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Miles to go

Miles to go
Miles to go Opportunity has been hunkered down about halfway down Perseverance Valley since June 2018 when a planet-encircling dust event (PEDE) forced her to shut down and go into a kind of hibernation, not far from where the rover took the image above. The MER team has been reaching out and listening for the rover’s signal ever since. By the end of September, the blanket of Mars’ rusty red dust that enveloped the planet had dissipated and the second, decay phase of the storm began as all the dust lofted high into the atmosphere settled back onto the surface. In October the decay phase ended, and in November the much-anticipated windy season began, giving MER team a sense of renewed optimism. The science team is currently charting the rover’s course for 2019 Phone home, Oppy! NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / ASU / additional processing S. Atkinson