As Martian Winter Approaches, Opportunity has One More Chance to Wake Up

Engineers haven't heard from the beleaguered robot since June 10, 2018, shortly before a global dust storm developed on Mars. The Opportunity rover, which is solar-powered, has ignored hundreds of calls from Earth since it first fell silent, which made team members worry that its mission has come to an end. NASA has developed a new, more powerful collection of commands to try to force the long-silent Opportunity rover on Mars to resume operations.

As the silence stretched on over the summer, mission members hoped that the storm had simply dropped dust on the solar panels that power Opportunity and that a natural seasonal weather phenomenon on Mars could clear that dust away, letting the rover recharge. (Those dust-clearing events began in November and were expected to continue through this week.) The new commands are designed to tackle that possibility and two others: the failures of its primary or of both its X-band radios. (In the statement, NASA called these scenarios unlikely.) With this new approach, Opportunity will be told not just to beep but also to switch communication modes entirely. The agency said it will send the new commands to Opportunity for "several weeks"; if the rover remains silent, NASA will then need to decide whether to give up all hope for the mission.

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https://www.space.com/43136-mars-rover-opportunity-nasa-attempting-calls.html