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NASA's Opportunity rover has survived on Mars much longer than originally intended, but the planet is testing the lilliputian robot right now. A massive dust tempest is sweeping beyond the mural, blotting out the sun and leaving Opportunity stranded. However, NASA says the plucky little rover remains operational, and the team hopes it will meet this challenge every bit it has and then many others.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter starting time spotted the ancestry of this super-storm on June 1st. The MRO team notified Opportunity's controllers as soon equally they saw how close it was to the rover. It didn't take long for the dust storm to grow in size to embrace more seven million square miles (eleven.2 million foursquare kilometers), which is larger than Northward America. Stuck smack in the middle of it is Opportunity. The small blueish dot in the below epitome of the storm (click to enlarge) indicates Opportunity'southward location in Perseverance Valley.

This is a problem for the rover because dissimilar its younger cousin Curiosity, Opportunity is solar-powered. According to NASA, the opacity level or "tau" of the new tempest is 10.8. That means very little lite is reaching the surface. Opportunity reported a meaning drop in bombardment charge last Wednesday, so NASA suspended science operations and placed the rover in low power mode.

The good news is Opportunity made contact with NASA over the weekend to confirm that it's however operational. At the fourth dimension, the rover reported an internal temperature of -20 degrees Fahrenheit (-29 Celsius). In low ability mode, the rover conserves ability to make sure its heaters remain agile. Without the heaters, the rover'south batteries would probable neglect and doom the mission.

Opportunity has already survived one sizeable dust storm. Back in 2007, Opportunity came through a ii-week storm unscathed. However, the tau rating of that tempest was just five.v. In that location's much less light available to recharge the batteries this time, then the Opportunity squad is hoping for a shorter tempest.

Fifty-fifty if Opportunity doesn't survive this storm, it's already more than than washed its part to explore Mars. Opportunity and its sibling Spirit arrived on the planet 15 years ago and were designed to operate for 90 days — it's the longest-running Mars rover past a wide margin. Spirit was taken out by Martian common cold in 2022, but Opportunity has now explored Mars for fifty times longer than its original mission. NASA volition keep making contact with the rover every few days until the storm abates. Fingers crossed Opportunity will keep setting records on Mars.