Winston
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Massive Dust Storm Rages on Mars, Opportunity Rover Falls Silent
June 13, 2018
https://www.space.com/40873-mars-dust-storm-opportunity-falls-silent.html
NASA's Opportunity rover on Mars did not return a call from Earth Tuesday (June 12) while enduring a massive dust storm that scientists have called "one of the most intense ever observed."
"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.
"If the rover's computer determines that its batteries don't have enough charge, it will again put itself back to sleep," NASA officials said. "Due to an extreme amount of dust over Perseverance Valley, mission engineers believe it is unlikely the rover has enough sunlight to charge back up for at least the next several days."
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.
June 13, 2018
https://www.space.com/40873-mars-dust-storm-opportunity-falls-silent.html
NASA's Opportunity rover on Mars did not return a call from Earth Tuesday (June 12) while enduring a massive dust storm that scientists have called "one of the most intense ever observed."
"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.
"If the rover's computer determines that its batteries don't have enough charge, it will again put itself back to sleep," NASA officials said. "Due to an extreme amount of dust over Perseverance Valley, mission engineers believe it is unlikely the rover has enough sunlight to charge back up for at least the next several days."
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.
