NASA BRIEFING ON ATTEMPTS TO RESTORE COMMUNICATIONS WITH MARS ROVER OPPORTUNITY, Feb 13, 2019, JPL, 2:00 pm ET

NASA will hold a media briefing on February 13, 2019 at the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, CA at 11:00 am Pacific Time (2:00 pm Eastern) to discuss the status of attempts to restore communications with the Mars rover Opportunity (or “Oppy”).

The rover landed on Mars in 2004 and had operated years beyond its design life.  Contact was lost on June 10, 2018 as a dust storm enveloped Mars, reducing the amount of sunlight that could reach the rover’s solar panels to recharge the battery that enables the rover to conduct experiments and communicate with Earth.

The announcement said the briefing will take place following NASA’s “last planned attempts” to communicate with Oppy, signalling that they have all but given up.

Briefing participants are:

·         NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine

·         Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate

·         Lori Glaze, acting director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division

·         Michael Watkins, JPL director

·         Steve Squyres, MER principal investigator at Cornell University

·         John Callas, MER project manager

·         Matt Golombek, MER project scientist

·         Abigail Fraeman, MER deputy project scientist

·         Jennifer Trosper, Mars 2020 project systems engineer

The briefing will air live on NASA Television, the agency’s website and YouTube.  A recording will be available later at http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl.