Opportunity

Mission’s end for “Oppy”

James Guilford , , ,
Opportunity's Tracks on Mars - Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Opportunity’s Tracks on Mars – Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

February 12, 2019 — One of the most successful and enduring feats of interplanetary exploration, NASA’s Opportunity rover mission 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.

The Opportunity rover stopped communicating with Earth when a severe Mars-wide dust storm blanketed its location in June 2018. After more than a thousand commands to restore contact, engineers in the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) made their last attempt to revive Opportunity Tuesday, to no avail. The solar-powered rover’s final communication was received June 10.

“It is because of trailblazing missions such as Opportunity that there will come a day when our brave astronauts walk on the surface of Mars,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “And when that day arrives, some portion of that first footprint will be owned by the men and women of Opportunity, and a little rover that defied the odds and did so much in the name of exploration.”

Artist's Concept: Spirit & Opportunity Mars Rovers. Image Credit: NASA
Artist’s Concept: Spirit & Opportunity Mars Rovers. Image Credit: NASA

Designed to last just 90 Martian days and travel 1,100 yards (1,000 meters), Opportunity vastly surpassed all expectations in its endurance, scientific value and longevity. In addition to exceeding its life expectancy by 60 times, the rover traveled more than 28 miles (45 kilometers) by the time it reached its most appropriate final resting spot on Mars – “Perseverance Valley.”

“For more than a decade, Opportunity has been an icon in the field of planetary exploration, teaching us about Mars’ ancient past as a wet, potentially habitable planet, and revealing uncharted Martian landscapes,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Whatever loss we feel now must be tempered with the knowledge that the legacy of Opportunity continues – both on the surface of Mars with the Curiosity rover and InSight lander – and in the clean rooms of JPL, where the upcoming Mars 2020 rover is taking shape.”

Click here for more on NASA’s Mars rovers!

Curiosity lands safely, is spied by HiRISE in descent to Mars

James Guilford , , , , , ,
Photo: Mars Rover "Curiosity" hangs from its supersonic parachute. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
Plummeting through the thin atmosphere of Mars, Mars rover “Curiosity” (still inside its protective enclosure) hangs from its supersonic parachute. White square indicates parachute (above) and protective aeroshell, below. This image captured by the “Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter” spacecraft in orbit around the Red Planet. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s most advanced Mars rover Curiosity has landed on the Red Planet. The one-ton rover, hanging by ropes from a rocket backpack, touched down onto Mars Sunday to end a 36-week flight and begin a two-year investigation.

Photo: Heavily-cropped MRO image of Curiosity on its parachute. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
This is a tight crop of the full image showing the remarkable detail produced by the MRO’s HiRISE instrument – Curiosity in its aeroshell suspended from its supersonic parachute (about 50 ft. in diameter). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft that carried Curiosity succeeded in every step of the most complex landing ever attempted on Mars, including the final severing of the bridle cords and flyaway maneuver of the rocket backpack.

Curiosity landed at 10:32 p.m. PDT Aug. 5, (1:32 a.m. EDT Aug. 6) near the foot of a mountain three miles tall and 96 miles in diameter inside Gale Crater.

During a nearly two-year prime mission, the rover will investigate whether the region ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life.

The rover, powered by a radioactive heat source rather than solar cells, is expected to last at least two Earth years and can continue to operate through the incredibly cold and dark Martian winter. Winter was and is a danger for solar-powered rovers like Opportunity, still operating on the surface of Mars, as is accumulation of light-blocking dust.

20120807-215857.jpg
The four main pieces of hardware that arrived on Mars with NASA’s Curiosity rover were spotted by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera captured this image about 24 hours after landing. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Oppy reaches Endeavour Crater

James Guilford , , , ,
Photo: Edge of Endeavour Crater on planet Mars.
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity arrived at the rim of Endeavour crater on Aug. 9, 2011, after a trek of more than 13 miles (21 kilometers) lasting nearly three years. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASU. (Click on image to see full-size.)

PASADENA, Calif. – After a journey of almost three years, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has reached the Red Planet’s Endeavour Crater to study rocks never seen before.

On Aug. 9, the golf cart-sized rover relayed its arrival at a location named Spirit Point on the crater’s rim. Opportunity drove approximately 13 miles (21 kilometers) since climbing out of the Victoria Crater.

“NASA is continuing to write remarkable chapters in our nation’s story of exploration with discoveries on Mars and trips to an array of challenging new destinations,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. “Opportunity’s findings and data from the upcoming Mars Science Laboratory will play a key role in making possible future human missions to Mars and other places where humans have not yet been.”

Endeavour Crater, which is more than 25 times wider than Victoria Crater, is 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter. At Endeavour, scientists expect to see much older rocks and terrains than those examined by Opportunity during its first seven years on Mars. Endeavour became a tantalizing destination after NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter detected clay minerals that may have formed in an early warmer and wetter period.

“We’re soon going to get the opportunity to sample a rock type the rovers haven’t seen yet,” said Matthew Golombek, Mars Exploration Rover science team member, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. “Clay minerals form in wet conditions so we may learn about a potentially habitable environment that appears to have been very different from those responsible for the rocks comprising the plains.”

The name Spirit Point informally commemorates Opportunity’s twin rover, which stopped communicating in March 2010. Spirit’s mission officially concluded in May.