Posted on 09/25/2018 3:08:01 PM PDT by BenLurkin
NASA's long-lived Opportunity Mars rover has been silent since June 11 in the wake of a global dust storm that swept around the red planet, blotting out the sun and preventing the rover's batteries from recharging. Despite clearing skies, the rover has yet to wake up, but it's no longer out of sight.
In an image released Tuesday, Opportunity shows up as a small dot-like feature in a high-resolution image captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, showing the rover on the slopes of Perseverance Valley 166 miles below. Opportunity was slowly making its way down into the martian valley when the dust storm developed.
NASA's Mars Opportunity rover is highlighted in this image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter as it passed 166 miles overhead. The rover has not communicated with Earth since a dust storm enveloped over the red planet in June, but flight controllers remain hopeful the long-lived robot will eventually wake up and phone home.
NASA
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Ooooooooookay.....
LOL
Guys: maybe it’s time to send another rover. I *think* we’ve gotten all we can out of this 20+ year old one.
That shoots my theory that it was stolen and stripped for parts by Martiacans.
It is still on a clandestine mission.
Probably the same ones who got the Moon Buggy.
Sounds like a job for Hilliary. She can wipe the dust off of the solar panels “with a cloth”.
Just a quick call to AAA and they should be able to get ‘er jumped started in no time.
Yes!
Send her one-way express.
See, Sheila was right. The rover knocked over the flag.
maybe it has hillary’s emails.
Looks like it just fell in the cracks
Will Rover shake the dust off the way a dog shakes off water?
All it needs is a jump-start.
What? No gang graffiti?
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.
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.
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.
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