A true trooper
NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity serves 60 times longer than thought
LOS ANGELES — Opportunity,a
NASA rover designed to roll along the surface of Mars for only three months, has stopped communicating with Earth after 15 years of service, officials said on Wednesday, ending a mission that astounded the US space agency.
Engineers lost contact with the solar-powered vehicle on June 10 during a dust storm that encircled Mars. Since then, NASA officials made numerous attempts to reach the six-wheeled rover, which is about the size of a golf cart.
Opportunity’s equipment may have been compromised by the storm, which struck while the rover was at a site called Perseverance Valley. The storm blotted out sunlight needed by the robot’s solar panels, officials said.
The vehicle was built to drive sixtenths of a mile (1 kilometer), but ended up covering 28 miles and lasting longer on Mars than any other robot sent to the surface of the Red Planet.
On Tuesday, engineers sent a transmission in a last attempt to revive the rover, but heard nothing back, said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
“It is, therefore, that I am standing here with a sense of deep appreciation and gratitude that I declare the
Opportunity mission as complete,” Zurbuchen said during an online video presentation at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
The community of researchers and engineers involved in the program was in mourning over the passing of the rover, known affectionately as Oppy.
“It is a hard day,” said John Callas, manager of the Mars Exploration Rover project.
“Even though it is a machine and we’re saying goodbye, it’s very hard and it’s very poignant.”
“Don’t be sad it’s over, be proud it taught us so much,” former president Barack Obama tweeted later on Thursday.
As Opportunity explored craters on Mars, it gathered evidence to demonstrate the planet in the ancient past was wet and warm enough to possibly sustain life, NASA said. That included the discovery of white veins of the mineral gypsum, an indication of water moving through underground fractures.
Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004, a few weeks after its rover twin, Spirit.
Spirit ended its mission in 2010 after becoming stuck in soft soil.
The Opportunity mission cost more than $1 billion, with about 300 JPL staff members dedicated to the project soon after it landed, Callas said by phone.
The team had dwindled to 30 by the time Opportunity went silent, he said. Its members are going to other projects.
Another NASA rover, called Curiosity, which arrived on Mars in 2012, continues its work on the Martian surface, collecting soil samples to analyze for signs of organic compounds.