Opportunity Rover: Dust Storm Settles But Still No Word From Mars

NASA's Opportunity rover signed offline over two months ago, when it disappeared into a massive dust storm on Mars, and while scientists believe things may be settling on the Red Planet, there is still no word from the $400 million space machine, Fox News reported.

For nearly 15 years Opportunity has been roaming the surface of Mars, taking photos and examining the barren terrain.

The rover has encountered its fair share of setbacks over the years, dealing with memory loss issues and weathering previous dust storms that have cut the spacecraft's power to very low levels but Opportunity has always managed to overcome these obstacles.

However, scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, are reportedly growing concerned about the extended period of silence from Mars.

"Morale has been a little shaky," Michael Staab, an engineer for the program at JPL told Space.com. "This is the first time she [Opportunity] has stopped talking to us and not resumed communication when we expected."

Contact with Opportunity was lost on June 10, when the rover was engulfed by an intense dust storm that reportedly covered more than 15.8 million square miles, NASA said in a statement.

The storm effectively blocked out the sunlight, turning day into night for the solar-powered rover that is located near the center of the storm, inside Mars' Perseverance Valley.

In its most recent update, NASA said that the dust storm was still showing indications of decay but that it appeared as if the dust was starting to settle.

"Opportunity has likely experienced a low-power fault and perhaps, a mission-clock fault. Additionally, the up-loss timer has also since expired, resulting in another fault condition," the space agency said in a statement.

Scientists are trying to remain hopeful and continue to send out a command three times a week, to elicit a beep if the rover happens to be awake however, NASA said that the team does not expect to hear anything from Opportunity until there has been a significant reduction in the atmospheric opacity over the rover site.

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