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It's been months since NASA engineers did not hear about the dormant Opportunity rover, which went out after being caught in a big dust storm on Mars that masked its surface from the sun. But all hope has not yet been lost, as announced by the US Space Agency in its statement on Thursday, that a windy season on the red planet could help eliminate the dust that would obstruct Opportunity's solar panels. .
"A windy period on Mars, known by the Opportunity team as the" dust removal season ", occurs from November to January and has already cleaned the rover panels," said NASA.
In the meantime, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) engineers, who oversee the 14-year-old rover's operations, are increasing the number of orders sent to Opportunity and are listening for possible home calls. he is still operational.
The engineers heard about the rover on June 10 while he was working in the Perseverance Valley of Mars. NASA said it believes that the global dust storm that peaked in June could have caused a layer of dust on the solar panels of the rover, blocking the sunlight it needs to recharge. At the time, NASA was forced to put Opportunity into hibernation mode in order to preserve any remaining energy until the end of the storm.
"No one can say how much dust has been deposited on its panels," the space agency said in its update this week, adding that his team remained optimistic.
Last month, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) HiRISE camera spotted the sleeping rover on the surface of the red planet, indicating that it had not been completely buried by dust and offering a glimmer of hope that sunlight can reach its solar radius. signs once the storm has cleared.
"The sun is going through the mist over the Perseverance Valley, and soon there will be enough sunlight for Opportunity to recharge," said John Callas, Opportunity Project Manager at JPL. last month. "When the level of tau [a measure of the amount of particulate matter in the Martian sky] Below 1.5, we will begin a period of attempts to communicate with the mobile by sending commands through NASA's Deep Space network antennas. Assuming we receive news from Opportunity, we will begin the process of discerning its status and bringing it back online. "
The Rover Opportunity has far exceeded its expected life of 90 Martian days by far. Launched in 2003 with twin Spirit as part of NASA's MER Exploration Rover mission, the robot's size of a golf cart is approaching 15 years on the red planet.
Let's hope that this remarkably resistant little rover will return home soon.
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