It’s been more than 100 days since a dust storm on Mars caused NASA's Opportunity rover to go dark, but there is new hope after a spacecraft orbiting the red planet spotted the small robot on the surface.
As the global dust storm blocked out sunlight, which is the source of Opportunity's power, the rover went into hibernation on June 11, the last time its team heard from the 14-year-old bot.
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Opportunity's team on Earth at NASA have been trying without luck to contact the rover since the dust started to clear earlier this month. Right now, only about 25 percent of the sun's light is reaching the Martian surface, according to NASA.
The mission team has been listening for the rover using NASA's Deep Space Network Radio Science Receiver sending "sweep and beeps."
But there is hope, after HiRISE, a camera on board NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, spotted the small robot on the surface. The photo showed Opportunity, or Oppy as it's affectionately called, at the center of an area about 154 feet wide.
What Oppy's supporters were hoping to see is whether the robot's solar panels, or arrays, are clear of Martian dust, enabling them to power the rover again.
"The HiRISE image shows some reddening of the surrounding area, suggesting dust fallout, but it is not possible to determine how much dust is on the arrays themselves," Andrew Good, with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, wrote.
With this new image, the first of the rover since the storm, NASA will continue to wait for the dust to clear, continue to send commands to Oppy and wait for more imaging from HiRISE.
Recently, the Opportunity team said it would be increasing the frequency of commands it beams to the rover from multiple times a week to multiple times per day. NASA approved the plan to continue listening for Opportunity until January.
There is concern in the planetary science community the mission will end if Opportunity's team doesn't hear from the rover by the start of the New Year. Supporters have been using #WakeUpOppy on social media to encourage NASA to continue funding the robotic mission.
Opportunity has covered more than 28 miles on Mars during its 14 years on the red planet.