Agnostic.com
5 8

The end of an era (nobody posted about this here yet...)

[newscientist.com]

Opportunity Mars rover is officially dead after 15-year mission

...On 10 June, Opportunity sent its last signal to Earth. Since then, operators have frantically sent more than 600 wake-up calls to the rover instructing it to turn on and phone home, testing every kind of spacecraft error that they know how to correct.

Nothing worked. There was no call home. 5499 days into its 90-day mission, Opportunity is finished. “It’s the end of the first great Martian road trip,” says Seibert.

Ultimately, the rovers will be remembered for their incredible longevity. “I thought we might get six to eight months on these things, maybe as much as a year” says Squyres. “If a spacecraft functions for 15 years and dies in one of the biggest dust storms Mars has seen in decades, that’s an honourable death.”

Lukian 8 Feb 14
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5 comments

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1

It depends on the definition of "dead" .... it's current mission is "dead" it seems... but in this case there may be life after death... I wonder if when humans do visit (hoping in my lifetime) or settle (probably not in my lifetime) the red planet they can repurpose some of the "dead" equipment we have on Mars.

Hey Matt Damon did didn't he? 🙂

2

And now the wee folk,who live under the Martian rocks, are going to drag it away, and turn it into a go-cart!

davknight Level 8 Feb 14, 2019
1

My Bad - I totally did post about it on FB and Instagram, but did not post here. I even did a little doodle. 😟

"Mars Rover Opportunity.
Landing date: January 25, 2004
February 13, 2019, NASA officials declared that the Opportunity mission was complete.
Inspiring and Tenacious.
You were and will continue to be Out of this World!
Thank you."

scurry Level 9 Feb 14, 2019
2

It was an amazing feat of engineering. Goodbye Oppy - quite sad about this even though we knew it would not last forever.

Ohub Level 7 Feb 14, 2019
1

Turn on the backup battery?

more like dig it up from under the sand most probably...

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