NASA hopes Martian winds could still revive Opportunity rover

NASA has been questioning the Rover Opportunity for several months, but the brave little robot is still sleeping after its violent Martian dust storm. There may still be hope for the mission. According to NASA engineers, Opportunity has one last chance to save itself from oblivion with a future windy season on Mars.

The Opportunity rover landed on Mars with his brother Spirit almost 15 years ago. NASA has designed the rovers so that they last at least 90 days on the red planet, and they last a lot longer. Spirit was offline several years ago after being found stuck in soft ground, which prevented it from directing its solar panels to the sun. Opportunity can suffer the same fate as power, but the cause is much more dramatic.

Last spring, Mars experienced a dust storm. These monster storms are formed every few years and absorb the sun for months. This storm was particularly strong too. According to NASA, the level of opacity or "tau" of the storm has reached a value greater than 10. On average, the Martian atmosphere has a tau of about 1.5. With so little light, NASA placed Opportunity in hibernation mode, but that was not enough for the mobile to remain powered.

It's impossible to know how much dust has covered the rover's solar panels – the Mars Recognition Orbiter (MRO) has detected an opportunity in orbit, but the resolution of the image is not enough to pinpoint the details. However, we arrive each year at a time when Mars is very windy between November and January (on Earth). The Opportunity team described this as a "dust season" because it had already removed excess dust from the rover's solar panels. They hope that the dusting season will reveal enough panels to feed the rover again.

Opportunity, view of Mars reconnaissance orbiter (MRO).

Last opportunity communicated with the Earth on June 10th. NASA recently increased its communication rate with Opportunity in case it comes back online suddenly. If this happens, NASA will evaluate its condition and restart the mobile. However, the internal heaters have not been operational for months. It is possible that the batteries have suffered permanent damage from the cold and that clear solar panels are not enough to revive Opportunity. NASA will re-evaluate the future of the mission if Opportunity does not wake up before the end of the dust removal season.

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