Massive Dust Storm on Mars may have Killed Opportunity rover

NASA have just held a media teleconference regarding Opportunity rover and one of the most intense dust storms ever observed which has descended on it over the last few days cutting the rover off from its source of power , the Sun.

Pictures from Opportunity as the storm moved in with the last panel showing how little of the Sun the rover can see.


Following its failure to contact mission control yesterday NASA believe Opportunity has now gone into sleep mode to conserve energy , with the storm expected to last about a month this is a testing time for Opportunity and her batteries , fingers firmly crossed that the coming days or weeks will bring good news but NASA are concerned for the fate of Opportunity.

Teleconference begins at 4.34 on video.

"The Martian dust storm that has blotted out the sun above Opportunity has continued to intensify," NASA officials wrote in a mission update Tuesday. "The storm, which was first detected on May 30, now blankets 14 million square miles (35 million square kilometers) of Martian surface — a quarter of the planet." That means Opportunity's solar panels aren't getting enough sunlight to phone home from its Perseverance Valley location on Mars.
Opportunity's failure to reply to a signal from its mission operations center at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a sign the rover has entered a "low power fault mode" in which all the rover's systems shut down except for a mission clock. That clock is programmed to wake up the rover periodically and check its power levels to see if it can call home

Scientists think the power level in Opportunity's batteries is below 24 volts. If the rover loses power for an extended amount of time, there is a chance it won't be able to power the heaters needed to keep its electronics alive. The extreme cold of Mars is thought to be what killed Opportunity's twin, the Spirit rover, after it got stuck in Martian sand in 2010.
www.space.com...

a reply to: gortex

Aliens




Thank for the heads up

a reply to: gortex

The circumference of Earth at the equator is about 24,902 miles (40,075 km), but from pole-to-pole — the meridional circumference — Earth is only 24,860 miles (40,008 km) around. This shape, caused by the flattening at the poles, is called an oblate spheroid.

Now how does mars have 14 million square miles when its not even supposed to be bigger than earth..?

a reply to: Illiberation

Now how does mars have 14 million square miles when its not even supposed to be bigger than earth..?

14 million square miles
Canada is 9.98 million sq km on it's own , don't know what that is in miles.

www.nationmaster.com...

Just when we found out that might be organic compounds in there.

What a timing, huh.

#PrayForOpportunity

a reply to: Illiberation

Earth's surface area = 196.9 million mi²

Mars surface area = 55.91 million mi²

a reply to: gortex

Translation: Mars Rover Project going black in order to perform missions of actual interest and value but projects which may reveal information which must remain hidden from the public.

Quick! We need to put human beings on the surface stat! Because sanity.

a reply to: gortex

So another one bites the dust?

originally posted by: slatesteam
a reply to: gortex

So another one bites the dust?

Maybe , only time will tell but Opportunity rover has shown itself to be a tough old bird in the last 14 years , she may survive but even if she doesn't the mission is still a remarkable achievement.

I think it all depends on how long the storm lasts , the estimate is a month but it could be longer which could be the end for Opportunity , if the internal clock loses power she won't wake up.

are they gonna nuke mars again?

nope

at least this rover is not nuclear

One of the last good "anomalies" I got from Opportunity. It was two images from the microscopic camera that I cobbled together into a .gif.

What are we looking at in your gif?

a reply to: gortex

NOOOOO I love Opportunity She was my favorite rover. Why Mars why? But I have faith she will make it. She has gone this far and will continue.
Good luck my love

originally posted by: gortex

originally posted by: slatesteam
a reply to: gortex

So another one bites the dust?

I think it all depends on how long the storm lasts , the estimate is a month but it could be longer which could be the end for Opportunity , if the internal clock loses power she won't wake up.

Really? I would think that if the storm cleared and the panels were clear enough to generate power, the system would be configured to power up by default- even if at factory settings, it could still call home...

a reply to: Blue Shift


Is that a G Spot?

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: Illiberation

Now how does mars have 14 million square miles when its not even supposed to be bigger than earth..?

14 million square miles
Canada is 9.98 million sq km on it's own , don't know what that is in miles.

www.nationmaster.com...

Russia with China is 10 million sq miles.

originally posted by: Illiberation
a reply to: gortex

The circumference of Earth at the equator is about 24,902 miles (40,075 km), but from pole-to-pole — the meridional circumference — Earth is only 24,860 miles (40,008 km) around. This shape, caused by the flattening at the poles, is called an oblate spheroid.

Now how does mars have 14 million square miles when its not even supposed to be bigger than earth..?

Well, for example, a rectangular section of mars 2,000 miles long and 7,000 miles wide, would equal 14,000,000 miles squared, (a.k.a. "square miles").

Now take that rectangle shaped section of surface area and play with it, like 2D play dough, changing it into a circle, an amorphous blob, or whatever shape you want, like the shape of the Martian dust storm for example, or break it into 2 or more pieces, you coukd chop it up into micro-pixels and use those "building blocks" to create any shape, and it will still add up to 14million square miles no matter what, provided you maintained the same area as the original rectangle, and didn't shrink or expand any pieces, obviously...

A strip of land 1 mile long, and 14million miles wide (on a bigger planet) is also 14 million square miles. You could slice that in half, stack the pieces on top of each other and it would still be 14 million square miles, it would be a half a mile wide by 28 million miles long. And so on and so on you could keep dividing it like that... a quarter mile by 56 million miles... 1/8 mi. (or 0.125 mi) long by 112,000,000 mi or you could go the other direction and cut it the other direction, and place them side-by-side then it would be a rectangle 2 mi wide by 7 million miles long, and still equaling 14,000,000 mi squared. Or do it again and have a rectangle 4 miles by 3,500,000 miles... Or 8 mi wide by 1,750,000 miles long, and so on...



As a side note of interest, I'm pretty sure this rover was slated to die long ago. The last few years have been all "extra" time we have been lucky to have 👍 So, if this is Sayonara, don't feel too bad

Time to post a sad rover picture.