14 DAY TRIAL // When the NASA Mars Odyssey orbiter around Mars went into safe mode on Saturday, December 7, it deprived mission controllers at the American space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of their main means of contacting the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) Opportunity.
The spacecraft is currently located on an outcrop called Solander Point, which lies on the rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover last communicated with Earth via Mars Odyssey on Martian day (sol) 3509 of its mission, or December 7. Since that time, the machine has remained largely silent.
A short radio burst was sent to NASA in a Direct-To-Earth (DTE) transmission, which revealed positive telemetry and indicated that the spacecraft is in good shape. DTE links are generally avoided because they consume a lot of battery. These communications use Opportunity's battery-draining high-gain antenna, SpaceRef reports.
NASA officials announce that Mars Odyssey exited safe mode on December 10, and say that the orbiter will resume communication relay operations later this week. At that time, MER mission controllers will schedule a new drive for the rover, and check on the science data it has produced over the past two weeks.