Author: Lisa Grossman / Source: Science News
NASA’s Opportunity rover has gone into survival mode while waiting for a historically large dust storm on Mars to pass — or for the vehicle’s batteries to run out.
Opportunity charges its batteries with solar panels, so a storm such as this that blocks the sun and turns the Martian day to night poses a threat to the rover’s survival. A Mars orbiter first spotted the storm on June 1, and Opportunity’s power levels dropped significantly by June 6.
Hunkered down in Perseverance Valley, the rover was still transmitting to Earth as of the morning of…
The post Opportunity rover waits out a huge dust storm on Mars appeared first on FeedBox.