by Madelyn Glennon
On January 24, 2004, NASA’s Opportunity Rover landed on Mars with the intent to determine whether or not Mars could ever support living beings, as well as to search for water, soil samples, and rocks. On February 13, 2019, the rover was officially declared dead after a record-breaking 15 years on Mars, after final calls made to the rover were left unanswered.
Due to the planetary dust storm on Mars in late Spring 2018, Opportunity ceased communications on June 10, 2018, and went into hibernation starting June 12, 2018.
NASA scientists hoped that the rover would reboot once the weather on the Red Planet cleared up, however Opportunity was officially declared deceased on February 13, 2019.
The Opportunity Rover, nicknamed Oppy, spent a decade and a half on the Red Planet much longer than its expected stay of 90 days. During its journey, it was confirmed that there have been traces of water on the planet.
The rover covered over 28 miles, which is farther than any previous rover, placed on the moon or Mars. There have only been three other successful Mars rovers, not including Opportunity; the Sojourner, the Spirit (modeled just like Opportunity), and the Curiosity.
Opportunity, along with its twin rover, Spirit, was a six-wheeled, 400-pound rover. While the rover was solar-powered, science teacher Leslie Gentzyel noted, “the rover operates through the people at NASA. They program it and operate the rover using a remote from their base.”
Theo Noble, a freshman, notes “[the death of the Opportunity rover] was really sad, when he died, he apparently made a signal to the NASA base saying it was getting dark outside and that it was getting cold, and I thought that was really heartbreaking.”
Freshman Alexis Koogle mourns the loss of the Opportunity, saying “while the rover was very successful, it still could have made so much more progress and many more discoveries.” While that is true, the Opportunity mission is considered to be one of NASA’s most successful projects, and has served as the baseline for many more progressive inventions.