The Opportunity Rover Mission of NASA on Mars Comes To An End

The opportunity rover mission of NASA is one of the most successful and durable feats of interplanetary exploration. It is at an end after almost 15 years exploring the surface of Mars and helping lay the groundwork for NASA's return to the Red Planet.

In June 2018, the communication of the Opportunity rover stopped with Earth when a severe Mars-wide dust storm blanketed its location. Space Flight Operations Facility’s engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) made their last attempt for reviving Opportunity Tuesday. After more than a thousand commands for restoring contact, the solar-powered rover's final communication was received on 10th June.

NASA Administrator, Jim Bridenstine, said that it is due to trailblazing missions like Opportunity which there will come a day when their brave and strong astronauts walk on the surface of Mars. He added that when that day arrives, some portion of that first footprint will be owned by the men and women of Opportunity. And, it will also be owned by a little rover which defied the odds and did so much in the name of exploration. Opportunity is designed to last just 90 Martian days and travel 1,100 yards. Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate said that for more than a decade, Opportunity has been an icon in planetary exploration field. He further added that whatever loss they feel now should be tempered with the knowledge that the legacy of Opportunity continues. John Callas, manager of the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project at JPL said that they have made every reasonable engineering effort for trying to recover Opportunity. They have also determined that the likelihood of receiving a signal is far too low for continuing recovery efforts.

On 24th Jan 2004, Opportunity landed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars. The landing is seven months after its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. From the day Opportunity landed, a mission engineers team, rover drivers and scientists on Earth collaborated for overcoming various challenges and get the rover from one geologic site on Mars to the next.

By: Preeti Narula

Content: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190213150035.htm