million square miles (35 million square kilometers) of the surface of Mars, or a quarter of the planet.
Now, the experts say that it has become a dust event around the planet – although they do not do I know very well what is happening Scott D. Guzewich, a scientist of the Atmosphere at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, explains why some storms are developing so great that others are rapidly disappearing
. With a dust layer that sweeps the sun on Perseverance Valley, Opportunity's solar panels could not recharge the robot's battery.
And it will probably be several days before sunlight gives it a little juice. [19659002"Thecrewoftheprojectisveryconcerned"saidJohnCallasresponsibleforthisprojectOpportunityintheNASApressreferenceoftheAugustofOctober
"We are watching the weather and listening to the signals." Signs of a new dust storm appeared on May 30th. The team was notified and developed a three-day plan to allow the rover to spend the weekend.
Atmospheric opacity – or "amo" The car's asleep, "Callas said at the conference. "It is in this low power mode, and will stay in this low power mode until there is enough power to charge the batteries above the threshold."
& # 39; At this point the rover will try to wake up and contact us. We are in a mode of waiting – we are listening every day for possible signals.
The team also monitors the temperature of the rover, as prolonged darkness means that it will cool down. Until now, experts say that it should stay above the minimum temperature necessary to continue its long-term operations.
"We should be able to overcome this storm," Callas said. "When the sky clears and the rover starts to power up, he should start communicating with us."
NASA, however, anticipates "complexity" with the rover's mission clock. Without enough energy to power its mission clock, which is currently considered the only instrument still working, the rover will not know what time it is.
When the mobile wakes up, it will put its chronometers at regular intervals to see if it can communicate with Earth, the researchers explain.
In the meantime, the team will just have to wait.
"We will be ready to listen and respond to the rover when that happens," Callas "
" We are worried, but we hope that the storm will disappear and the rover will begin to communicate with us. "
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