NASA sends new commands to revive dormant Mars Opportunity rover

NASA commands Opportunity rover to reset its clock, switch to its backup X-band radio, or respond via UHF

NASA scientists have started transmitting a new set of commands to its Mars Opportunity rover in an attempt to revive the vehicle, which has been lying dormant on Mars for the past seven months.

NASA's Opportunity rover mission team at Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, California hasn't heard any signal from the rover since June when a massive dust storm on Mars forced the rover to suspend its operation.

The storm kicked up huge amounts of dust in the Martian atmosphere, which completely blocked sunlight from reaching rover's solar panels, hindering it from generating power.

Over the past seven months, the rover has not made any contact with the mission team. It has also ignored more than 600 commands sent by NASA engineers.

We have not heard back from the rover and the probability that we ever will is decreasing each day

While the mission team is stilling sending commands to revive the rover, most scientists suspect the Opportunity Rover many be dead now. However, despite earlier failed attempts, NASA engineers have decided to transmit new commands over the next several weeks to address some low-likelihood events that could have happened aboard the rover, preventing it from beaming a signal back to Earth.

These events are:

1. Failure of rover's primary X-band radio;
2. Failure of both primary and secondary X-band radios; and,
3. Offsetting of the rover's internal clock.

New commands being sent to the rover include commands for the rover to reset its clock, switch to its backup X-band radio, or respond via UHF.

"Over the past seven months we have attempted to contact Opportunity over 600 times," said John Callas, project manager for Opportunity at JPL.

"While we have not heard back from the rover and the probability that we ever will is decreasing each day, we plan to continue to pursue every logical solution that could put us back in touch."

Since September, NASA team has also been trying to establish a communication with the rover using "sweep and beep" commands. These commands direct the rover to respond back with a beep. However, Opportunity has not responded to these commands.

Establishing a link with the rover in the coming weeks is important for NASA due to seasonal changes on the Red Planet. The "dust-clearing seasons" on Mars is now coming to an end, and will be followed by the southern winter season.

During the southern winter season, the temperature will drop drastically on Mars, which is likely to cause irreparable damage to the rover's systems.

If 'sweep and beep' or a new set of commands are able to generate a response from the rover, NASA engineers could attempt a recovery. If Opportunity does not respond at all, then NASA will have no other option than to abandon the mission.