NASA Loses Contact with Its Opportunity Rover on Mars
Super Universo AdmComments Off on NASA Loses Contact with Its Opportunity Rover on Mars
NASA’s Opportunity rover on Mars has lost touch with its handlers back on Earth, probably due to a low-power condition brought on by a chokingly thick dust storm. The storm is covering an area of 14 million square miles, or a quarter of the Red Planet, NASA said today in a mission update.
The solar-powered rover has been in operation for nearly 15 years — but if its batteries dip below 24 volts of electrical charge, it’s programmed to put nearly all its systems into sleep mode and wait until the batteries are sufficiently charged up. NASA’s other active Mars rover, Curiosity, is better able to cope with the darkening storm because its power comes from a plutonium-fueled generator.
This series of images shows simulated views of a darkening Martian sky blotting out the sun from the Opportunity rover’s point of view, with the right side simulating Opportunity’s current view in the current dust storm. (NASA / JPL-Caltech / TAMU)
Mission managers are scheduled to discuss Opportunity’s prospects during a teleconference at 1:30 p.m. ET (10:30 a.m. PT) Wednesday. Stay tuned, and listen in.
(DUBAI, United Arab Emirates) — A mummified body discovered near the site of a former royal mausoleum in Iran may be the remains of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the founder of the Pahlavi dynasty and the father of the country’s last shah. The recent find of the gauze-wrapped body — and the speculation it triggered — […]
The 163 million year old animal was named Ambopteryx longibrachium A team of Chinese researchers announced last Wednesday, May 8, the discovery of a species of dinosaur that had bat wings. The article containing the detailed study will be published in the journal Nature. Called Ambopteryx longibrachium, the animal lived about 163 million years ago. […]
Mysterious and unexplained booms continue to be heard in the skies over America. Last week, residents of historic Charleston, South Carolina, took to social media to express their confusion and fear over what some described as an earthquake or explosion heard and felt on Monday, July 23rd. Charleston native Jerry Sanders told ABC News 4 […]