Dust storm on Mars is threatening the Opportunity rover.

[wumpus]

4 hours ago, NSEP said:

Analyzing pictures for fun is fun. I like having a little but of insight on what is going on in the world on another world.

This one was taken yesterday by Curiosity.

 

For comparison, this one was taken 20 'sols' earlier

The signal clearly has a little bit of difficulty punching through the dust storm.

That signal is almost certainly going through a ton of ECC (error correcting codes) and is either going through in its entirety or not.  I'd bet that's sand left on the lens.

[Diche Bach]

What a lovely planet. A real vacation spot.

[Wjolcz]

9 hours ago, wumpus said:

That signal is almost certainly going through a ton of ECC (error correcting codes) and is either going through in its entirety or not.  I'd bet that's sand left on the lens.

Wouldn't it be out of focus if it was on the lens?

[Reactordrone]

15 hours ago, wumpus said:

That signal is almost certainly going through a ton of ECC (error correcting codes) and is either going through in its entirety or not.  I'd bet that's sand left on the lens.

Possibly just sensor noise due to the low light level.

[Gargamel]

7 hours ago, Wjolcz said:

Wouldn't it be out of focus if it was on the lens?

They are out of focus.  Or at least they probably are.   It's really hard to tell, sand is quite small.   The rest of the photo is in focus, as expected.   It's only if you try to focus on the sand on the lens will the rest of the photo go out of focus, if the f stop is low enough (low in this case is below 50).   A high enough f stop, and the entire pic would be in focus, sand and all. 

[NSEP]

[Lisias]

No more "cleaning events" so?

 

[kerbiloid]

A must have thing for Martian researchers.

Spoiler

 

[NSEP]

 

Edited June 20, 2018 by NSEP

[Scotius]

Nuclear power, baby! While Opportunity needs to hunker down and weather the storm, Curiosity keeps going. Science continues, indeed

[kerbiloid]

5 hours ago, Scotius said:

While Opportunity needs to hunker down and weather the storm, Curiosity keeps going.

I.e. while Opportunity uses an auto-balanced self-sustaining fuel-independent fusion reactor in 1.5 AU away via a semiconductor remote receiver, Curiosity spends the pieces of an artificial fission material.

Edited June 21, 2018 by kerbiloid

[Scotius]

1 hour ago, kerbiloid said:

I.e. while Opportunity uses an auto-balanced self-sustaining fuel-independent fusion reactor in 1.5 AU away via a semiconductor remote receiver, Curiosity spends the pieces of an artificial fission material.

Really? That's a bit https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sophism#English

[NSEP]

On 6/18/2018 at 11:31 AM, NSEP said:

Analyzing pictures for fun is fun. I like having a little but of insight on what is going on in the world on another world.

This one was taken yesterday by Curiosity.

 

For comparison, this one was taken 20 'sols' earlier

The signal clearly has a little bit of difficulty punching through the dust storm.

I think the grainyness might be causes because of a solar storm rather than the dust. This was taken a few hours ago.

Rear Hazcam

Front Hazcam

So the dust has either settled (wich i kind of doubt) or the sun is blasting the thing with radiation, and that is what causes all the dots. Apparently the dust storm is at its peak right now, according to some news articles.

There is also the chance the rear camera has become bad.

We can clearly see some dust particles that have landed on the camera.

Edited June 21, 2018 by NSEP

[kerbiloid]

Maybe, some kind of electric interference from the dry dust static electricity.

(I don't claim this, just a guess).

[Xd the great]

There are winds on Mars, so maybe the rover can have its solar panels cleaned. Maybe, just maybe.

[.50calBMG]

Have we heard anything new on Opportunity yet? Seems like the storm is dying down a bit now.

Edited August 3, 2018 by .50calBMG

[Scotius]

Lack of news is bad news in this case. Rover is hunkered down, in energy saving mode. Control team probably keeps communication at minimum, waiting for the storm to be over.

[cubinator]

I'd be worried if there's still no communication after the dust clears. It's still quite thick from what I can tell visually.

[KG3]

On ‎6‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 4:43 AM, Xd the great said:

There are winds on Mars, so maybe the rover can have its solar panels cleaned. Maybe, just maybe.

Would it be possible for a rover to use an air compressor to blow dust off the solar panels instead of waiting for a random wind?  Would an air compressor work in such a thin atmosphere?

[insert_name]

1 hour ago, KG3 said:

Would it be possible for a rover to use an air compressor to blow dust off the solar panels instead of waiting for a random wind?  Would an air compressor work in such a thin atmosphere?

maybe, but air compressors take up space and tend to be heavy, also they wouldnt help in this case because the dust blocks out most of the sunlight

[cubinator]

Storm is apparently beginning to wane.

http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/space-missions/mer-updates/2018/08-mer-update-opportunity-sleeps.html

 

[tater]

 

[Scotius]

It's alive! ALIVEEEEE!!!

[tater]

4 minutes ago, Scotius said:

It's alive! ALIVEEEEE!!!

Not necessarily.

 

[Scotius]

Opportunity is tough little cookie - i believe all will be well