OPPORTUNITY dies after 15 years of missions on Mars… And so they honor him in networks

It couldn’t have been. The Rover Opportunity, mission on Mars since 2004, no longer gives life signs. Apparently, the huge dust storm that ravaged the area last June 2018 affected the robotic vehicle more than was thought. Although they have tried to reactivate it in more than 835 occasions, yesterday was the last attempt and has been given by “dead”, thus closing about 15 years of different missions on the Martian surface. Now it will become a new object of space junk which, who knows, can be found by humans to visit the Red Planet in the future.

His official Twitter account, the same announcing the demise of this mission that was to last at first only 90 days, has also been responsible for reminding the world of the importance of this mission.

During this time, Oppy (as they know him at NASA), has been able to demonstrate that millions of years ago, Mars had large amounts of liquid water. Hence these sphere-shaped stones to which they called “blueberries ” (blueberries).

They also recalled that this rover managed to travel a distance greater than a marathon and mark a record of driving off the ground, detecting on its way swirls of dust.

In this way, he joins his twin Spirit robot, which ended up freezing in 2010, during a Martian winter trapped in the sand. As it could not be redirected to capture the luminosity of the sun, the vehicle stopped working. And he succumbed to the death. Meanwhile, since then, Oppy has been alone, but he has managed to make up for his loss and has brought us even closer to this unknown planet.

If you want to say thanks, as they have done since NASA, just go on Twitter and write your homage through the label #ThanksOppy.