Deadlines are tight, but NASA's Mars rover Opportunity (Opportunity) remains stubbornly silent. He has not responded since June 2018 after a collision with a massive dust storm of the Red Planet. The last attempt was made on February 12th and on the 13th they are waiting for status updates.
Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004, a few days after landing on the Spirit rover. Both solar-powered rovers began a 90-day search for signs of past activity on the planet and traces of water. Both were incredibly successful.
Spirit and Opportunity uncovered an enormous amount of evidence that Mars was a relatively warm and humid world billions of years ago. At NASA, Spirit was not declared dead until 2011, and Opportunity continued to function normally until a strong dust storm broke out around it in May 2018. The whirlwind shut off power to the solar panels, and the rover fell silent June 10th. Since then, the team has made various attempts to awaken the device and receive a response signal. Scientists had hoped that the “active listening” campaign would even activate the rover after months of silence. We also hoped for the windy season that started in November. He had to blow off the dust and open the batteries to the sun. But the device continues to be silent.
