Opportunity: Five months since we received a signal

NASA Mars Exploration Rover Status Report, October 30, 2018: The global dust storm on Mars has ended and atmospheric opacity (tau) over the rover site hovers around a typical seasonal value between 1.0 and 1.2.

No signal from Opportunity has been heard since Sol 5111 (June 10, 2018). Opportunity likely experienced a low-power fault, a mission clock fault and an up-loss timer fault. The team has been listening for the rover over a broad range of times and frequencies using the Deep Space Network (DSN) Radio Science Receiver.

They have been commanding “sweep and beeps” throughout the daily DSN pass with both right-hand, and now left-hand circular polarization to address a possible complexity with certain conditions within mission clock fault. [More at link]

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