RIP Opportunity: A eulogy for the beloved Mars rover. The little rover that could.

Pedro_P

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Dust Devil
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity recorded this image of a Martian dust devil twisting through the valley below. The view looks back at the rover's tracks leading up the north-facing slope of "Knudsen Ridge," which forms part of the southern edge of "Marathon Valley."
NASA/JPL-Caltech
▼ Today we mourn the loss of a friend so stalwart we nearly forgot we wouldn’t have them forever. After 15 years investigating the  surface of Mars, NASA’s  Opportunity roverhas joined its late twin Spirit in the big scrapyard in the sky.
You shouldn’t blame yourself for taking Opportunity for granted; the robot landed in 2004 with the task of searching the red planet for signs of ancient water for just over three months. Opportunity surpassed its primary mission by more than 60 times, and outlived its twin rover by eight years. Built for a sprint, Opportunity ran a  marathon—and then some. (And yes, we know, it's probably been "dead" since June—but15 is such a nice round number an Opportunity deserves it, okay?)
NASA makes all its robots to last—the recently departed Cassini orbiter had a primary mission of three years and persisted for 13—but Opportunity outdid them all. Oppy drove farther than any rover in history and trekked for longer than any other surface mission. It outlived low-rise jeans  and jelly bracelets. It outlivedLOST. It outlived Brad and Jenand Brangelina. It may not have had the social media savvy of its cousin  Curiosity, but Opportunity has done its duty with quiet dignity for far longer than we could have hoped.
Opportunity sent home stunning  images of the hostile worldthat eventually did it in—one that we hope to soon visit in person, and perhaps even live on. In studying more than 100 unique impact craters, it found multiple signs of  water-long-past on the Martian  surface. The robot’s longevity also gave it a chance to monitor how dust and clouds vary over time on this alien world, providing insight into how solar panels and other infrastructure might fare in future missions.
It was that same atmospheric variability that killed Opportunity.  (▪ ▪ ▪)

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ssangra

Very Sad....opportunity lost......

Srinivas1939

Hats off to Opportunity.Surpassing its primary mission many times over and outliving its twin by eight years tell a great story of how useful the Mars rover has been to space science.