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| Opportunity Rover is hibernating. Curiosity took this dusty self portrait on June 15, 2018. NASA |
As evidenced by the harsh conditions, one NASA rover, Opportunity, has shut itself down as there is insufficient light to power the solar cells to keep the battery charged. When Curiosity took the self portrait above, the full extent of the storm had not reached it's location, but could be seen approaching dramatically in the distant background.
HSO has put a delay/hold into the Mars Connect observational program. Images taken through ground based telescope show Mars surface features washed out. Astronomers continue to image the planet and RGBL with IR Cut is relatively void of features. Some astronomers are converting their routines to other wavelengths, some deep and other than the normal optical vision range of humans. It's likely the opacity of these images will decrease as the storm increases to greater density. Images can be tracked on a day to day basis at the Association for Lunar and Planetary Observers web site, Mars section.
