A NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars has fleck the chance rover on the surface of the Red Planet , as the nervous wait over the rover ’s well - being continues .
Opportunityhas not been heard fromsince June 10 , when a global dust violent storm engross Mars . In belated August the storm begin to pass , with hope the roamer would inflame up from a sleep mode signify to ride out the storm . Almost 100 day later , it has n’t .
Now an image snapped by NASA ’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ( MRO ) , using its HiRISE photographic camera , shows the location of the rover on Mars precisely where we left it . It ’s positioned on the slopes of Perseverance Valley , which it was descending when the dust tempest arrived .
“ The storm was one of several that stir up enough dust to enshroud most of the Red Planet and city block sunlight from reaching the surface , ” saidNASA . “ The deficiency of sunlight caused the solar - powered chance to go into hibernation . ”
In the epitome taken on Thursday , September 20 , you’re able to just about make out the roamer , enchant from about 267 klick ( 166 miles ) above the surface . The rover itself is about 2.3 meter ( 7.5 foot ) across , and 1.6 meters ( 5.2 feet ) long . The square foreground the scouter is about 1 kilometer ( 0.6 miles ) across .
Dust level on Mars are measured in tau , and at the peak of the tempest they registeredhigher than 10 . They have since steady fallen to about 1.3 now , which should be passable for the scouter to conglomerate enough sun to course its solar panels and switch back on .
Last week , NASA start increasing the frequence of commands it sent to the rover as the dust levels cleared , bright that it would reply . One issue is that remnant dust may still becovering the panels , preventing Opportunity from fare back to life .
“ The HiRISE image shows some reddening of the surrounding area , suggesting debris fallout , but it is not possible to determine how much dust is on the arrays themselves , ” astatementfrom the University of Arizona noted .
“ As the dusty sky go along to clear , the frequent commanding will retain and imaging will be reprise . ”
NASA facedsome criticismlast month when it said it would only actively assay to reach the rover by sending commands for 45 day . After that , they would only intermittently hear for a signal coming back from the rover . But others said 45 day wasnot enough time , and considering the value of the rover more active attempts should be made .
The fact right now is that Opportunity still has n’t fire up up . Its duplicate rover , Spirit , yield to the Red Planet ’s weatherin 2011 . All fingers will be bilk that the same fate has n’t befall its sister .
