On February 13, NASA officials announced that the Opportunity Rover was officially considered dead. Layers of dust covered the solar panels during the dust storm of 2018. Therefore, the apparatus froze on the Martian surface and does not respond to signals.
But why is NASA not launching a rescue operation to restore the rover? In the end, Opportunity was not the first vehicle to land on Mars, and it is not the last. He managed to work for a long 14 years (he traveled 40 km) and thanked the wind of the Red Planet for blowing dust away in time.
But what about salvation? It would be most logical to send another Martian rover Curiosity to the rescue. This is a larger unit with a nuclear engine. Why not throw it on the Opportunity location and try to solve the problem?
The Martian Rover Opportunity photographed its own tracks in the crater Endeavor in June 2017
Well, it's not that simple. Let's start with a huge distance. The Martian map shows that the distance between Curiosity and Opportunity is 8400 km. Curiosity is faster in speed, but it still takes too long to get to the road. In addition, navigation requires constant participation from earth controllers. Add that the signals arrive with a delay, so even for overcoming small distances (several feet) will take days. The second snag - Curiosity is considered a researcher, not a repair bot. It would be extremely difficult to reconfigure its on-board devices, even to the banal cleaning of the Opportunity solar panels. And there is no guarantee that the lost apparatus can be repaired at all after a long stay in the Martian cold.
Selfies from NASA Curiosity Mars Rover
And the last problem is time. Even if Curiosity accelerates to maximum speeds, it still does not have time on time. The fact is that the Martian winter is approaching the Opportunity location. The only hope is the future colonists who will find and repair the rover. Or exhibited as an exhibit.
