Posted on 06/14/2018 5:11:47 PM PDT by BBell
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA's seemingly unstoppable Mars rover Opportunity has been knocked out by a gigantic dust storm that is enveloping the red planet and blotting out the sun.
Officials said Wednesday they're hopeful the rover will survive the storm, which already covers one-quarter of Mars and is expected to encircle the planet in another few days. It could be weeks or even months, though, until the sky clears enough for sunlight to reach the Martian surface and recharge Opportunity's batteries through its solar panels.
For now, Mars' oldest working rover is stuck in the middle of the raging storm, in round-the-clock darkness.
"By no means are we out of the woods here," said John Callas, the Opportunity project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "This storm is threatening, and we don't know how long it will last, and we don't know what the environment will be like once it clears."
Flight controllers tried late Tuesday night to contact Opportunity, but the rover did not respond. The storm has been growing since the end of May with unprecedented speed.
(Excerpt) Read more at winnipegfreepress.com ...
When you are only building one or two examples, it’s too expensive to do the testing required to accurately develop a 91 day device.
Today is day 5255.
It was built by the Old NASA. Today's version would last for three days then send a message announcing that it was committing suicide over Trump's refusal to address climate change :)
Minecraft or 7 days to die?
It went plaid!
they lost contact though
According to the article these dust storms do not leave for than a fine layer of dust.
They did power it down but have been keeping in periodic contact with it.
biggest one in our solar system
Do we get a test pattern???
Ill bet it can recharge a Prius in like three seconds.
Climate Change
and then some
I know of some people who will say that there is a "scientific consensus" that the dust storm was caused by dust kicked up by the rovers themselves. That's right, anthropogenic dust storms.
(Hey, if it works for global warming...)
Well, I’ve heard Mars is no place to raise your kids.
In fact, it’s cold as hell.
If you did
An engineering marvel and incredible achievement.
LOL!!
I’m thinkin’ Dune....
I don’t see the problem. Can’t they just send someone up there with a whisk broom and a wet sponge to change the batteries?
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