"What dreams may come..."

 

 “To sleep, perchance to dream...”

Hamlet, Act III, Scene I.

Although the Martian storm* that held the Opportunity Mars rover in powered-down sleep since June 10th of this year has finally subsided after 180 days, it remains unresponsive to NASA's attempts to establish communications.  So far Mission Control has made over 350 attempts to contact the disabled rover, with no results.

However, Opportunity still has a chance.  Although the sandstorm has abated, the winds continue, which offers the possibility that residual dust will be blown off Opportunity's solar panels so that it can recharge its batteries and resume operation, which would certainly the best of all the possible conclusions to the rover's current plight.

Until that happy outcome, sleep on in peace, Opportunity. May your digital dreams take you to a place where your batteries never need charging, your memory arrays are sharp and fast, the sands are smooth under your wheels and the skies are always clear.

- Sid

* Did you know that there's a Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that, among other things, keeps track of Martian weather for NASA? It was launched in 2005 with the mission of searching for historical evidence of water on Mars, and, as with so much of the technology we've sent to Mars, has remained in place and continued to work.