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Monday, July 23, 2007Rovers On the DefensiveWell, the Mars rovers have outlived their designed lifespan more than 10 fold (expected to last only 90 days, they've been operating well over 1100)! But now both may be hunkering down without knowing if they will be able to wake up again:The End of the Rovers? Opportunity is smack in the middle of a dust storm so bad it's almost getting no sunlight, which is what powers the rovers. Even when "off", the rovers still need a little power to run a heater that keeps temperature sensitive parts from breaking due to the freezing cold. So it's going try to ride out the storm on batteries... hopefully its got enough and the storm is short enough. Opportunity is still waking once a Solar day to report in, but if its battery reserves get too much lower NASA will be preventing even that little daily communication. Spirit's okay for now, but in anticipation of dust storms on Mars going around the globe they'd better keep a close eye out for it. Labels: Space |
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