Mars rover spotted in photo 3 months after it went silent

cbs ^ | September 25, 2018, 2:41 PM | By William Harwood

[Hot Tabasco]

Opportunity shows up as a small dot-like feature

Ooooooooookay.....

[NautiNurse]

LOL

[DannyTN]

It's just having some bad luck related to this...

[FourtySeven]

Guys: maybe it’s time to send another rover. I *think* we’ve gotten all we can out of this 20+ year old one.

[Rio]

That shoots my theory that it was stolen and stripped for parts by Martiacans.

[mountainlion]

It is still on a clandestine mission.

[PLMerite]

"That shoots my theory that it was stolen and stripped for parts by Martiacans."

Probably the same ones who got the Moon Buggy.

[Zuriel]

Sounds like a job for Hilliary. She can wipe the dust off of the solar panels “with a cloth”.

[rigelkentaurus]

Just a quick call to AAA and they should be able to get ‘er jumped started in no time.

[BenLurkin]

Yes!

Send her one-way express.

[bgill]

See, Sheila was right. The rover knocked over the flag.

[cableguymn]

maybe it has hillary’s emails.

[38special]

Looks like it just fell in the cracks

[TigersEye]

Will Rover shake the dust off the way a dog shakes off water?

[jim_trent]

All it needs is a jump-start.

[Rurudyne]

What? No gang graffiti?

[gnarledmaw]

Thats actually a good idea. Im thinking that its just low enough that whatever might pass as a breeze there isnt reaching that far to dust off and anything that does blow hard enough carries too much dust of its own. Maybe future rovers should try to include a design that lets it shake its panels and a protocol to shutdown when panels are compromised then reawake n shake at some later time.

[2111USMC]

Landed in 2004. Expected life expectancy was 3 months.

We’re now around 14 years. We definitely got a good return on investment with this one.

[TigersEye]

I was visualizing the wild shaking of a dog but, to be serious, a series of vibrations might shake a lot of dust off. A little breeze would assist that a lot.