Author Archives: phoenixpics

It’s now been 136 days since contact was lost with Opportunity. The MER team are working hard to try and re-establish contact, and we all wish them well. Come on Oppy… wake up… we miss you…

By my reckoning – and I haven’t calculated this manually, with a calendar; I’m using an app to work it out for me – it’s now 113 days since we last heard from Opportunity on June 10th. 113 days. That’s … Continue reading →

No, no… don’t get your hopes up. We haven’t heard from Opportunity. We haven’t heard a peep, bleep, churp or burp from her for 109 days, since she fell silent on June 10th. The MER team is still pinging her … Continue reading →

Well, it looks like the infamous 45 Days have started… For the next month and a half the MER team will be calling out to Opportunity regularly, shouting at her to WAKE UP and phone home. Fingers crossed she hears … Continue reading →

  Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004, and back then it was hoped that she would survive for 90 days after that and perhaps drive a kilometre in that time. Today is Sol 5,198 of her 90 day mission, … Continue reading →

When I started writing this blog – almost ten years ago now – I thought that Opportunity had two, maybe three more years of roving ahead of her. Five at the most. She had already travelled so far, seen so … Continue reading →

Sorry, still no word from Opportunity. It’s been over two months now since she fell silent, the precious Sun stolen from her sky by a planet-shrouding dust storm. Every day the Mars Exploration Rover team cups a hand to their … Continue reading →

It’s now almost two months since we last heard from Opportunity. It was on June 10th that she sent back a partial image before falling asleep, and we haven’t heard a peep from her since then. The good news is … Continue reading →

Quick update on the situation with Opportunity… There’s no news. Nothing to report at all. It’s now three weeks since Opportunity was last in contact with Earth, since she sent back that partial, interference-speckled image, and all the MER team … Continue reading →