NASA's last hope for relaunching the Opportunity rover may lie on Mars itself

Since NASA's Hubble and Chandra satellites have chosen the same week of malfunctioning, it is clear that this is a difficult time for space agency engineers who work tirelessly to keep the space hardware up and running. In fact, last week was so rough for NASA that it was easy to forget the fact that the Opportunity rover is still sitting lifeless on the red planet.

NASA has been monitoring Opportunity closely, at least as close as possible when the rover refuses to communicate, but in a new update, the space agency offers a tiny glimmer of hope. With the dust storm that condemned Opportunity, the last hope of the rover could well lie in a weather phenomenon different from Mars.

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In recent weeks, NASA has sent many signals to its mobiles in the hope that aging equipment will eventually come out of its funk. The mobile went into a low-power state by default when a huge dust storm swallowed Mars and cut off the light from Opportunity's solar panels. Scientists hope the rover will still have life, but warn that the rover may be dead.

One of the latest hopes of NASA engineers is that the rover's solar panels are simply covered with dust when they have been swallowed by the storm. If this is the case, the only thing that could possibly save the rover's only power source would be if that dust was washed away, and coincidentally, the upcoming season is perfect for doing so.

"A windy period on Mars – known by the Opportunity team as" the dust removal season "- occurs from November to January and has already cleaned up the rover panels," NASA said in a new update. "The team still hopes that some of the dust will allow the listener to be heard during this time."

If the solar panels are covered with dust and can not generate enough energy to recharge the batteries of the rover, a constant wind could solve the problem. NASA hopes that the rover panels will be clear enough to allow the vehicle to wake up and send the messages home, but if it does not, we could finally see the end of a mission that has already exceeded the craziest expectations of NASA.

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