Science Dump: Opportunity Edition (RIP)
Is this a Science Dump, or is it an obituary. Both? Maybe? Anyway, with the recent passing of our dear robot friend Opportunity I decided we should pay our respects with a Science Dump for her. Let’s get started.
Mars Exploration Rover-B (MER-B), better known to us as Opportunity, or Oppy, was a Mars rover part of the Mars Exploration program from NASA to explore Mars and to further our knowledge of the planet. She launched on July 7, 2003 in a Delta II rocket. The little rover landed in Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004, shortly after her twin, Spirit (2004-2010), landed on the other side of the planet. The original plan for Oppy was a 90 sol mission (about 92 Earth days). She ended up operational for 5,352 sols just shy of 15 years!
Opportunity’s objectives on Mars were:
Find and examine rocks and soil that may hold clues to past water activity on the planet.
Determine the composition of minerals, rocks, and soils around its landing site.
Determine the geological processes that shaped the local terrain and influenced the chemistry (things like water/wind erosion, sedimentation, cratering, etc.).
Search for iron-containing minerals, identify and quantify relative amounts of specific mineral types that contain water or were formed in water.
Characterize the mineralogy and textures of rocks and soils and determine the processes that created them.
Search for geological clues to the environmental conditions that existed when liquid water was present.
In 2016, Oppy achieved its steepest slope going up to 32 degrees. That was so steep, that dust had gone onto the rover and it started to slide backward as it went up. It’s highest elevation it went up was at the summit of “Cape Tribulation” at 135 meters (443 feet). Opportunity drove close to 28 miles on Mars, making it the most miles driven on Mars yet!
Unfortunately, a sudden dust storm wiped out communications with the little rover. The last message we received from her was on June 10, 2018. Over 830 rescue commands were sent to Oppy in hopes of her returning our call. To keep morale up in the mission control center, they would play “Wake Me Up Before You Go Go” in an effort to wake her up, but to no avail. On February 13, 2019, she was declared dead and her mission complete. According to a journalist, Oppy’s last message was along the lines of “My battery is low and it’s getting dark”.
It is sad to see such a wonderful machine die but we have to remember she shattered every expectation and did above and beyond to further our knowledge of Mars. She can now rest in Martian peace.
RIP Opportunity (2004-2018)
