Washington: A planning of NASA under pipeline to restore communication with the Mars rover Opportunity which lost its contact back to earth after going into sleep mode after dust storms blocked solar energy which forms the only energy source for the mission on Mars.
NASA said in a recent statement that it would begin a 45-day long campaign to attempt the restoration of communications with Opportunity once the sky opens up over the rover to a sufficient level, Xinhua reported.
A major dust storm blocked solar power to the rover and now it is fading away and the rover has been out of contact since early June.
“The dust haze produced by the Martian global dust storm of 2018 is one of the most extensive on record, but all indications are it is finally coming to a close,” said Rich Zurek, project scientist for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
As per the statement, Mr. Zurek said that there had been not a single sign of dust storms within the radius of the rover Opportunity from a time period.
John Callas, who is an Opportunity project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement that “assuming that we hear back from Opportunity, we will begin the process of discerning its status and bringing it back online.”
But despite the positive statement, NASA has been under criticism for limiting the active part of the recovery only to 45 days.
A former flight director and rover driver for Opportunity said that there was an attempt made by Jet Propulsion Laboratory under NASA to “active listening” of Spirit, the twin of Opportunity, for about ten months between 2010 and 2011 when that rover stopped transmitting.
Mr. Callas said that even after making attempts to communicate after the 45 day period the rover Opportunity does not respond, it is very much likely that the spacecraft had suffered a mission-ending malfunction.
“We will keep trying to get our Martian friend back online. We will not give up on #Oppy even after the 45 days of plan we have put in place!” tweeted Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA associate administrator for science.
Spirit and Opportunity were sent to Mars as a supplement for each other on a mission to send back data regarding the planet’s surface samples for research purpose and especially to find a Rich Zurek, project scientist clue of water. But Spirit ended its mission after becoming dysfunctional although lasted very long even after its expected life.
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