cheryl
Administrator
Staff member
The Mars rover Opportunity is dead. Here's what it gave humankind. - National Geographic
The spacecraft lasted more than 50 times longer than originally planned, delivering groundbreaking science and inspiring a generation.
After more than 14 years driving across the surface of Mars, the NASA rover Opportunity has fallen silent—marking the end of a defining mission to another world.
At a press conference at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, NASA bid farewell to the rover it placed on Mars on January 25, 2004: before Facebook, before the iPhone, and even before some of the scientists now in charge of it graduated high school. In its record-breaking time on Mars, the rover drove more than 28 miles, finding some of the first definitive signs of past liquid water on the red planet's surface.
“With this mission, more than other robotic missions, we have made that human bond, so saying goodbye is a lot harder. But at the same time, we have to remember this phenomenal accomplishment—this historic exploration we've done,” says John Callas, the project manager for the Mars Exploration Rovers mission. “I think it'll be a long time before any mission surpasses what we were able to do.”
The spacecraft lasted more than 50 times longer than originally planned, delivering groundbreaking science and inspiring a generation.
After more than 14 years driving across the surface of Mars, the NASA rover Opportunity has fallen silent—marking the end of a defining mission to another world.
At a press conference at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, NASA bid farewell to the rover it placed on Mars on January 25, 2004: before Facebook, before the iPhone, and even before some of the scientists now in charge of it graduated high school. In its record-breaking time on Mars, the rover drove more than 28 miles, finding some of the first definitive signs of past liquid water on the red planet's surface.
“With this mission, more than other robotic missions, we have made that human bond, so saying goodbye is a lot harder. But at the same time, we have to remember this phenomenal accomplishment—this historic exploration we've done,” says John Callas, the project manager for the Mars Exploration Rovers mission. “I think it'll be a long time before any mission surpasses what we were able to do.”