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NASA's Mars Opportunity rover has remained motionless on Mars since June. It was then that a huge dust storm began to engulf the planet, cutting off the sunlight on the solar panels of the rover and forcing it to remain on standby. Since then, the Opportunity team has been waiting patiently for the rover to wake up, and when a signal identified as coming from Opportunity appeared on NASA's Deep Space Network on Thursday, it sparked a lot of enthusiasm.
Unfortunately, the signal, whatever it is, did not come from the robot in difficulty. NASA's reaction propulsion laboratory quickly approached the alleged communication, noting that a "deeper investigation" had revealed that the signals were not really transmitted by Opportunity.
The Deep Space Network broadcasts live NASA communications with its various spacecraft, probes and rovers. When they appear on the list of publicly available signals, they carry the name of the machine responsible for the signal. You can imagine everyone's enthusiasm when the following signal appeared:
At the very least, it was at least hope that Opportunity would still be alive. Its handlers hoped that the clear skies and the windy Mars season would dust off the rover's solar panels and allow it to call home. Then JPL announced the bad news:
But if it was not an opportunity, what was the signal? JPL offers a rather vague explanation:
Well, it's a disappointment. Nevertheless, NASA has not lost hope that the rover will come back to life. Originally designed to last only a few months, he spent nearly 15 years exploring the red planet and could continue to do so if he manages to extricate himself from fantasy. We will keep our fingers crossed.
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