The latest developments on the Martian atmosphere has some good news for the Opportunity Rover. Mars mission and the long-sustained rover had faced many issues when the Martian world was surrounded by lots of dust winds. The dust-storm on Mars had become so big that sunlight was not reaching the surface of the Red Planet. As a result, the Opportunity Rover was not able to do the basic communication or the scientific activities it was supposed to. In the course of time, the Rover also had to shut down communication and the other set of actions so that it can save energy and stay awake.
Now, after a long period of silence, NASA scientists have received communication from the rover. It should be noted that the Opportunity Rover has been on the Mars surface for more than 15 years and it hasn’t had many issues, save for the routine checks. The communication comes through after the rover spent more than two months without no touch with the base at NASA. Of course, the scientist team at NASA is quite excited and happy to receive this ping from the rover. Most of the scientists were disheartened to know that Rover had stopped working before a month.
The positive news from the Rover is due to the fact that the situation in Mars has been ameliorating for the past week. The dust storms are minimizing with respect to the size and there is an increase of the overall temperature as well. Once the dust layer has gone away, the Opportunity Rover will have access to Solar power, which can be used for recharging the batteries. After charging the batteries, the rover will also be able to reboot the necessary computers, the NASA team believes. The team says that there is a period of 45 days for waiting, the lack of reply during which would be counted as a sign that the Opportunity Rover can’t be recovered.
