MARS OPPORTUNITY ROVER: NASA SAYS GOODBYE TO DOOMED SPACE EXPLORER AFTER 15-YEAR MISSION

[KG]

Source: www.independent.co.uk

Nasa has sent its last message to the Opportunity Mars rover. But it doesn’t expect a reply.

The robot has been silent for the past eight months, disappearing amid an intense dust storm on the red planet. As the thick dust whipped up and around the rover – and across the entirety of Mars – the sunlight that powers it was blocked and its batteries ran out.

Nasa has now issued a last series of recovery commands. It joins more than 1,000 messages that have been sent in an attempt to wake up the rover.

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/nasa-mars-opportunity-rover-latest-messages-space-dead-wake-up-red-planet-a8777281.html

[Calista241]

1. The little rover that could.

[MBS]

16. yeah, for sure.

[turbinetree]

2. Just maybe it will wake back up....................all the downloaded pictures was just amazing.....

I will keep my fingers crossed..............................

[brooklynite]

3. I've been watching the National Geographic MARS series...

Apparently the dust storms can last for months and cover most of the planet surface.

[EveHammond13]

4. someday we will be there to recover the rover in person.

[sarge43]

6. Someday

[EveHammond13]

14. "The cosmos is all that is, or was, or ever will be..."

[sarge43]

18. "We are made of star stuff." n/t

[suffragette]

22. Years ago when I was in college, I was trying to decide what science classes to take to meet the

requirement. I had never enjoyed science classes, though I had always liked science programs on PBS.

The community college I was attending had just introduced an innovative science class which was modeled in part on Sagan’s holistic approach. There were 5 professors, each teaching his specific area, but all noting the interconnection of it all. The 6 credits satisfied the bulk of the science requirement, then we just had to pick a lab based on one of the areas to finish.

It was the first time I truly enjoyed taking a science class. The approach intuitively made more sense to me.

That was the beauty and power of Sagan, that his impact stretched so far.

[sarge43]

5. Well done, thou good and faithful servant

[MBS]

17. perfect, thanks. n/t

[sarge43]

20. You're welcome.

Stand down now. Duty done.

[bronxiteforever]

21. [phone]

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Wow.

R.I.P. and glad the Mars team got so many years of use out of it!!! Original mission was for like 3 months.



Hey, for all we know, it might actually doing this -

[backtoblue]

9. I was actually sad til I saw that lmao!

[BumRushDaShow]

11. I loved that movie.

[joshcryer]

15. Some people lived their entire career working solely on that program.

Went from being college grads to parents with teenagers. Some of them actually became grandparents over the duration of the program. That's just how long this thing went on. It's incredible.

[BumRushDaShow]

19. I remember reading articles about that

You kindof forget that it was launched back in 2003 so it took years to even get it ready to launch.

I remember when they were testing different wheel configurations to determine the best way to achieve maximum maneuverability and be able to handle going over rocky terrain without tipping over, after looking at how Sojourner did back in the '90s.

Here is a nice pic of how the 3 types appeared -



Edit to add that Mars Insight is there right now and up and running (stationary), landed last fall -



https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/07/science/mars-wind-sounds.html

[samnsara]

26. with mars' enviroment how long should the dead rover last on Mars?

..and COOL that explorers from other planets will see our stuff was there a thousand years ago!

[BumRushDaShow]

27. I expect many of the components

are titanium and platinum so other than maybe being sand blasted or hit by rolling rocks/debris/meteorites, it'll probably be there a long long long time.

Apparently its solar arrays are covered in dust/sand so the whole thing will probably eventually be buried, if not already. I haven't delved deep enough into how they programmed it but it would be interesting if for some reason, another wind storm actually blew the dust off the array and allowed it to eventually gather enough light to charge the batteries and restart. But the problem would probably be that the surface is normally very cold, so the components would probably need some sort of heater to even try to get close to the lowest end of operational range.

[Jarqui]

8. My father loved geology and space

He would get so excited following NASA from John Glenn's first orbit on

He developed an aggressive lymphoma which limited what we could do with him in 2004. We found all kinds of things though - making every day we could count.

Pics of Cassini's Saturn mission and Spirit & Opportunity cruising around on Mars were a tremendous thrill for him at a time when he was really sick - dying. NASA (& others) delivered a last one-two show that was so jaw dropping exhilarating. For a while, he forgot how sick he was. It was like a wonderful gift.

Never thought of NASA quite like that before. I will always be grateful to them. I'm sure my father isn't the only one they've thrilled while enduring a dark moment.

[ffr]

10. I hope that we get credit for one of our last noble attempts before our extinction.

Which in geological terms makes our legacy just a blink of an eye.

I just want any intelligent race that finds Opportunity and other explorers of ours, that we weren't all doing everything possible to kill the planet that gave us life.

[truthisfreedom]

12. Opportunity lost.

[SeattleVet]

13. It has lived a long and meaningful life.

The original mission was only scheduled to last about 3 months, yet this little rover functioned extremely well for 15 years. Amazing bit of technology for its time!

[Talitha]

23. Ya done good, Little Buddy!!!

[OnlinePoker]

24. Hopefully it will be salvaged by a future Martian explorer and shipped home.

What a great example of science being used for good.

[denverbill]

25. Maybe he just got tired of doing the same crap day after day and decided to do something else.

He's probably building his own robot army to greet the first humans.


Seriously this has to have been one of the biggest successes of the US space program. Congrats to all the scientists, engineers, and others involved in that project. It's not very often that a project like this succeeds so far beyond expectations.

Hooray for Science!

[Ptah]

28. Should have got that extended warranty.

[Baclava]

29. Sad space news

Thanks for the pics