Sunlight is starting to break through the haze of the Martian storm, promising a ray of hope for the stranded Opportunity rover.
The 15-year-old robot relies entirely on energy from the Sun to power its operations on Mars, but the monstrous dust storm has cut its mission short.
NASA detected the first inklings of the giant sandstorm on May 30 this year.
The solar-powered Opportunity was trudging through Mars’ Perseverance Valley when the storm struck.
As the sandstorm intensified and turned daytime into permanent night, NASA was forced to power down Opportunity to conserve its batteries.
With no sunlight reaching the Martian rover, Opportunity was shut down on June 12.
In addition to the remote robot going offline, NASA’s engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, have had no contact with Opportunity since June 10.
But with the storm slowly dissipating over Perseverance Valley, enough sunlight could soon reach the rover to waken it from its slumber.
“At that point our active phase of reaching out to Opportunity will be at an end. However, in the unlikely chance that there is a large amount of dust sitting on the solar arrays that is blocking the Sun’s energy, we will continue passive listening efforts for several months.”
If Opportunity’s batteries receive enough sunlight, the robot will automatically initiate is recovery procedures.
This will be the moment NASA will finally find out if Opportunity weathered the storm unharmed.
John Callas, Opportunity project manager at JPL, said: “The Sun is breaking through the haze over Perseverance Valley, and soon there will be enough sunlight present that Opportunity should be able to recharge its batteries.
“When the tau level dips below 1.5, we will begin a period of actively attempting to communicate with the rover by sending it commands via antennas of NASA’s Deep Space Network.
“Assuming that we hear back from Opportunity, we all begins he process of dswcverign its status and bringing it back online.”
Tau is a measurment of how much sunlight cannot break through the atmosphere to the ground.
Opportunity’s last message from Mars was received on June 10 and NASA’s engineers have no idea in what state the rover is in.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) project scientist Rich Zurek said the Martian storm is among the greatest on record.
Continental storms on this scale are a regular occurrence on Mars and take place when the Red Planet is closest to the Sun.
But only a handful have ever grown beyond control to engulf the entire planet.
Dr Zurek said: “The dust haze produced by the Martian global dust storm of 2018 is one of the most extensive on record, but all indications are it is finally coming to a close.
“MARCI images of the Opportunity site have shown no active dust storms for some time within 3,000km of the rover site.”
As the skies over Opportunity clear up, NASA does not expect any immediate contact efforts from the rover.
The space agency is prepared to wait 45 days for Opportunity to call back home.
Dr Callas said if the agency does not establish contact within this time frame, Opportunity is most likely lost to damage.
He said: “If we do not hear back after 45 days, the team will be forced to conclude that the Sun-blocking dust and the Martian cold have conspired to cause some type of fault from which the rover will more than likely not recover.