The chronometer is now officially checked on the rover Opportunity of NASA – BGR

Even if you're not particularly interested in space news or science, you've probably heard about the fate of NASA's Rover Opportunity. The robot, which survived its initial mission and performs "bonus" scientific work for more than a decade, was swallowed by a huge dust storm on Mars, cutting off sunlight and causing it to lose its strength. solar energy for his batteries.

It was early June, and even though the sky above the vehicle is bright again, there is no sign that the vehicle has woken up. Now, with hope and patience at the same time, NASA officially started the countdown to declare the rover officially dead.

During the last update of its mission, the Opportunity team explained that it was planning a 45-day countdown during which it would strive to wake the robot. As Gizmodo explains, this timer started working Wednesday of this week, and now everyone has to hold their breath and wait for the bot to call home.

There are a number of different things that could have happened to the mobile that would have caused it to stop. The first, a weak power defect, is the most likely culprit. Such a fault would cause the mobile to enter a kind of hibernation where he would wake up from time to time to check his power levels. When the sun has started to hit its solar panels and recharge its battery, the mobile should notice the full batteries and start communicating again.

There is not one.

It means that something else could have gone wrong. A clock fault, where the mobile loses track of time and does not know when to archive or attempt to send a signal. A fault of rise occurs when the mobile goes too long without talking to its managers on Earth and supposes that something is wrong with its own communication equipment. Even if Opportunity had experienced these three defects, the 45-day window should be enough to cancel them, as long as its batteries are powered.

This last point is obviously the biggest question mark of all. Nobody knows what Opportunity looks like right now, whether its solar panels are covered with dusty soil or that the sun can actually reach them. Similarly, the mobile battery may have been damaged by prolonged downtime and broken. If we do not hear about Opportunity anymore, we may never know what has actually happened to the friendly rover, but we keep our fingers crossed for him to wake up soon.