One of NASA's Mars rovers has been silent since a dust storm on the planet blocked out its source of power two months ago.
Scientists with NASA say the nearly 15-year-old rover Opportunity has been silent since June 10, when a planet-encircling dust storm blocked out most of the sunlight.
Tanya Harrison, director of research for Arizona State University's NewSpace Initiative and a member on Opportunity's operations team, wrote in a blog that the dust storm was about twice the size of the continental U.S. on June 11.
NASA says the rover likely experienced a low-power fault during the storm, putting itself to sleep until the skies clear and there's more sunlight to let it recharge its solar-powered batteries.
As it sleeps, Opportunity could also have experienced a clock fault, where the rover doesn't know what time it is and therefore doesn't know when it should be trying to communicate, according to NASA.
Now that the dust from the storm has started to settle—something that can take months on the Red Planet—the mission team is listening for a signal and sending a command three times a week to elicit a beep if Opportunity happens to be awake, NASA says.
But even if engineers hear back from the rover, NASA says there could be a lag before another communication. As NASA puts it: "It's like a patient coming out of a coma: It takes time to fully recover."
And like recovering from a coma, Opportunity might not be the same if it ever comes back. NASA says the rover's battery capacity could be reduced from staying inactive so long.
Harrison wrote that all scientists can really do at this point is wait for a response from Opportunity.
In the meantime, according to Space.com, engineers have been building a themed Spotify playlist to help the rover wake up. Starting with Wham!'s "Wake Me up Before You Go-Go," they've added a new song with each Martian day.
