After almost three months the dust storms is slowly clearing up raising hope that the stranded solar-powered robotic vehicle of NASA may soon become alive and running. The dust storms are said to be one the biggest on record.

The first detection of the storm was done on May 30, and the last time communication with the US space agency’s 15-year old rover was heard on June 10 before going to “sleep” mode due to the dust blocked the Sun and darkness on the Red planet stopped the energy source.

On late Thursday, A NASA statement said that the situation is in “critical” condition, but said that “the rover team is cautiously optimistic, knowing that Opportunity has overcome significant challenges during its 14-plus years on Mars.”

NASA is trying to connect with the rover, but if there is no successful contact, the agency is ready to give up efforts in mid-October.

“If we do not hear back after 45 days, the team will be forced to conclude that the Sun-blocking dust and the Martian cold have conspired to cause some type of fault from which the rover will more than likely not recover,” said John Callas, Opportunity project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “At that point, our active phase of reaching out to Opportunity will be at an end.”

However, “passive listening efforts will continue for several months,” Callas said, due to the “unlikely chance that there is a large amount of dust sitting on the solar arrays that is blocking the Sun’s energy.”

NASA designed twin rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, are a pair of unmanned robotic vehicles to probe the Martian surface and send back the data about the conditions there towards the Earth.

Both of them successfully landed on the surface of Mars in 2003 for a mission that was meant to last 90 days and span 1,000 yards.

The rover Spirit went on 20 times longer than that and at last it became stuck in soft soil in 2009 and therefore its mission was declared over in 2011.

The other rover Opportunity functioned 60 times more than that was its planned mission life and travelled 45 kilometers and was able to find evidence of water on Mars and other data related to condition that suit for the sustenance of microbial life.

Having lost the

Despite the fact that it is hampered due to the loss of its front steering and 256MB flash memory, no one wants to give it up so fast.

Over the matter, hashtags such as #SaveOppy and #WakeUpOppy have been trending on Twitter with many of them appealing to keep attempting to connect the rover among whom the prominent one being the former flight director and Earth-based rover driver for Opportunity, Mike Siebert.

According to Siebert, 45 days is very short, considering the fact that NASA spent as much as 15 months listening for contact from Spirit before ending up the mission.

“100% Grade A B.S. the amount of time given to recover Opportunity is woefully insufficient,” he tweeted late Thursday. “Whomever made this decision is a coward.”

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