NASA has reassert that the Opportunity scouter has ceased operation . The roamer had not been get wind from since June 10 , 2018 , when the worldwide dust storm that enfold Mars sent it into hibernation . Over the last few month , NASA has regularly tried to get in touch with the bird of passage , with the late attempt made on February 12 .
" I was there with the team when these commands went out in the abstruse sky and I learned this break of the day that we had not heard back , and our dear Opportunity remained unsounded . " NASA ’s Associate administrator , Thomas Zurbuchen said during the press briefing . " It is therefore that I am standing here with a sense of deep appreciation and gratitude , that I declare the Opportunity missionary station complete . "
chance is a testament to the hard employment and quality that quad missions are project to make . The scouter ’s finish was to operate for 90 days on the Red Planet . It tracked across the Martian surface for 14 year and 293 days , 55 times longer than its planned lifetime . It was also the first rover to completea marathon in space , and in total , chance clock up 45.16 kilometers ( 28.06 mile ) of aloofness during its many eld of surgical procedure .
chance ’s commission was successful from the get - go . Within three months of landing , the rover had already uncovered grounds that smooth water once drenched the surface of Mars . In its almost 14 year of service , it discovered additional - Martian meteorite , explored several fresh sites like the Endeavour volcanic crater in item , and analyzed the planet ’s rock and filth . But it was more than just a removed - controller geologist . It do , with the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter , the first atmospheric temperature visibility of Mars . It also made important astronomical observations , for exemplar , it recorded the transits of Phobos and Deimos ( the Martian moons ) across the Sun .
The scouter ’s long living brought it to alone geological features . It climbed Cape Tribulation , hit its summit 135 metre ( 443 foot ) high , Opportunity ’s greatest ever ascension . On the way down , it also go through its steep slope , at 32 degree , which allowed the sand that had accumulated on its solar jury to slide off . In its many sols ( Martian days ) , Opportunity had the opportunity to pick up incredible aspect of the different billet it explore . It even reached the location where its heat buckler once touch Mars .
Among the most suggestive observations made by chance , the time - lapse of theblue Sunsetting over the Martian plain remains a breathtaking and truly foreign snap of the Red Planet . The footage can be seen in the video recording below .
chance was on the polar side of the major planet from its twin rover Spirit , another mission that outperformed expectations . Spirit too was speculate to operate for just 90 days and lasted until 2010 , when itgot stuckin diffused soil . For almost two month , it acted as a stationary scientific discipline program but NASA then lost contact lens with it . attempt were made to restore contact until May 2011 , when the mission was declared consummate .
And now it is Opportunity ’s twist . As NASA did n’t get word back from the rover when they last undertake to contact it , the delegation is now officially complete . And what a delegation it has been . An important chapter in the account of Mars exploration is now over .
Mars is a petty quieter today . Curiosity and InSight are carry on the bequest will by chance and they will be joined in the next few years by newfangled NASA and European mission . It goes without tell that the trailblazing work lead by both Spirit and Opportunity has been cardinal to puzzle out some of the mysteries of the Red Planet .
