NASA.

NASA spots silent Opportunity rover on Mars

September 27, 2018

A NASA Mars orbiter has spotted the agency’s Opportunity rover on the Red Planet for the first time since it went into hibernation after a dust storm swept over the region a little more than 100 days ago and blocked sunlight from reaching the rover…reports Asian Lite News

NASA.

A high-resolution camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) captured the image of the rover on the slopes of the Red Planet’s Perseverance Valley, NASA said in a statement.

But the future of Opportunity is still in limbo as NASA has still not heard from the 14-year-old solar-powered rover.

The image of the rover, taken on September 20, was produced from about 267 kilometres above the Martian surface.

The image showed that the dust storm over Perseverance Valley has substantially cleared.

NASA scientists estimated that the tau — a measurement of how much sunlight reaches the surface — over Opportunity to be a little higher than 10 during some points during the dust storm.

The higher the tau, the less sunlight is available.

The tau has steadily fallen in the last several months. On September 20, tau was estimated to be about 1.3 by MRO’s Mars Color Imager camera.

According to scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, Opportunity will need a tau of less than 2.0 before the solar-powered rover will be able to recharge its batteries.

No signal from Opportunity has been heard since june 10.

In an attempt to talk to the rover, the Opportunity team is increasing the frequency of commands it beams to the rover via the dishes of NASA’s Deep Space Network from three times a week to multiple times per day.

Previous Story

India’s solar alliance gets major push with EIB funds

Next Story

Google relaxes ban on cryptocurrency ads

Latest from ASIA NEWS

Israel Takes Out Iran Spy Leaders

Among those killed were Mohammad Khatami, head of the IRGC Intelligence Organisation since 2022, and his deputy Mohammad Hassan Mahkaghi….reports Asian Lite

Iran May Quit Nuclear Treaty

The NPT, a landmark international treaty that came into force in 1970, seeks to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons…reports Asian Lite

Tehran Hit in Israeli Raid

An illustrative graphic released by the Israeli military indicated that 10 sites were hit in the operation….reports Asian Lite News The Israel

Beirut Airport Reopens

The precautionary closure of Lebanese airspace was part of a broader trend of heightened alert across the Middle East…reports Asian Lite News