NASA (National Aeronautics and Space istration) announced this Wednesday (13/02) that the Rover Opportunity is officially deactivated, after several attempts to the vehicle that was severely affected by a sandstorm that occurred in 2018, in Mars.
Rover Opportunity was responsible for significant discoveries on Mars, including the presence of water on the planet. Originally designed to last just 90 days, it ran for 15 years on Mars.
On September 20, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite managed to photograph the position where Opportunity is, knowing the last position NASA tried to reactivate the Rover, but probably the hibernation state was started with little battery, and this made it impossible for Opportunity, full of sand in its s, if it reactivated again.
The Rover launch took place on July 07, 2003, and the Mars landing took place on January 25 of the following year.
In addition to discovering the presence of water in the subsoil, the rover also collaborated in discovering the composition of the soil on Mars, such as the presence of iron and other types of metals. The discovery of water in the soil was through the discovery of hematite in a crater on the planet.
More than 215000 images were sent back by the Martian rover, and more than 45 km were covered during several missions to collect data on Mars.
In 2005, Opportunity lost steering to one of its front wheels, a faulty heater threatened to severely limit the rover's available power, and a sandstorm nearly rendered the rover inoperable. Two years later, a two-month dust storm again endangered the spacecraft, but it withstood. In 2015, a 256-megabyte flash memory malfunctioned, and in 2017, he lost steering control of another front wheel.
Rover Curiosity is still active, even after the sandstorm.
NASA published a special video about the Opportunity mission, check it out:
Humanity's greatest explorers aren't always human.
us as we celebrate the achievements of @MarsRovers Opportunity at the completion of a 15 year mission: https://t.co/A8EtjA1zcm #ThanksOppy pic.twitter.com/SqwokCC0mb
- NASA JPL (@NASAJPL) February 13, 2019
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