The Mars Rover Opportunity landed on Mars January 25, 2004 at 05.05 UTC. Its mission went far beyond all expectations and after a few years we started taking it for granted. In 2010, the loss of its sister, the Mars Rover Spirit, reminded us that space missions are conducted in unforgiving environments and any problem can be fatal.
The Opportunity mission controllers tried to preserve the rover placing it on a sloping terrain during the Martian winters so that its solar panels can receive the most possible sunlight. Unfortunately, other problems have been limiting its efficiency for a long time.
The Mars Rover Opportunity’s flash memory started manifesting problems in 2014, causing a series of resets to the on-board computer. Reformatting wasn’t enough and last year NASA engineers attempted a more radical solution. Initially it seemed that excluding of the corrupted memory cell had solved the problem, instead it manifested again.
There’s a possibility that various flash memory cells are corrupting but for the moment give only sporadic problems. For some months, the Mars Rover Opportunity has been working without using that memory but that means that it can’t record the data it gathered to transmit them at a later time. In September 2015, NASA engineers started testing the flash memory again to look for other solutions but there are fears that it’s failing due to its age.
The Mars Rover Opportunity is in the area called “Valley Marathon” because there it completed the equivalent of a marathon. This time the winter in the area, located in the southern hemisphere of Mars, is almost synchronized with the one in the Earth’s northern hemisphere so in recent weeks Opportunity is in the south of the valley to keep it tilted with its solar panels oriented towards the Sun.
A year ago fears concerned not only the problems with the flash memory but also the risk of budget cuts. This year’s budget has been secured for 2016 but due to these persistent problems there are concerns about the possibility for the Mars Rover Opportunity to continue its mission.
For months Opportunity has been investigating the presence of clay minerals in the various areas of “Marathon Valley”. In particular, in the valley the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter space probe detected the presence of a clay minerals called smectites, which can form under conditions wetter and milder than most of the rocks of the area. As long as Opportunity can continue its extraordinary mission, it will provide more information on Mars history.
[ad name=”AmazonScience”]
