Home » Home » Scientists Fear NASA’s Mars Opportunity Rover May Have ‘Died’ In Dust Storm

Scientists Fear NASA’s Mars Opportunity Rover May Have ‘Died’ In Dust Storm

By  //  January 28, 2019

last communication with Opportunity June 2018

Fifteen years after NASA’s Opportunity rover touched down on the surface of Mars, scientists fear they may never hear from the spacecraft again. (NASA Image)

(FOX NEWS) – Fifteen years after NASA’s Opportunity rover touched down on the surface of Mars, scientists fear they may never hear from the spacecraft again.

Opportunity hasn’t been heard from since a dust storm on the Red Planet last June. There was so much dust in Mars’ atmosphere that sunlight could not reach Opportunity’s solar panels to generate power.

“I haven’t given up yet,” Cornell University professor Steven Squyres, the mission’s principal investigator, told The New York Times. “This could be the end. Under the assumption that this is the end, it feels good. I mean that.”

He went on to say that if the storm knocked out the rover for good, “That’s an honorable death.”

Opportunity and its twin craft, Spirit landed on Mars on Jan. 24, 2004. Each Rover was designed to last a few months and travel a few hundred yards. But they just kept on going.

CLICK HERE TO READ FULL ARTICLE ON FOX NEWS

NASA’s Opportunity Rover Celebrates 15 Years on Mars, Over 28 Miles Traveled on the Red PlanetRelated Story:
NASA’s Opportunity Rover Celebrates 15 Years on Mars, Over 28 Miles Traveled on the Red Planet

CLICK HERE FOR BREVARD COUNTY NEWS