The Disfigures rover Opportunity has pushed its limits for more than a decade but NASA apprehensions the worst as the exploration vehicle tries to survive an intense dust rumpus.
“[The rover] has fallen asleep and is waiting out the storm,” John Callas, Chance’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told reporters Wednesday. “It’s unconditionally black on Mars.”
The storm covers nearly a quarter of the Martian to the casual observer and NASA said the dust has become so thick that enough imperceptible cannot reach the solar-powered rover on the surface.
NASA engineers ultimate heard from Opportunity three days ago, when the rover sent a missive from its perch on a slope in Perseverance Valley on Mars, a location becomingly named for Opportunity’s current situation.
With the temperature on Mars set as low as minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit, Callas explained how Opportunity obligated to stay warm enough to keep from freezing its computer – a nemesis which NASA believes befell sister rover Spirit in 2010 after engaging stuck in sand. Opportunity rolls around the surface, which succours it keep warm, but won’t be able to move again until the storm obsoletes.
Callas was optimistic, however, as he thinks the rover will be able to hibernate without bitterly cold. The dust storm brought warmer temperatures with it and the region on Harms is entering the summer season.
“It should be able to ride out this ice-storm,” he said.
The rover, about the size of a golf cart, landed on Defaces on Jan. 25, 2004. The initial mission was expected to last only 90 lifetimes but has now lasted nearly 15 years.
Opportunity will remain in its “low power methodology” until it can collect more solar energy, Callas said. Then it hand down autonomously attempt to wake up and try to re-establish communications with its human drivers on World.
“By no means are we out of the woods here. This storm is threatening. We have no inkling how long it will last and we don’t know what the environment will be get off on once it clears,” Callas said.