Mars Rover “opportunity” space Agency NASA is still silent, because it covered the entire planet of Mars dust storm was not going to end. Recall that the storm began on may 30. A few weeks later storm covered virtually the entire planet. In the air of Mars is now contains such an amount of dust that the sunlight that feeds “opportunity”, can not reach its solar panels. The marched is in hibernation mode.
“We do not receive any signals from the Mars Rover for the past several weeks,” said ray, Arvidsson from the University of Washington in St. Louis. Arvidsson, first Deputy scientific leader of the Mars Exploration Rover mission, under which are two of the Rover’s twin- “opportunity” and “Spirit”. Both Rover with a break of several weeks landed in different areas of the red planet.
After a long silence, “Spirit” out on bond in 2009, saying that got stuck in a sand dune. 22 Mar 2010 he finally broke down. His twin brother “opportunity” to our days was in working order and continued to perform scientific tasks. The last time the Rover sent a photo from the surface of Mars on June 10. Since then, about him no hearing, nor spirit.
Currently, the Rover, most likely, is in the mode of small energy consumption. His computer from time to time wakes up, checks the amount of energy coming from the solar panels, and if it is low, again “goes into hibernation”, he shared Arvidsson portal Inside Outer Space.
The graph shows the ratio of available to work on the Mars Rover “opportunity” amount of energy (in W/h, marked in yellow) and level of transparency/opacity of the atmosphere (the parameter is specified in Tau marked blue)
“At some point, when the storm will recede, “opportunity” needs to Wake up and decide whether there is enough energy to transmit a signal from an antenna with low gain. This will happen within a few sols (Martian day, which lasts about 40 minutes longer than earth’s) until he eventually decides to reach its full level of efficiency,” added Arvidsson.
“We continue to listen, but so far from the transmitter Rover no news. Yes, the storm continues to rage with full force”.
“Storm covered the entire planet, and its strength continues to grow. But I remain confident that we will be able to survive,” added Jim rice from Arizona State University, the head of the group of astrogeology project Mars Exploration Rover.
The NASA Rover “opportunity” for almost a month does not communicate
Nikolai Khizhnyak