14 DAY TRIAL // Talk about resilient robots! Even with its solar panels covered in dust, Opportunity is still surveying the Martian surface happily, while at the same time breaking milestone after milestone. The rover is currently getting ready for its fifth winter on the Red Planet.
This panoramic mosaic of the rover was taken using the Pancam instrument, and put together from images collected between December 21-24, 2011. It shows a lot of dust settled on the robot's solar panels, which explain why it has been suffering from energy shortages lately.
Like the ancient Indians, mission controllers at NASA are praying for fortuitous gusts of winds to clean the panels. Otherwise, they may have to wait until the Martian winter is over to resume operations. Until it regains enough power, Opportunity will not be able to drive anywhere else.
The southern Mars winter solstice will occur about a week from now, on March 30. After that time, the Sun will begin to move higher in the sky, enabling the rover to collect more of its light. Until then, things will remain tense at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in California.