Massive Dust Storm on Mars may have Killed Opportunity rover

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
What are we looking at in your gif?

It's a close-up of a rock from two slightly different angles. I believe the circular feature is a "blueberry" knob that has broken off in an odd way. I don't know. It was pretty tiny, but I didn't do a lot to the image(s) other than boost the contrast a little. It's a good example of something that looks like it might have the structure of something that was once alive, but probably never was.

Opportunity has lived for 14 years in an unbelievably harsh environment, powered only by solar cells.

I've seen brand new automobiles go from factory fresh to scrap metal in a shorter life span.

I bet she survives this and keeps on going. Just like the Energizer Bunny!

-dex

The Martian dust storm has grown in size and is now officially a "planet-encircling" (or "global") dust event.

Though Curiosity is on the other side of Mars from Opportunity, dust has steadily increased over it, more than doubling over the weekend. The atmospheric haze blocking sunlight, called "tau," is now above 8.0 at Gale Crater -- the highest tau the mission has ever recorded. Tau was last measured near 11 over Opportunity, thick enough that accurate measurements are no longer possible for Mars' oldest active rover.

sciencedaily.com, June 20, 2018 - Martian dust storm grows global: Curiosity captures photos of thickening haze. (pic of haze)

Heck of a haboob if there ever was one!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

I can't help think of this whenever I hear that word.

originally posted by: lordcomac

originally posted by: gortex

originally posted by: slatesteam
a reply to: gortex

So another one bites the dust?

I think it all depends on how long the storm lasts , the estimate is a month but it could be longer which could be the end for Opportunity , if the internal clock loses power she won't wake up.

Really? I would think that if the storm cleared and the panels were clear enough to generate power, the system would be configured to power up by default- even if at factory settings, it could still call home...

After a month-long dust storm, it's likely the rover will be totally buried.

a reply to: wildespace

Who's a good boy?

You, you're a good boy! But Mars is your forever home. Someday, we'll come visit, and maybe, just maybe, the good boy will come home then.

a reply to: gortex

That's bad. I was hoping it would survive.

Is it insured?

a reply to: Phage


Kind of why I used it!

Trying to read a story on English garden birds and get blocked by the content filter because of the over use of "tit" in the article! That makes me chuckle to no end!!



Hope the rover survives. Might get some sat images showing, once and for all, surface water, after the dust storm subsides.

a reply to: seagull

Local and regional storms take place on Mars yearly, but estimates say that global storms occur once every three or four Martian years, which is six to eight Earth years.

Global storms can occur from intense winds lifting the dust off of the ground — sometimes up to 24 miles in altitude. As dust is carried higher into the atmosphere, it gets caught in faster winds and can be moved across the planet. It can take up to several weeks for the dust to settle.

Penn State (news.psu.edu, June 25, 2018 - Mars dust storm may lead to new weather discoveries.

It is still raging! Article says Opportunity is smack dab in the middle of the northern storm when it started. The storm crossed the equator and "is the size of North and South America" (same source). Then the dust was kicked up to the higher winds and is now global.

Due to my previous tweet I can no longer send out messages about pairs of haboobs going global!



That is a crazy, massive storm! 12 days and still going.

originally posted by: AndyFromMichigan
After a month-long dust storm, it's likely the rover will be totally buried.

Yeah, but that's not the way these dust storms work. They're not that dense. The atmosphere can't support a lot of heavy dust in the air. If the storms could cover the rover, then we would see pretty much everything on the ground already covered with snowdrift-like dunes, and we don't. We just need to speed the rover up to 70 mph or something to blow the dust off.

originally posted by: Blue Shift

originally posted by: AndyFromMichigan
After a month-long dust storm, it's likely the rover will be totally buried.

Yeah, but that's not the way these dust storms work. They're not that dense. The atmosphere can't support a lot of heavy dust in the air. If the storms could cover the rover, then we would see pretty much everything on the ground already covered with snowdrift-like dunes, and we don't. We just need to speed the rover up to 70 mph or something to blow the dust off.

Well, there are plenty of wind-blown dunes on Mars. Given an appropriate location and lots of time, anything could be covered with dunes.

Curiosity approached a really massive one recently.

a reply to: Blue Shift

We just need to speed the rover up to 70 mph or something to blow the dust off.

I'm pretty sure that's beyond its capabilities.
But the panels have been dusted off before.
www.astronomy.com...

Here's NASA's plan: First, the team will wait until the tau — a measurement of how much dust clouds the air — lowers to 1.5. (At the peak of the storm, the tau was likely around 10, a level one rover expert called "terrifying.") Then, the team will begin a 45-day active-listening period, during which they will send commands up to the rover that should force it to respond.

Finally, if the silence continues, the team will transition into passive listening, eavesdropping on Mars-observing antennas for chance signals from Opportunity. Regardless of when that 45-day period ends, the team will continue passively listening through the end of January, John Callas, Opportunity project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told Space.com.

space.com, Aug. 31, 2018 - NASA Just Gave the Opportunity Rover a Survival Deadline on Mars — Here's What That Means.

The dust level has not reached Tau 1.5 so the official countdown has not started. But it has angered a couple NASA employees enough to speak up about the 45-day deadline. One said that the dust devil "season" will not start until November while another said they have been wanting to kill the rover program for a couple years now.

I am going to root for the under dog on this one!

Go Oppy!

There's no rest for NASA's Mars rover specialists. The Curiosity rover is struggling with an issue that is preventing it from beaming science and engineering data stored in its memory back to Earth.

The problem first cropped up over the weekend, prompting engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to investigate the cause and potential fixes. NASA says it might be a while before it can figure out what's happening.

cnet.com, NASA's Mars rover is having trouble sending data back.

Now the other one is having problems! The article goes on to say they may switch to the backup computer.

And still no word from Opportunity.

originally posted by: wildespace
Well, there are plenty of wind-blown dunes on Mars. Given an appropriate location and lots of time, anything could be covered with dunes.

I'm sure those didn't appear after just one heavy dust storm. Like maybe after 100 million years of dust storms.

Last June Opportunity sent its last signal, a downlink of its vital statistics and not much else. It was the rover's last communique, relayed to Earth as a massive global dust storm bore down on it. The storm was the largest one the rover had faced in its time on Mars; about 41 million square kilometers (15.8 million square miles) at the time, large enough to cover Russia and North America.

Opportunity is now stationary about halfway down Perseverance Valley in the Endeavour Crater on Mars. Its descent down the valley was going to be a historic journey. The valley is marked by channels that may have been carved by ice, water, or wind, and it would've been the first time we've gotten a close look at these channels. Sadly, the rover may never complete that journey.

phys.org, Jan 9, 2019 - Still no word from Opportunity.

They have the deep space network listening to all radio signals from Mars and searching, by hand, for any unaccounted for radio signals that may be coming from Opportunity. Still nothing. (same source)

It is only January but Winter Is Coming, at least it is for Mars in October. That would put Oppy into the deep freeze and most certainly death (unless like ET, the cold revives it!)

Bummer. Hope there are some Martian Santa Ana winds or something.

originally posted by: interupt42
a reply to: gortex

Aliens




Thank for the heads up

Maybe so...

www.bbc.com...