The Death of Opportunity

We all knew it was coming. It was long overdue. But it's very sad to see the official end of the Opportunity rover mission on Mars.

Spirit and Opportunity

Spirit and Opportunity were the first large rovers to touchdown on the surface of Mars and move around. Pathfinder was the first rover, several years earlier, but was much smaller and really just a test of rover technology. Spirit and Opportunity were much more impressive and did a vast amount of science over their lifetimes.

Artist's conception of the Opportunity rover. - NASA/JPL/Cornell University, Maas Digital LLC

Spirit and Opportunity launched separately from Earth to Mars in the summer of 2003. Both landed successfully on the Martian surface in January 2004. They both started their expected 90 day planned mission, but they were far more successful than that. Both rovers had the goal of studying current features on Mars to study the past history of Mars. In the process they both returned data that makes it clear liquid water once existed on the Martian surface in large quantities.

Spirit found itself stuck in a sand dune in 2009 and by 2010 it was declared officially dead. That's a 5+ year lifetime for a rover that started with a 90 day mission! Opportunity kept at it for several more years. Eventually it found its solar cells covered in dust after a massive dust storm swept across Mars in June 2018. It was unable to collect enough solar energy through the dust covered solar cells and eventually lost all remaining power. NASA made several attempts to contact Opportunity, but on February 13, 2019, officially declared it dead. Opportunity continued for 15 years for what was expected to be a 90 day mission. WOW!!!

Spirit and Opportunity were two hugely successful missions that sent back vast amounts of data on Mars. The data will continue to be studied for years. These two rovers may be lost to us forever, but their impression on us will remain for generations!