The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been weathering a nasty dust storm that's obscuring enough of the Sun's light that the rover is only able to charge its batteries to about 1/3rd of maximum. This means no major activity for Opportunity until the storm subsides and the atmosphere clears up.
The rover is down to a minimal set of activities each day in order to conserve battery power. The basic life support systems keep the rover's critical mechanical parts warmed, the rover does a morning and an evening communication cycle, and it takes daily measurements of the atmospheric dust and opacity levels using the panoramic camera. Other than that, it's mostly just sitting there, riding the storm out.
Hopefully it won't get worse, but so far so good. If it does get worse, they'll start cutting out some of the daily communication sessions in order to further preserve the minimal battery power. If things get really bad, it could mean the end for Opportunity's amazing run.
Stay tuned for regular updates during this critical time for MER-B.
update: From images and data gathered by the amazing Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, here's a glimpse of where Opportunity sits, on the edge of Victoria Crater, awaiting an opportunity to descend.
