Despite hard weather, the two rovers that NASA has sent on Mars are still active, and also ready for continuing their space missions on the red planet. Spirit and Opportunity, as the two rovers are called, have successfully survived the severe dust storm that has taken place on Mars starting with early August, as well as the additional problematic weather conditions that have followed.

The two rovers have been on Mars for 43 months already. When, in July, the weather forecasts have showed that a severe dust storm has been heading the two rovers’ way, NASA’s scientists have realized that it has been very likely for the space agency to lose their mechanical space travelers.

Because the rovers are solar powered, it has been very likely for the rovers to become powerless, because the dust storm could have dropped a heavy amount of debris and dust on top of the solar panels. But, the rovers have been lucky because the heavy winds, which usually follow such storms, have blown the dust off their solar panels.

Although NASA hasn’t yet found out whether the accumulated dust has damaged the rovers’ delicate systems, the fact itself that the two pieces of spacecraft have survived is quite amazing. However, they have already returned to their space missions, which will help NASA explain the difference between Mars’ atmosphere of today and that of millions of years ago, as well as solve the mystery of explosive mixtures of water and lava on the Home Plate.