[butlerweave]

Opportunity , phone home

[BBQToadRibs]

It gave us 14 years of work in a hostile environment with no maintenance. Pretty damn impressive.

[Mr. K]

I am surprised they did not include a brush to sweep the solar panels clean.

[cyclotic]

I like how a British publication knows all about how the crew at JPL feel.

If the storm is just winding down, it only makes sense that the rover is still out of communication.

My kid worked on a NASA mission where the satellite in deep space went dark for several months before they were able to re-establish comms. Hopefully they’ll do the same with this one.

[butlerweave]

It will hibernate and wait for Marvin to clean its panels

[Red Badger]

Have they blamed Trump or Globull Warming or Climate Change yet?................

[Right Wing Assault]

If those dumb Martians would do something about their 'climate change,' these things wouldn't happen! Algore, make a video about it.

[Zathras]

Was there a earth shattering Kaboom?

[SoCal Pubbie]

I hope Shiela Jackson Lee gets a chance to steer it over toward the flag Neil Armstrong planted to take a picture before the thing goes kaput for good.

[Boogieman]

Maybe they should equip the next rover with a Dust Buster.

[fso301]

Well, wherever it is when it finally dies for good, someone will decide it had almost reached a very promising site to search for evidence of life and a new mission must be funded.

[outofsalt]

Note to NASA, next Mars mission needs dust covers for the solar panels or windshield wipers.
I am not a engineer nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express anytime recently.

[Kickass Conservative]

The sad part of the story is that it never found the Flag our Astronauts planted there back in the 60’s. #;^)

[jmcenanly]

I'm certain that someone will figure out a way to make it work, given the opportunity.


Yes, I know that's the Pathfinder that he's working on

[logi_cal869]

Another “cleaning event” may be forthcoming.

Just an observation originating from the early days of the mission:

Failure to design a feature which would detect a dust storm environment on a planet known for such storms after decades of observation, and have no option to automatically go into standby with a backup charging panel, means this mission could just have easily ended in 90 days as intended rather than continuing for 14 years.

“Cleaning events” were ironically opportune, but exposed a glaring engineering failure which might have been easily overcome.

Worse, this article is an abject failure to report facts for omitting any details about “cleaning events” whatsoever, plus the ridiculous comment about the possibility that the “dust drops from its solar panels”...