Yesterday I told you that a massive dust storm has hit the red planet and both Opportunity and Spirit are in danger. The conditions are much worse for Opportunity since the storm was approaching it at a fast pace.
To protect the rover NASA will now try and hide it in the giant Victoria crater. Opportunity will begin the descent early next month.
The descent is risky for both NASA and Opportunity and the decision to hide it can lead to disastrous results. Some scientists even fear that the crater can become the rover’s final resting place.
NASA too is aware of this risk. They fear that the rover once in might not be able to come out of the crater or might simply fail once it is inside the crater. Still the main reason for this is that the storm is so fierce that it will not die in days or weeks but can remain there for months.
Currently the rover is at “Duck Bay”, a point on the edge of the crater. According to NASA engineers this is the gentlest approach to the 800-meter-wide crater.
The rover will make descend in the first week of the next month a tentative date for the operation has not yet been decided. The rovers which are on the red planet since January 2004 are already aging. Their expected life span was a mere 90 days. But they have shown their caliber and have been doing all the good work from the last three and a half years.
During their service time they have suffered some damages. Spirit’s right front wheel stopped moving in March 2006, since then the rover just pushes itself across the dusty surface of Mars. This pushing has resulted in some breakthroughs as well as the rover continually digs soil while it moves.
Via: usatoday
