Aug 28, 2018 04:16 AM
Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004, along with its sister rover Spirit. At the time, their design lifetime was 3 months. But they proved to be the energizer bunnies of Mars rovers and just kept going and going.
Spirit finally died in 2010, but Opportunity kept rolling and sending back photos. Unfortunately in June 2018 it got caught in a dust storm and went into sleep mode. Now that the dust storm is over, NASA's been sending commands intended to awaken it, but it hasn't responded. NASA's getting worried. The fear is that without sunlight to power the rover's solar panels (that were obscured by the dust storm) the rover's heater wouldn't work. And since Mars can reach a chilly -100 degrees F (like Canada!), the cold might have crudded up the batteries and electronics.
https://www.sciencealert.com/it-s-starti...ly-is-dead
Well Opportunity, we loved you. You were only built for 3 months on Mars' surface and you gave us 14 years! That's heroic service!
(Yeah, I'm a sucker for anything I can anthropomorphize. I see faces in the clouds.)
![[Image: mer.jpg]](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/web/mer.jpg)
Spirit finally died in 2010, but Opportunity kept rolling and sending back photos. Unfortunately in June 2018 it got caught in a dust storm and went into sleep mode. Now that the dust storm is over, NASA's been sending commands intended to awaken it, but it hasn't responded. NASA's getting worried. The fear is that without sunlight to power the rover's solar panels (that were obscured by the dust storm) the rover's heater wouldn't work. And since Mars can reach a chilly -100 degrees F (like Canada!), the cold might have crudded up the batteries and electronics.
https://www.sciencealert.com/it-s-starti...ly-is-dead
Well Opportunity, we loved you. You were only built for 3 months on Mars' surface and you gave us 14 years! That's heroic service!
(Yeah, I'm a sucker for anything I can anthropomorphize. I see faces in the clouds.)