Mars Opportunity Rover Is In Danger of Dying From a Dust Storm (engadget.com)

According to NASA, the Mars Opportunity rover is currently trying to survive an intensifying dust storm on the red planet. "The storm's atmospheric opacity -- the veil of dust blowing around, which can blot out sunlight -- is now much worse than a 2007 storm that Opportunity weathered," reports NASA. "The previous storm had an opacity level, or tau, somewhere above 5.5; this new storm had an estimated tau of 10.8 as of Sunday morning." Engadget reports: The storm was first detected on Friday June 1st by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, at which point the rover's team was notified because of the weather event's proximity to Opportunity. The rover uses solar panels, so a dust storm could have an extremely negative impact on Opportunity's power levels and its batteries. By Wednesday June 6th, Opportunity was in minimal operations mode because of sharply decreasing power levels. The brave little rover is continuing to weather the storm; it sent a transmission back to Earth Sunday morning, which is a good sign. It means there's still enough charge left in the batteries to communicate with home, despite the fact that the storm is continuing to worsen.

Comments

It doesn't have any system to clear its panels

[robbak]

Opportunity and Spirit are not fitted with any mechanism to clear their solar panels. Originally, it was assumed that dust on the panels would be what would end the mission. But winds and whirlwinds were found on the planet, these occasionally blew dust from the panels, and the mission was extended.

The pressing problem is that there won't be enough energy to keep the heaters running, the electronics will cool down to -50C, and either the heaters won't turn back on when the sun returns, or, if they do, the electronics won't work when they defrost.

Re:I came here to read this. :)

[Joce640k]

You know how I can tell that neither of you actually read the article?

The main concern here isn't the dust storm itself. It's the need to keep the rover's heaters operational while maintaining a minimal power level in the batteries.

Re:Communicate With Home?

[Anonymous Coward]

The Internet: passing judgement on others without all the facts is kind of our thing