NASA finally found the missing robot on Mars, but they are still not happy

Robots missing over the past 3 months are finally found. However, the work still has to be done, but the robot is probably not alive yet.

Remember the oldest Opportunity - rover event on Mars? The rover has gone missing in a giant sandstorm on a planetary scale on Mars from 6/2018.

Specifically, the sandstorm about 100 days ago made Opportunity unable to accumulate energy from the Sun. It has fallen into sleep mode from 10/6/2018 to save energy for heating, to protect the circuits from the effects of too cold temperatures on Mars.

"The Opportunity management team at NASA's lab has lost contact with it since June 10," - Andrew Good, laboratory representative said.

Recently, however, satellite images seem to reveal that the rover site is "sleeping". This is good news, only experts don't feel that way. They think this may be the last stage of the longest-running self-propelled robot on Mars.

Opportunity is completely covered by sand dust.(photo: NASA, University of Arizona).

What do the photos show?

According to NASA, Opportunity is operating in Perseverance valley on Mars when the sandstorm struck. The storm plus the terrain features made it impossible for satellites to observe much.

It was not until a few weeks ago that the storm was over, NASA got clearer images from the MRO satellite on September 20.

This is Opportunity's current position.

The photo above is taken by MRO with HiRISE - extremely high resolution imaging technology. It shows a pretty bright spot on the slope of a hill, and that is rover Opportunity.

"The most important thing is that we still don't know how much dust is clinging to its energy collector," Good said.

"The image of HiRISE shows that there are red marks around it, indicating that the dust has fallen. However, it is difficult to determine the exact amount of dust."

The photo also brings good news, which seems like the dust layer here is not very thick. This means that when the storm is over, Opportunity can still accumulate energy from the Sun, although slower than usual.

However, Good does not show optimism. No one knows for sure what the dust on the rover is, and whether they are enough to cause internal devices to malfunction.

What does Opportunity's rest look like?

This is a difficult question to answer, because although the image from HiRISE has a location, it is very difficult to determine what the scenery looks like.

Still, NASA is lucky to have Seán Doran. This British graphic artist has a hobby of turning every photo of NASA: from satellites, maps to data and turning them into realistic images.

On June 14 - just the day after the rover disappeared, Doran published photos that illustrated the scenery of the Perseverance valley. And now with the new data, we can imagine where it went missing just like the image below.

If nothing happens, it will be the end of Opportunity's mission.

As of early September, NASA has activated a 45-day countdown timer for Opportunity's fate.

"If we do not see contact within 45 days, the team will come to the conclusion that dust has blocked all Opportunity's solar access opportunities, or cold weather has caused the rover to fail and its inability. recovery " - John Callas, head of Opportunity operating group, shared on August 30 last.

The duration of the counter falls in the middle or the end of October. If nothing happens, it will be the end of Opportunity's mission. Scientists will no longer monitor and detect its signals.

Still, Callas said that collaborators could support the next few months to extend hope. Because of that, what happens when rover expires?

Everything can happen, especially when this rover is not designed to "live" for too long. When I first put it on Mars, people only expected it to work for 3 months. Yet 15 years have passed, and only that terrible storm makes it a little trouble.

"No one can give a comment about Opportunity until it contacts us again" - Callas concluded.