Is the mission over for the Mars Opportunity rover?

Weird new species, feathered fossils and salt in space: This week in space and science

Opportunity hasn't communicated with engineers since June 10. Dust has blocked out the sunlight, and even the expected winds from November through January haven't helped to clear Opportunity's sensors and panels. Engineers tried different things to revive Opportunity, from sending repeated signals and commands to attempt to fix other potential issues. They've sent more than 835 recovery commands that remain unanswered.

It's likely the press conference will announce the end of the mission, holding something akin to a funeral for the solar-powered rover.

The same thing happened when Opportunity's twin, Spirit, became mired in soft soil in 2009 and its five working wheels couldn't free it. NASA held a "service" to commemorate the end of the mission in May 2011.

If this truly is the end, "Oppy," as the rover is affectionately known, has well outlasted her original 90-day mission. Instead, the rover has persisted for 15 years, sending back incredible data and photos from Mars to help unravel the Red Planet's secrets.

Opportunity and Spirit launched in 2003 and landed on Mars in 2004, searching for signs of ancient life. Opportunity's mission has led to many discoveries about the Red Planet, but perhaps the most exciting was when Opportunity found evidence that Mars once had water and supported conditions for sustaining microbial life.

Opportunity not only leaves behind a legacy of discovery, but also became the longest-running rover.

Meanwhile, the Curiosity rover, which was unaffected by the storm, and the stationary InSight lander, continue to study the Red Planet and carry on missions of discovery that were founded by Opportunity and Spirit.

On Tuesday, InSight deployed its "mole," or heat flow probe, on the Martian surface, and in the coming weeks, it will be the first probe to go more than 16 feet below the surface. This will determine Mars' subsurface temperature and thermal conductivity.

Let's block ads! (Why?)