Hope decreases as NASA rover Opportunity refuses to contact Earth – BGR

Time flies when you try to send a message to a mobile that does not wake up. It's been almost three months since NASA heard about the rover Opportunity that fell into hibernation following a huge dust storm that engulfed Mars in its entirety. The solar-powered rover was to enter a low-power default state, but with the sun now shining through the clearing skies, the rover does not seem to be able to get out of its funk.

The rover, which is more than ten and a half years old, was supposed to last only a few months on the Martian surface. He has since spent more than 14 years on the Martian surface, and the original mission schedule has been extended again and again because the rover has proven he is ready to do extra work, but now he seems to be getting more more difficult.

Waiting for the mobile to wake up must be stressful for NASA engineers. A few weeks ago, the team revealed that she was building song playlists to keep morale up, but that their repeated attempts to contact Opportunity only met with silence, hoping that the robot will suddenly come to life disappears.

"It is expected that Opportunity has experienced a low power outage and possibly a mission clock fault, and then a loss timer error," explained the team. Opportunity in a recent update of the mission. "The project continues to listen to the mobile either during the expected outage windows or by listening over a longer time using the Deep Space Network Radio Science Receiver.

The scientists also revealed that they occasionally send a short message to the mobile in the hope that it might be awake but they were not trying to communicate actively. "The project also sends a command three times a week to sound a beep if the mobile is awake," says the team.

The biggest fear for scientists is that the rover batteries – which are not used to staying cold and exhausted for so long – may have been completely destroyed during downtime. Nevertheless, the team will stay a little longer, but time is running out and if they do not come back, the robot will be declared dead.