Opportunity Mars rover

Opportunity photoshopped by an artist into a picture it took of Mars.

Opportunity (2003-2019), a Mars rover nicknamed Oppy, was a machine the size of a golf cart that travelled 28 miles (45 km) across Meridiani Planum on Mars, from 2004 to 2018.

Yesterday, on February 13th 2019, NASA declared it dead.

Mars rovers: years of operation:

1997: Sojourner, in Ares Vallis
2004-09: Spirit, in Gusev crater
2004-18: Opportunity, in Meridiani Planum
2012- : Curiosity, in Aeolis Palus

Only Curiosity is still going.

In 2021 three new rovers are due to arrive, from the US, Europe, and China. So far only the US has been able to successfully land rovers on Mars. Russia has tried but failed (Mars 2 and Mars 3).

Spirit is Opportunity’s identical twin sister. It landed on the other side of Mars three weeks before Opportunity. In 2009 its wheels got stuck in the sand and could no longer move. It travelled only 4.8 miles (7.73 km).

Lift-off: On July 7th 2003, Opportunity left Earth from Cape Canaveral in Florida on a Delta II rocket. It took six months to reach Mars.

Landing: On January 25th 2004, it landed on Mars at 1.9462°S, 354.4734°E, near the equator in Meridiani Planum. It had a piece of the Twin Towers that fell on 9/11.

Top land speed: 0.1 mph or 180 metres an hour. Slower than a turtle.

Remote control: Like all Mars rovers so far, Opportunity was remote controlled from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, California. NASA talked to it in PLEXIL. Mars is so far away that it can take up to 22 minutes for a message to get to Mars or come back. So the rover’s slow speed was a good thing.

Mars in 2018. Opportunity is at the centre of the map, Spirit at the right edge. Sojourner was part of the Pathfinder mission, north-west of Opportunity.

Opportunity’s path (in yellow, upper right) from 2004 to 2010 as it heads towards Endeavour crater.

A close-up map of Opportunity’s path (in yellow) from 2004 to 2018. A blue outline of Washington, DC is shown for comparison.

Meridiani Planum was chosen because it was flat, had few rocks, some interesting craters, and, as NASA put it, seemed to have once been “the shoreline of a salty sea.”

Discoveries: Opportunity and Spirit were sent to find out if there was once water or life on Mars. Opportunity did find just the sort rocks you would expect to see at the bottom of a dried up lake or sea, like hematite and gypsum. But it found no signs of any past life.

The dunes of Endurance crater, 2004 (colourized in false colours)

In 2005 it got stuck in the sand, like Spirit would later, but NASA was able to work it free.

From 2006 to 2008 it explored Victoria crater, discovering that water once flowed there billions of years ago. In 2007 Opportunity survived a dust storm.

In 2011 it reached Endeavour crater, travelling along its edge. It found a vein of gypsum, what chalk and alabaster are made of.

At the edge of Endeavour crater, 2015.

On June 10th 2018, during a huge dust storm, Opportunity lost contact with Earth. NASA tried calling it over 800 times.

On February 12th 2019, with the destructive Martian winter coming, NASA tried to wake it one last time, sending the Billie Holiday song “I’ll Be Seeing You” (1944).

There was no answer.

It died at the edge of Endeavour crater in what NASA christened Perseverance Valley.

Jim Bridenstine, the head of NASA:

“It is because of trailblazing missions such as Opportunity that there will come a day when our brave astronauts walk on the surface of Mars.”

August 4th 2010: Opportunity, crossing the sands of Mars on its way to Endeavour crater, looks back towards Victoria crater.

– Abagond, 2019.

See also:

• Mars
• ‘Oumuamua
• Pluto
  • New Horizons – flew by Pluto in 2015
• Eris
• Proxima b
• 9/11
• Billie Holiday

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