Mars explorer on the move again

Mars explorer which is powered by solar energy, is now in dormant mode, it may be possible to recover soon after the sandstorm covering Mars. If the spacecraft were destroyed then it could not be repaired.

The large-scale Mars sandstorm that began on May 30 dimmed the sky above the valley. The storm quickly developed into a planetary scale and spread throughout Mars. Because the air was dusty and it became unable to obtain the sunlight necessary for charging on the solar panel, NASA had to suspend the operation and put the prospecting machine in the dormant mode to save energy.

More than 80 days passed since the contact from the opportunity ceased, but finally, the news that the storm has weakened.It seems that the process of restoring the prospecting machine will start soon.

Mr. John Callas, the project manager said in a press release, "The sun breaks the fumes over the valley and soon enough opportunities have enough sunlight to recharge the battery ." It continues as follows further.

When an indicator of the amount of particulate matter in Mars air drops below 1.5, send a command via NASA' s deep space network antenna and actively try to contact the spacecraft start. Assuming that there is a reply from the opportunity, will start the process of grasping the situation and restoring it.

NASA uses the Mars color imager (MARCI) installed in the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) to estimate the tau value near the opportunity. The latest MARCI data shows that there is no active sandstorm within 3,000 km from the position of the opportunity.

If all goes well, the opportunity will reply and be gradually restored. However, there is a good possibility that no response can be obtained. Unfortunately, it is not necessarily the end of the world.

Mr. Calls said: "If there is no reply after 45 days, the team has to judge that there is a high possibility that the spacecraft will not be restored due to some type of obstruction caused by the overlap of dust shielding the sun and the coldness of Mars".

At that point, the period of reaching out to opportunities aggressively ends. However, there is the possibility that a large amount of dust on the solar cell hinders the energy of the sun, so we will continue to try passively listening for months.

For example, it may happen that Mars's whirlwind occurs and blows off the dust of the solar cell of the prospecting machine. In 2016, opportunities are encountering a whirlwind often occurring on Mars. Nevertheless, NASA says that the possibility that opportunities are out of communication is very low the possibility of being dust deposits and storms that caused any problems.

NASA: "The impact this storm has on Opportunity's system is unknown but may have caused other energy unexpected damage that makes energy production decline, battery performance weakness, or complete revival of the probe".

An opportunity was originally designed to run about 915 meters, and it has traveled over 45 km in many years' duties, so even if this is the last time, it has already played an active part.

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