NASA Mars Exploration Rover Status Report, September 12, 2018: The Opportunity team is increasing the frequency of commands it beams to the rover via the dishes of NASA’s Deep Space Network from three times a week to multiple times per day.
No signal from Opportunity has been heard since Sol 5111 (June 10, 2018). It is expected that Opportunity has experienced a low-power fault and perhaps, a mission clock fault and then an up-loss timer fault. The dust storm on Mars continues its decay with atmospheric opacity (tau) over the rover site now below 1.5. The project has been listening for the rover over a broader range of times using the Deep Space Network Radio Science Receiver.
The project has also begun the commanding “sweep and beeps” to address a possible complexity with certain conditions within the mission clock fault. The first “sweep and beeps” were sent on Sol 5202 (Sept. 11, 2018)… [More at link]