It’s now been 215 days since Opportunity last made contact with Earth. In mid-June a raging dust storm enveloped Mars, cutting off her precious sunlight, plunging her into darkness and putting her to sleep. Since then the MER team has tried repeatedly to contact her and help her to wake up and resume her martian wanderings, but without success. And as the days tick by people are wondering how much longer efforts to regain contact will continue. Some are even asking how long they SHOULD continue – and if the time has come to finally admit defeat and declare Oppy’s mission over.
My response to that is probably no surprise…
But what about the MER team itself? How are they feeling as the silent sols tick by?
The latest MER Update for the Planetary Society, by writer AJS Rayl, makes it clear that the team is still optimistic and positive, and are in no mood for giving up yet! January’s winds may yet scour some dust off Opportunity and provide her with enough power to rouse her from her slumber, and their efforts to regain contact with Oppy will continue for as long as possible.
You can read the update – which is, as always, crammed to bursting with facts, figures and information – here:
And a special THANK YOU from me to Salley for continuing to use my processed Opportunity images in her updates, I really appreciate it! 🙂
The Road To Endeavour 
Thank you for the post. I needed a little hope. I followed the exploits of Oppy and Spirit from the very beginning. It was bad to lose Spirit. Both rovers were an extension of myself. Oppy was really getting into some cool geology before the dust storm. If she were to wake up with a big gust of wind it would be like Christmas.