Wake up, li’l buddy!

Rob Cottingham
Aug 31, 2018 · 2 min read

As scientists and space exploration fans hold their breath hoping the Opportunity rover wakes up, they know NASA only keep hailing from Earth for so long. Then comes the shift to passive listening… based on a hope that I find mind-blowing.

According to NASA, “The additional several months for passive listening are an allowance for the possibility that a Red Planet dust devil could come along and literally dust off Opportunity’s solar arrays.”

That’s “dust devils” as in those little mini-tornadoes you sometimes see whipping up dust and grit in a parking lot or a field. The hope is dust devils may play Dirt Devil and clean off Opportunity’s solar panels — allowing it to recharge.

The wild part? The reason they’re hoping for this isn’t that they’re cockeyed optimists. It’s that it’s happened before.

Several times, “battery power levels aboard both Spirit and Opportunity increased by several percent during a single Martian night, when the logical expectation was that they would continue to decrease.” The reason: dust devil cleaning sprees.

Both Opportunity and Spirit have even captured images of them — and so have orbiting spacecraft.

This all leaves the amazing possibility that, should Opportunity not wake up on its own, and if NASA isn’t able to save it… Mars just might.

Rob Cottingham

Social speechwriter • speaker • @NtoS cartoonist • rather attached to @awsamuel

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