Six things about Opportunity’s recovery efforts

NASA’s Opportunity rover has been silent since June 10, when a planet-encircling dust storm cut off solar power for the nearly-15-year-old rover. Now that scientists think the global dust storm is “decaying”—meaning more dust is falling out of the atmosphere than is being raised back into it—skies might soon clear enough for the solar-powered rover to recharge and attempt to “phone home.”