NASA's Rover Refused to Die for 15 Years

NASA sent this rover to Mars for a 90-day mission. It kept working for almost fifteen years.

The plan was tiny: survive three months, drive about a kilometer. Opportunity rolled more than 45 kilometers, farther than any machine has ever driven on another world.

It landed in 2004 and quickly found its prize: rock chemistry showing liquid water once soaked this ground. Then it refused to quit. It survived dust storms, a stuck wheel, and a broken heater by sleeping through the coldest hours, while Martian wind kept sweeping its solar panels clean and gifting it years no one had planned for. It climbed crater rims and outlived its own mission more than fifty times over.

The end came in 2018, when a planet-wide dust storm blotted out the sun for weeks. Starved of light, Opportunity went silent after nearly 5,000 Martian days. A machine promised three months had explored Mars for a decade and a half.

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