mars opportunity mission parts price

The twin Mars Exploration Rovers (MER), Spirit and Opportunity, were robot field geologists. They confirmed liquid water once flowed across the Martian surface. Both long outlasted their planned 90-day lifetimes. Following their landings on 3 and 24 January 2004, Spirit drove 7.73 kilometers and worked for 2210 sols (Martian days), until 22 March 2010. Opportunity drove 45.16 kilometers and worked for at least 5111 sols; the rover stopped responding on 10 June 2018, and the mission was declared over on 13 February 2019.

The Perseverance rover is projected to cost $2.7 billion dollars, of which $2.2 billion was for spacecraft development, $243 million for launch services, and approximately $300 million for operations and scientific analysis for its 2-year primary mission. The Ingenuity helicopter cost an additional $80 million to build and $5 million to operate during its 1-month mission.

The Mars science community is concerned that the growing costs of NASA"s Mars 2020 rover mission could reduce the funds available for other robotic missions, according to a presentation that took place during a meeting of NASA"s Planetary Science Advisory Committee.

The two-day meeting, which was held in late September in Washington and livestreamed, featured presentations from various groups in the planetary science community examining mission options and science goals for exploration of planets, exoplanets and the Earth. Mars 2020 is a flagship-class mission, or one of NASA"s most expensive and robust space-exploration endeavors, with a total cost estimate of $2.46 billion, according to NASA"s latest budget request. The mission"s launch is practically imminent, targeted for no earlier than July 2020. What comes next is still being determined.

Planetary geologist Aileen Yingst, who is with the Planetary Science Institute, said in a presentation that the community is concerned about the cost growth for Mars 2020 and how that could affect other Mars missions. Yingst is co-investigator on the SHERLOC spectrometer and WATSON sidekick camera on the Mars 2020 rover, as well as chair of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG), a team of planetary science experts that helps NASA figure out science priorities for Mars exploration.

While Yingst (who was representing MEPAG in the presentation) said the community supports Mars 2020, there are concerns about how the mission"s budget overruns could be affecting other priorities for Mars exploration. For example, although Yingst did not state this directly, NASA will soon need to order a new Mars orbiter to relay communications between rovers and Earth, because the existing spacecraft orbiting Mars are aging and nearing the end of their lives.

Proponents often argue that the science returns on these over-budget and often-overdue projects do justify the cost. For example, NASA"s Curiosity Mars rover, which found evidence of ancient water within weeks after landing in 2012, faced its own overrun, from $1.6 billion to $2.5 billion. And it was two years late in launching. But the rover is still doing work on Mars and has found extensive evidence of water reshaping the landscape in Gale Crater, year after year. In the realm of telescopic missions, Hubble"s observations have led to numerous new insights about the universe, including the Nobel-prize-winning discovery that the universe is accelerating in its expansion.

In a statement emailed to Space.com, NASA said it"s keeping an eye on Mars 2020. The mission is meant to cache promising samples of Red Planet soil — samples that could have evidence that Mars held life in the ancient past — for return back to Earth on a future mission as soon as the 2030s.

"While challenges contributing to cost growth are not uncommon for a Mars surface mission of this complexity, we continue to evaluate the cost impact [of Mars 2020]," said Lori Glaze, NASA"s director of planetary science, in a statement emailed to Space.com.

"Entering into this new fiscal year," Glaze continued, "NASA will endeavor to ensure this project has sufficient funding to guard against programmatically disruptive delays. We have a robust Mars science budget, and we are not only looking forward to the exciting astrobiology results of Mars 2020, but we"re also excited to be taking the next steps onward to the first Mars sample-return mission."

The cost of Mars 2020 has been growing for a while. The initial proposed cost for the rover, when the mission was announced in 2012, was $1.5 billion. Six years on, a 2018 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report showed that the cost had soared to $2.46 billion. And in NASA"s latest budget, the overrun looks set to grow by as much as 15% (or about another $360 million) beyond that last 2018 estimate, although the latest numbers are yet to be confirmed.

Glaze explained that Mars 2020 is developed with a close eye to the overall goals of NASA"s Mars exploration program, a process that "relies on robust dialogue with the community and the National Academy’s solar system decadal surveys to ensure the science goals are prioritized accordingly." (The National Academy of Sciences is a scientific advisory board in the United States that provides advice on future research directions).

Mars 2020"s contributions to the overall program include attempting to determine whether life existed on Mars, exploring the Red Planet"s climate and geology, and preparing for possible human missions in the 2030s, according to NASA.

The agency"s Red Planet science-exploration program, including Mars 2020, is "strongly supported by the community," with each mission to the Red Planet building upon the knowledge of past missions. Indeed, in the rover sequence alone, Mars 2020 will be the fifth NASA rover to reach the surface of Mars, after Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity, which each probed aspects of the planet"s watery past.

Yet the GAO report singled out Mars 2020 and three other NASA programs (such as NASA"s Space Launch System megarocket) for "technical challenges that were compounded by risky programmatic decisions," such as holding the critical design review earlier than usual.

"The Mars 2020 project held its critical design review before it had a stable design, at which point it had released about 72% of its expected design drawings," the GAO said. "Project officials stated that they held the design review earlier than normal to avoid delaying the development of heritage technologies, which make up a large percentage of the Mars 2020 rover. As a result of holding the review early, new and highly complex developments were not stable at the time of the design review."

By March 2019, the mission was facing even more cost growth only 16 months before its expected launch window, which opens in July 2020. This cost growth was rumored for months in the planetary science community but became clear only in NASA"s fiscal year 2020 budget proposal, according to SpaceNews.

This time around, the cost growth was due to multiple development issues for several components: SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals), an X-ray spectrometer called PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry) and a caching system designed to hold samples for a future return mission to Earth.

"It [the overrun] is less than 15% over the agreed-upon cost for [Mars] 2020," Glaze, who was then acting director of NASA"s planetary sciences division, said during a town hall meeting March 18 at the 50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, according to SpaceNews. This would place the additional overrun at no more than about $360 million (or 15% of the last estimate of $2.46 billion).

NASA"s Opportunity rover was one of the most successful and enduring interplanetary missions. Opportunitylanded on Mars in early 2004 soon after its twin rover Spirit. Opportunity operated almost 15 years, setting several records and making a number of key discoveries.

Opportunity exceeded its life expectancy by 60 times and had traveled more than 28 miles (45 kilometers) by the time it reached its appropriate final resting spot on Mars – Perseverance Valley.

Opportunity launched at 03:18:15 UTJuly 8, 2003, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and traveled for six months, landing on Mars onJan. 25, 2004, just 20 days after its twin rover, Spirit, landed on the other side of the Red Planet.

The twin missions’ main scientific objective was to search for a range of rocks and soil types and then look for clues for past water activity on Mars. Each rover, about the size of a golf cart and seven times heavier (408 pounds or185 kilograms) than the Sojourner rover on Mars, was targeted to opposite sides of the planet in locales that were suspected of having been affected by liquid water in the past.

This area now became known as the Challenger Memorial Station, in tribute to the Space Shuttle crew lost in 1986. Opportunity landed in a relatively flat plain but within an impact crater known as Eagle.

After extensive studies within Eagle, on March 22, 2004, Opportunity climbed up the edge of the crater and rolled out and headed for a new phase of its mission in Endurance Crater, about 820 yards (750 meters) away.

After exiting Eagle, the rover took some spectacular shots of the abandoned area where the lander, backshell, and parachute were still visible. Near its discarded heat shield, Opportunity discovered an unusual basketball-sized rock in January 2005 (named the “Heat Shield Rock”) that turned out to be an iron-nickel meteorite.

This self-portrait of NASA"s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity comes courtesy of the Sun and the rover"s front hazard-avoidance camera. The dramatic snapshot of Opportunity"s shadow was taken as the rover moved into Endurance crater. The image was taken on sol 180 (July 26, 2004), a date that marked double the rover"s primary 90-sol mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Later that year, the rover got stuck after driving into an area where several of its wheels were buried in sand. Controllers at NASA"s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, (JPL), were able to maneuver the vehicle a few inches at a time and to free Opportunity in June 2005 after six weeks.

In March 2006, Opportunity began the last mile (2 kilometers) of its journey to Victoria, a crater that stretches ahalf-mile (800 meters) in diameter—wider and deeper than any yet examined by either rover. After a 21-month trip, Opportunity finally arrived at Victoria in September 2006 and sent back striking pictures of its rim.

The following year, 2007, was an important test for Opportunity when severe dust storms plagued Mars. By July 18, the rover’s solar panels were reporting power at only 128 watt hours, the lowest for either rover at that point. All science activities were indefinitely suspended for Opportunity which faced much more severe conditions than Spirit.

After about six weeks the dust storms abated and Opportunity was back in action. On Sept. 11, 2007, the rover entered Victoria Crater, staying inside for almost a year and sending back a wealth of information on its soil.

Opportunity captured this vista of Victoria crater from Cape Verde, one of the promontories that are part of the scalloped rim of the crater. Opportunity drove onto Cape Verde shortly after arriving at the rim of Victoria in September 2006. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

On the way there, the rover found the so-called Marquette Island rock, “different in composition and character from any known rock on Mars or meteorite from Mars,” according to Steve Squyres, the principal investigator for the rovers. The rock appeared to have originated deep in the Martian crust and someplace far away from the landing site, unlike almost all the rocks previously studied by Opportunity.

By March 24, 2010, Opportunity had about 12 miles (20 kilometers) on its odometer, more than double the distance recorded by Spirit, and far more than was originally considered a nominal mission—1,968 feet (600 meters).

Two months later, on May 20—with Spirit already inactive—Opportunity broke the record set by the Viking 1 Lander for the longest continuous operation on the surface of Mars: 6 years and 116 days.

In September 2011, NASA announced that an aluminum cuff that served as a cable shield on each of the RATs on the rovers was made from aluminum recovered from the World Trade Center towers, destroyed during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Honeybee Robotics, which helped build the tool, had its offices in New York that day not far from the attacks. As a memorial to the victims, JPL and Honeybee worked together to include the aluminum on the Mars rovers.

Through late 2012 and into 2013, Opportunity worked around a geographic feature named Matijevic Hill, which overlooks the Endeavour crater, analyzing rocks and soil.

By August 2013, Opportunity was at Solander Point, an area of contact between a rock layer that was formed in acidic wet conditions long before and an older one from a more “neutral” environment.

On Jan. 4, 2014, Opportunity passed 10 years on the surface of Mars, now with relatively clean surfaces on its solar panels that allowed for increased power to the rover. A “selfie” from March 2014 showed a rover swept clean by wind earlier in the month. This raised hopes for continuing the mission.

This self-portrait of Opportunity shows how the wind had cleaned much of the dust off the rover"s solar panels. It combines multiple frames taken by Opportunity"s panoramic camera (Pancam) through three different color filters from March 22 to March 24, 2014. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ.

As it continued to explore the Martian surface, on July 28, 2014, NASA announced that Opportunity had passed the distance record set on another celestial body, set by Lunokhod 2, when the American rover’s odometer showed 25.01 miles (40.25 kilometers), exceeding the Soviet vehicle’s record of 24 miles (39 kilometers). However, Russian analysis of images from NASA"s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) suggests that Lunokhod 2 may actually have traveled as much as 26 miles (42 kilometers).

The rover was generally in good health, but because of the large number of computer resets in the preceding month, which interfered with its science goals, mission planners implemented a complete reformat of its flash memory on Sept. 4, 2014. The same day, NASA announced a ninth extension of Opportunity"s mission—adding another two years with a mission to nearby Marathon Valley.

At the beginning of September, Opportunity had covered about 25 miles (40.69 kilometers). At launch, like its sister rover, Spirit, Opportunity was designed to have a lifetime of 90 sols (Martian days)—about three Earth months.

On March 25, 2015, NASA announced that having traveled 26.219 miles (42.195 kilometers), Opportunity had become “the first human enterprise to exceed marathon distance of travel on another world.”

In its seventh Martian winter (Earth winter 2015–2016), Opportunity was kept at “energy-minimum” levels due to the relative lack of solar energy. Still, Opportunity kept busy, using its rock abration tool (RAT) to remove surface dust from a target called “Private John Potts,” the name a reference to a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

During this period, Opportunity continued to explore the western rim of the 13-mile (22-kilometer) wide Endeavour crater, particularly the south side of Marathon Valley, which slices through Endeavour crater’s rim from west to east.

From its perch high on a ridge, NASA"s Opportunity rover recorded this image of a Martian dust devil twisting through the valley below. The view looks back at the rover"s tracks leading up the southern edge of Marathon Valley in Endeavour crater. Opportunity took the image on March 31, 2016, during the 4,332nd Martian day, or sol, of the rover"s work on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

On March 10, 2016, while making its closest approach to a target near the crest of Knudsen crater, it drove at a tilt of 32 degrees, breaking the record for the steepest slope driven by any rover on Mars—a record previously set by Opportunity during a climb in January 2004.

In October 2016, Opportunity began its two-year extended mission that included investigations in the Bitterroot Valley portion of the western rim of the Endeavour crater. The plan was for the rover to travel into a gully that slices Endeavor and is about two football fields in length. Opportunity Principal Investigator Steve Squyres noted that scientists were “confident [that] this is a fluid-carved gully, and that water was involved.”

On Feb. 7, 2017, Opportunity passed the 27-mile (44-kilometer) mark on its odometer, as it made slow progress towards its next major scientific objective, a gully named Perseverance Valley. It reached the valley by the first week of May.

For about three weeks during June and July, there was reduced communication with the rover due to a solar conjunction (when the Sun comes between Earth and Mars). In mid-July, Opportunity finally entered Perseverance Valley and began driving down into the gully during which time, rover energy levels dropped due to reduced Sun exposure.

Opportunity went quiet during a historic Mars-wide dust storm in 2018 that reduced the energy available to the rover"s solar panels. The last signal from the spacecraft was heard on June 10, 2018.

Designed to last just 90 Martian days and to travel 1,100 yards (1,000 meters), Opportunity vastly surpassed all expectations in its endurance, scientific value and longevity. In addition to exceeding its life expectancy by 60 times, the rover had traveled over 28 miles (45 kilometers) by the time it reached its most appropriate final resting spot on Mars -- Perseverance Valley.

This panoramic image, dubbed Rub al Khali, was acquired by NASA"s Opportunity rover on the plains of Meridiani from May 6 to May 14, 2005. Opportunity was about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) south of Endurance crater at a place known informally as Purgatory Dune. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell

Opportunity, also known as MER-B (Mars Exploration Rover – B) or MER-1, is a robotic rover that was active on Mars from 2004 until 2018.Opportunity was operational on Mars for 5111 sols (14 years, 138 days on Earth). Launched on July 7, 2003, as part of NASA"s Mars Exploration Rover program, it landed in Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004, three weeks after its twin, sol duration of activity (slightly less than 92.5 Earth days), Spirit functioned until it got stuck in 2009 and ceased communications in 2010, while Opportunity was able to stay operational for 5111 sols after landing, maintaining its power and key systems through continual recharging of its batteries using solar power, and hibernating during events such as dust storms to save power. This careful operation allowed Opportunity to operate for 57 times its designed lifespan, exceeding the initial plan by 14 years, 47 days (in Earth time). By June 10, 2018, when it last contacted NASA,

Mission highlights included the initial 90-sol mission, finding meteorites such as Heat Shield Rock (Meridiani Planum meteorite), and over two years of exploring and studying Victoria crater. The rover survived moderate dust storms and in 2011 reached Endeavour crater, which has been considered as a "second landing site."Opportunity mission is considered one of NASA"s most successful ventures.

Due to the planetary 2018 dust storm on Mars, Opportunity ceased communications on June 10 and entered hibernation on June 12, 2018. It was hoped it would reboot once the weather cleared,Opportunity mission was complete, after the spacecraft had failed to respond to over 1,000 signals sent since August 2018.

Collectively, the Opportunity and Spirit rovers were part of the Mars Exploration Rover program in the long-term Mars Exploration Program. The Mars Exploration Program"s four principal goals were to determine if the potential for life exists on Mars (in particular, whether recoverable water may be found on Mars), to characterize the Mars climate and its geology, and then to prepare for a potential human mission to Mars. The Mars Exploration Rovers were to travel across the Martian surface and perform periodic geologic analyses to determine if water ever existed on Mars as well as the types of minerals available, as well as to corroborate data taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).Spirit and Opportunity were launched a month apart, on June 10 and July 8, 2003, and both reached the Martian surface by January 2004. Both rovers were designed with an expected 90 sols (92 Earth days) lifetime, but each lasted much longer than expected. Spirit"s mission lasted 20 times longer than its expected lifetime, and its mission was declared ended on May 25, 2011, after it got stuck in soft sand and expended its power reserves trying to free itself. Opportunity lasted 55 times longer than its 90 sol planned lifetime, operating for 5498 days from landing to mission end. An archive of weekly updates on the rover"s status can be found at the Opportunity Update Archive.

From its initial landing, by chance, into an impact crater amidst an otherwise generally flat plain, Opportunity successfully investigated regolith and rock samples and took panoramic photos of its landing site. Its sampling allowed NASA scientists to make hypotheses concerning the presence of hematite and past presence of water on the surface of Mars.Endurance crater, which it explored from June to December 2004.Opportunity examined the impact site of its own heat shield and discovered an intact meteorite, now known as Heat Shield Rock, on the surface of Mars.

From late April to early June 2005, Opportunity was perilously lodged in a sand dune, with several wheels buried in the sand. Over a six-week period, Earth-based physical simulations were performed to decide how best to extract the rover from its position without risking its permanent immobilization. Successful maneuvering a few centimeters at a time eventually freed the rover, which resumed its travels.

Opportunity was directed to proceed in a southerly direction to Erebus crater, a large, shallow, partially buried crater and a stopover on the way south towards Victoria crater, between October 2005 and March 2006. It experienced some mechanical problems with its robotic arm.

In late September 2006, Opportunity reached Victoria crater and explored along the rim in a clockwise direction. In June 2007 it returned to Duck Bay, its original arrival point at Victoria crater; in September 2007 it entered the crater to begin a detailed study. In August 2008, Opportunity left Victoria crater for Endeavour crater, which it reached on August 9, 2011.

Here at the rim of the Endeavour crater, the rover moved around a geographic feature named Cape York. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had detected phyllosilicates there, and the rover analyzed the rocks with its instruments to check this sighting on the ground. This structure was analyzed in depth until summer 2013. In May 2013 the rover was heading south to a hill named

In December 2014, NASA reported that Opportunity was suffering from "amnesia" events in which the rover failed to write data, e.g. telemetry information, to non-volatile memory. The hardware failure was believed to be due to an age-related fault in one of the rover"s seven memory banks. As a result, NASA had aimed to force the rover"s software to ignore the failed memory bank;

On February 12, 2019,Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)"s Space Flight Operations Facility to watch final commands being transmitted to Opportunity via the 70-meter (230-foot) dish of the Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in California. Following 25 minutes of transmission of the final 4 sets of commands, communication attempts with the rover were handed off to Canberra, Australia.

More than 835 recovery commands were transmitted since losing signal in June 2018 to the end of January 2019 with over 1000 recovery commands transmitted before February 13, 2019.Opportunity mission is complete."I"ll Be Seeing You" performed by Billie Holiday.Opportunity were transitioned to support the Mars rovers

The final communication from the rover came on June 10, 2018 (sol 5111) from Perseverance Valley,Watt-hours for the sol, and the highest atmospheric opacity (tau) ever measured on Mars: 10.8.

During the next two decades, NASA will continue to conduct missions with other spacecraft to address whether life ever arose on Mars. The search begins with determining whether the Martian environment was ever suitable for life. Life, as we understand it, requires water, so the history of water on Mars is critical to finding out if the Martian environment was ever conducive to life. Although the Mars Exploration Rovers did not have the ability to detect life directly, they offered very important information on the habitability of the environment in the planet"s history.

Spirit and Opportunity are twin rovers, each a six-wheeled, solar-powered robot standing 1.5 m (5 ft) high, 2.3 m (7+1⁄2 ft) wide, and 1.6 m (5 ft) long and weighing 180 kilograms (400 pounds). Six wheels on a rocker-bogie system enable mobility. Each wheel has its own motor, the vehicle is steered at front and rear and was designed to operate safely at tilts of up to 30 degrees. Its maximum speed is 5 centimeters (2 inches) per second, while its average speed was about a sixth of this (0.89 cm or 3⁄8 in) per second. The drilling mechanisms of both rovers utilize pieces of the fallen World Trade Center"s metal as cable-protecting shields.

Solar arrays generate about 140 watts for up to fourteen hours per sol, while rechargeable lithium ion batteries stored energy for use at night. Opportunity"s onboard computer uses a 20 MHz RAD6000 CPU with 128 MB of DRAM, 3 MB of EEPROM, and 256 MB of flash memory. The rover"s operating temperature ranges from −40 to +40 °C (−40 to 104 °F) and radioisotope heaters provide a base level of heating, assisted by electrical heaters when necessary.aerogel provides insulation.

Communications depend on an omnidirectional low-gain antenna communicating at a low data rate and a steerable high-gain antenna, both in direct contact with Earth. A low gain antenna is also used to relay data to spacecraft orbiting Mars.

Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) – identifies promising rocks and regolith for closer examination, and determines the processes that formed them.

Opportunity was "driven" by several operators throughout its mission, including JPL roboticist Vandi Verma who also cowrote the PLEXIL command language used in its software.

Like Earth, Mars has seasonal variations that reduce sunlight during winter. However, since the Martian year is longer than that of the Earth, the seasons fully rotate roughly once every 2 Earth years.

Another factor that can reduce received power is dust in the atmosphere, especially dust storms.Opportunity and Spirit so much they could only run for a few minutes each day.2018 dust storms on Mars, Opportunity entered hibernation mode on June 12,

Opportunity"s launch was managed by NASA"s Launch Services Program. This was the first launch of the Delta II Heavy. The launch period went from June 25 to July 15, 2003. The first launch attempt occurred on June 28, 2003, but the spacecraft launched nine days later on July 7, 2003, due to delays for range safety and winds, then later to replace items on the rocket (insulation and a battery). Each day had two instantaneous launch opportunities. On the day of launch, the launch was delayed to the second opportunity (11:18 p.m. EDT) in order to fix a valve.

Area around the heat shield, including the resulting shield impact point. The heat shield was released before the rover landed and struck the surface on its own, and the rover later drove to the impact site. Near this location it discovered the first meteorite found on Mars, Heat Shield Rock

Opportunity has provided substantial evidence in support of the mission"s primary scientific goals: to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and regolith that hold clues to past water activity on Mars. In addition to investigating the water, Opportunity has also obtained astronomical observations and atmospheric data.

Honoring Opportunity"s great contribution to the exploration of Mars, an asteroid was named Opportunity: 39382 Opportunity.Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld who, along with Cornelis Johannes van Houten and Tom Gehrels, discovered the asteroid on September 24, 1960. Opportunity"s lander is Challenger Memorial Station.

On July 28, 2014, it was announced that Opportunity, having traversed over 40 km (25 mi), had become the rover achieving the longest off-world distance, surpassing the previous record of 39 km (24 mi) on the Moon by Lunokhod 2.

On March 24, 2015, NASA celebrated Opportunity having traveled the distance of a marathon race, 42.195 km (26.219 mi), from the start of Opportunity"s landing and traveling on Mars.

In March 2016, while trying to reach target on the slope of Marathon Valley in Cape Tribulation, the Mars rover attained a slope of 32 degrees, the highest angle yet for the rover since its mission began. This was so steep that dust that had accumulated on its top panels began to flow downward.

On Sol 3894 (January 6, 2015), Opportunity reached the summit of "Cape Tribulation," which is 135 m (443 ft) above "Botany Bay" level and the highest point yet reached by the rover on the western rim of Endeavour Crater according to NASA.

Opportunity rover "off-world" driving distance record, compared to other rovers. Dashed grey vertical bar represents the Marathon distance of 42.195 km

Opportunity was the first rover to hit the length of a marathon (42.2 km or 26.2 mi), having taken 11 years and 2 months to clock the distance. The JPL technicians celebrated the occasion by running a race.

The rover could take pictures with its different cameras, but only the PanCam camera had the ability to photograph a scene with different color filters. The panorama views are usually built up from PanCam images. By February 3, 2018, Opportunity had returned 224,642 pictures.

"Blueberries": This view displays an area about 6 centimeters across. It was taken at an outcrop named "Kirkwood" at the Cape York on the rim of Endeavour crater on Mars. The spheres seen here are about 3 millimeters in diameter. The Microscopic Imager took this image at 3064 sol.

An example of a rover traverse map featuring a line showing path of the rover, and mission sols, which are Mars days counted from its landing and typical of Mars surface mission time reporting. Topographic lines and various feature names are also common.

With word on February 12, 2019, that NASA was likely to conclude the Opportunity mission, many media outlets and commentators issued statements praising the mission"s success and stating their goodbyes to the rover. One journalist, Jacob Margolis, tweeted his translation of the last data transmission sent by Opportunity on June 10, 2018, as "My battery is low and it"s getting dark." The phrase struck a chord with the public, inspiring a period of mourning, artwork, and tributes to the memory of Opportunity.

When the quote became widely reported, some news reports mistakenly asserted that the rover sent that exact message in English, resulting in NASA being inundated with additional questions. Margolis wrote a clarifying article on February 16, making it clear he had taken statements from NASA officials who were interpreting the data sent by Opportunity, both on the state of its low power and Mars"s high atmospheric opacity, and rephrased them in a poetic manner, never to imply the rover had sent the specific words.

Amazon Studios announced in March 2021 that it was developing a documentary Good Night Oppy based on the rover and its prolonged mission. The documentary was directed by Ryan White, and included support from JPL and Industrial Light & Magic.

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"Opportunity on verge of new discovery". wustl.edu. September 14, 2011. Archived from the original on September 24, 2011. Retrieved September 17, 2011.

Greicius, Tony (September 24, 2018). "Opportunity Emerges in a Dusty Picture". NASA. Archived from the original on October 15, 2018. Retrieved November 30, 2018.

Greicius, Tony (October 29, 2018). "Update on Opportunity Rover Recovery Efforts". NASA. Archived from the original on November 3, 2018. Retrieved February 23, 2022.

O"Neill, Ian (December 29, 2014). "Mars Rover Opportunity Suffers Worrying Bouts of "Amnesia"". Web article. Discovery News. Archived from the original on December 30, 2014. Retrieved December 31, 2014.

Torbet, Georgina (January 26, 2019). "NASA makes last-ditch attempt to revive dormant Mars rover Opportunity". digitaltrends.com. Designtechnica Corporation. Retrieved January 27, 2019. Now NASA scientists are trying a last-ditch attempt to contact the rover based on three unlikely but possible scenarios: that the rover"s primary X-band radio has failed, that both the primary and secondary X-band radios have failed, or that the rover"s internal clock has become offset. The team is commanding the rover to switch to its backup X-band radio and to reset its clock to counteract these possibilities.

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mars.nasa.gov. "Mars Exploration Rover Mission: Press Release Images: Opportunity". nasa.gov. Archived from the original on December 2, 2016. Retrieved January 5, 2017.

NASA"s Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission was a robotic space mission involving two Mars rovers, Mars. It began in 2003 with the launch of the two rovers to explore the Martian surface and geology; both landed on Mars at separate locations in January 2004. Both rovers far outlived their planned missions of 90 Martian solar days: MER-A Spirit was active until March 22, 2010,Opportunity was active until June 10, 2018.

The mission"s scientific objective was to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars. The mission is part of NASA"s Mars Exploration Program, which includes three previous successful landers: the two Viking program landers in 1976 and Mars Pathfinder probe in 1997.

In July 2007, during the fourth mission extension, Martian dust storms blocked sunlight to the rovers and threatened the ability of the craft to gather energy through their solar panels, causing engineers to fear that one or both of them might be permanently disabled. However, the dust storms lifted, allowing them to resume operations.

On May 1, 2009, during its fifth mission extension, Spirit became stuck in soft soil.Spirit was being retasked as a stationary science platform. This mode would enable Spirit to assist scientists in ways that a mobile platform could not, such as detecting "wobbles" in the planet"s rotation that would indicate a liquid core.Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) lost contact with Spirit after last hearing from the rover on March 22, 2010, and continued attempts to regain communications lasted until May 25, 2011, bringing the elapsed mission time to 6 years 2 months 19 days, or over 25 times the original planned mission duration.

In recognition of the vast amount of scientific information amassed by both rovers, two asteroids have been named in their honor: 37452 Spirit and 39382 Opportunity. The mission is managed for NASA by the JPL, which designed, built, and is operating the rovers.

On January 24, 2014, NASA reported that then-current studies by the remaining rover, Opportunity, as well as by the newer Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity would now be searching for evidence of ancient life, including a biosphere based on autotrophic, chemotrophic and/or chemolithoautotrophic microorganisms, as well as ancient water, including fluvio-lacustrine environments (plains related to ancient rivers or lakes) that may have been habitable.habitability, taphonomy (related to fossils), and organic carbon on the planet Mars was then switched to a primary NASA objective.

Perform calibration and validation of surface observations made by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) instruments. This will help determine the accuracy and effectiveness of various instruments that survey Martian geology from orbit.

The MER-A and MER-B probes were launched on June 10, 2003 and July 7, 2003, respectively. Though both probes launched on Boeing Delta II 7925-9.5 rockets from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 17 (CCAFS SLC-17), MER-B was on the heavy version of that launch vehicle, needing the extra energy for Trans-Mars injection. The launch vehicles were integrated onto pads right next to each other,Launch Services Program managed the launch of both spacecraft.

On January 21, 2004, the Deep Space Network lost contact with Spirit, for reasons originally thought to be related to a flare shower over Australia. The rover transmitted a message with no data, but later that day missed another communications session with the Mars Global Surveyor. The next day, JPL received a beep from the rover, indicating that it was in fault mode. On January 23, the flight team succeeded in making the rover send. The fault was believed to have been caused by an error in the rover"s flash memory subsystem. The rover did not perform any scientific activities for ten days, while engineers updated its software and ran tests. The problem was corrected by reformatting Spirit"s flash memory and using a software patch to avoid memory overload; Opportunity was also upgraded with the patch as a precaution. Spirit returned to full scientific operations by February 5.

On March 23, 2004, a news conference was held announcing "major discoveries" of evidence of past liquid water on the Martian surface. A delegation of scientists showed pictures and data revealing a stratified pattern and cross bedding in the rocks of the outcrop inside a crater in Meridiani Planum, landing site of MER-B, Opportunity. This suggested that water once flowed in the region. The irregular distribution of chlorine and bromine also suggests that the place was once the shoreline of a salty sea, now evaporated.

On April 8, 2004, NASA announced that it was extending the mission life of the rovers from three to eight months. It immediately provided additional funding of US$15 million through September, and $2.8 million per month for continuing operations. Later that month, Opportunity arrived at Endurance crater, taking about five days to drive the 200 meters. NASA announced on September 22 that it was extending the mission life of the rovers for another six months. Opportunity was to leave Endurance crater, visit its discarded heat shield, and proceed to Victoria crater. Spirit was to attempt to climb to the top of the Columbia Hills.

With the two rovers still functioning well, NASA later announced another 18-month extension of the mission to September 2006. Opportunity was to visit the "Etched Terrain" and Spirit was to climb a rocky slope toward the top of Husband Hill. On August 21, 2005, Spirit reached the summit of Husband Hill after 581 sols and a journey of 4.81 kilometers (2.99 mi).

Spirit celebrated its one Martian year anniversary (669 sols or 687 Earth days) on November 20, 2005. Opportunity celebrated its anniversary on December 12, 2005. At the beginning of the mission, it was expected that the rovers would not survive much longer than 90 Martian days. The Columbia Hills were "just a dream", according to rover driver Chris Leger. Spirit explored the semicircular rock formation known as Home Plate. It is a layered rock outcrop that puzzles and excites scientists.

Spirit"s front right wheel ceased working on March 13, 2006, while the rover was moving itself to McCool Hill. Its drivers attempted to drag the dead wheel behind Spirit, but this only worked until reaching an impassable sandy area on the lower slopes. Drivers directed Spirit to a smaller sloped feature, dubbed "Low Ridge Haven", where it spent the long Martian winter, waiting for spring and increased solar power levels suitable for driving. That September, Opportunity reached the rim of Victoria crater, and Spaceflight Now reported that NASA had extended mission for the two rovers through September 2007.Opportunity became the first spacecraft to traverse ten kilometers (6.2 miles) on the surface of Mars.

Opportunity was poised to enter Victoria Crater from its perch on the rim of Duck Bay on June 28, 2007,Spirit and Opportunity resumed driving after hunkering down during raging dust storms that limited solar power to a level that nearly caused the permanent failure of both rovers.

On August 26, 2008, Opportunity began its three-day climb out of Victoria crater amidst concerns that power spikes, similar to those seen on Spirit before the failure of its right-front wheel, might prevent it from ever being able to leave the crater if a wheel failed. Project scientist Bruce Banerdt also said, "We"ve done everything we entered Victoria Crater to do and more." Opportunity will return to the plains in order to characterize Meridiani Planum"s vast diversity of rocks—some of which may have been blasted out of craters such as Victoria. The rover had been exploring Victoria Crater since September 11, 2007.

After driving about 3.2 kilometers (2.0 mi) since it left Victoria crater, Opportunity first saw the rim of Endeavour crater on March 7, 2009.Spirit was dug in deep into the Martian sand, much as Opportunity was at Purgatory Dune in 2005.

On January 3 and 24, 2010, Spirit and Opportunity respectively marked six years on Mars.Spirit will be used as a stationary research platform after several months of unsuccessful attempts to free the rover from soft sand.

NASA announced on March 24, 2010, that Opportunity, which has an estimated remaining drive distance of 12 km to Endeavour Crater, has traveled over 20 km since the start of its mission.Spirit may have gone into hibernation for the Martian winter and might not wake up again for months.

On September 8, 2010, it was announced that Opportunity had reached the halfway point of the 19-kilometer journey between Victoria crater and Endeavour crater.

On May 22, 2011, NASA announced that it would cease attempts to contact Spirit, which had been stuck in a sand trap for two years. The last successful communication with the rover was on March 22, 2010. The final transmission to the rover was on May 25, 2011.

On May 16, 2013, NASA announced that Opportunity had driven further than any other NASA vehicle on a world other than Earth.Opportunity"s total odometry went over 35.744 km (22.210 mi), the rover surpassed the total distance driven by the Apollo 17 Lunar Roving Vehicle.

On July 28, 2014, NASA announced that Opportunity had driven further than any other vehicle on a world other than Earth.Opportunity covered over 40 km (25 mi), surpassing the total distance of 39 km (24 mi) driven by the Lunokhod 2 lunar rover, the previous record-holder.

On March 23, 2015, NASA announced that Opportunity had driven the full 42.2 km (26.2 mi) distance of a marathon, with a finish time of roughly 11 years, 2 months.

In June 2018, Opportunity was caught in a global-scale dust storm and the rover"s solar panels were not able to generate enough power, with the last contact on June 10, 2018. NASA resumed sending commands after the dust storm subsided but the rover remained silent, possibly due to a catastrophic failure or a layer of dust covering its solar panels.

A press conference was held on February 13, 2019, that after numerous attempts to obtain contact with Opportunity with no response since June 2018, NASA declared

The cruise stage is the component of the spacecraft that is used for travel from Earth to Mars. It is very similar to the Mars Pathfinder in design and is approximately 2.65 meters (8.7 feet) in diameter and 1.6 m (5.2 ft) tall, including the entry vehicle (see below).

The primary structure is aluminium with an outer ring of ribs covered by the solar panels, which are about 2.65 m (8.7 ft) in diameter. Divided into five sections, the solar arrays can provide up to 600 watts of power near Earth and 300 W at Mars.

To ensure the spacecraft arrived at Mars in the right place for its landing, two light-weight, aluminium-lined tanks carried about 31 kg (about 68 lb) of hydrazine propellant. Along with cruise guidance and control systems, the propellant allowed navigators to keep the spacecraft on course. Burns and pulse firings of the propellant allowed three types of maneuvers:

Navigators sent commands through two antennas on the cruise stage: a cruise low-gain antenna mounted inside the inner ring, and a cruise medium-gain antenna in the outer ring. The low-gain antenna was used close to Earth. It is omni-directional, so the transmission power that reached Earth fell faster with increasing distance. As the craft moved closer to Mars, the Sun and Earth moved closer in the sky as viewed from the craft, so less energy reached Earth. The spacecraft then switched to the medium-gain antenna, which directed the same amount of transmission power into a tighter beam toward Earth.

The aeroshell maintained a protective covering for the lander during the seven-month voyage to Mars. Together with the lander and the rover, it constituted the "entry vehicle". Its main purpose was to protect the lander and the rover inside it from the intense heat of entry into the thin Martian atmosphere. It was based on the Mars Pathfinder and Mars Viking designs.

The aeroshell was made of two main parts: a heat shield and a backshell. The heat shield was flat and brownish, and protected the lander and rover during entry into the Martian atmosphere and acted as the first aerobrake for the spacecraft. The backshell was large, cone-shaped and painted white. It carried the parachute and several components used in later stages of entry, descent, and landing, including:

The ablator itself is a unique blend of cork wood, binder and many tiny silica glass spheres. It was invented for the heat shields flown on the Viking Mars lander missions. A similar technology was used in the first US crewed space missions Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. It was specially formulated to react chemically with the Martian atmosphere during entry and carry heat away, leaving a hot wake of gas behind the vehicle. The vehicle slowed from 19,000 to 1,600 km/h (5,300 to 440 m/s) in about a minute, producing about 60 m/s2 (6 acceleration on the lander and rover.

The 2003 parachute design was part of a long-term Mars parachute technology development effort and is based on the designs and experience of the Viking and Pathfinder missions. The parachute for this mission is 40% larger than Pathfinder"s because the largest load for the Mars Exploration Rover is 80 to 85 kilonewtons (kN) or 80 to 85 kN (18,000 to 19,000 lbf) when the parachute fully inflates. By comparison, Pathfinder"s inflation loads were approximately 35 kN (about 8,000 lbf). The parachute was designed and constructed in South Windsor, Connecticut by Pioneer Aerospace, the company that also designed the parachute for the

Rocket assisted descent (RAD) motors: Because the atmospheric density of Mars is less than 1% of Earth"s, the parachute alone could not slow down the Mars Exploration Rover enough to ensure a safe, low landing speed. The spacecraft descent was assisted by rockets that brought the spacecraft to a dead stop 10–15 m (33–49 ft) above the Martian surface.

Airbags used in the Mars Exploration Rover mission are the same type that Mars Pathfinder used in 1997. They had to be strong enough to cushion the spacecraft if it landed on rocks or rough terrain and allow it to bounce across Mars" surface at highway speeds (about 100 km/h) after landing. The airbags had to be inflated seconds before touchdown and deflated once safely on the ground.

After the lander stopped bouncing and rolling on the ground, it came to rest on the base of the tetrahedron or one of its sides. The sides then opened to make the base horizontal and the rover upright. The sides are connected to the base by hinges, each of which has a motor strong enough to lift the lander. The rover plus lander has a mass of about 533 kilograms (1,175 pounds). The rover alone has a mass of about 185 kg (408 lb). The gravity on Mars is about 38% of Earth"s, so the motor does not need to be as powerful as it would on Earth.

The rover contains accelerometers to detect which way is down (toward the surface of Mars) by measuring the pull of gravity. The rover computer then commanded the correct lander petal to open to place the rover upright. Once the base petal was down and the rover was upright, the other two petals were opened.

The moving of the rover off the lander is called the egress phase of the mission. The rover must avoid having its wheels caught in the airbag material or falling off a sharp incline. To help this, a retraction system on the petals slowly drags the airbags toward the lander before the petals open. Small ramps on the petals fan out to fill spaces between the petals. They cover uneven terrain, rock obstacles, and airbag material, and form a circular area from which the rover can drive off in more directions. They also lower the step that the rover must climb down. They are nicknamed "batwings", and are made of Vectran cloth.

For comparison, the Mars Science Laboratory"s power system is composed of a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) produced by Boeing.kilowatt hours per day, compared to the Mars Exploration Rovers, which can generate about 0.6 kilowatt hours per day.

It was thought that by the end of the 90-sol mission, the capability of the solar arrays to generate power would likely be reduced to about 50 watts. This was due to anticipated dust coverage on the solar arrays, and the change in season. Over three Earth years later, however, the rovers" power supplies hovered between 300 watt-hours and 900 watt-hours per day, depending on dust coverage. Cleaning events (dust removal by wind) have occurred more often than NASA expected, keeping the arrays relatively free of dust and extending the life of the mission. During a 2007 global dust storm on Mars, both rovers experienced some of the lowest power of the mission; Opportunity dipped to 128 watt-hours. In November 2008, Spirit had overtaken this low-energy record with a production of 89 watt-hours, due to dust storms in the region of Gusev crater.

The rovers run a VxWorks embedded operating system on a radiation-hardened 20 MHz RAD6000 CPU with 128 MB of DRAM with error detection and correction and 3 MB of EEPROM. Each rover also has 256 MB of flash memory. To survive during the various mission phases, the rover"s vital instruments must stay within a temperature of −40 °C to +40 °C (−40 °F to 104 °F). At night, the rovers are heated by eight radioisotope heater units (RHU), which each continuously generate 1 W of thermal energy from the decay of radioisotopes, along with electrical heaters that operate only when necessary. A sputtered gold film and a layer of silica aerogel are used for insulation.

The rover has an X band low-gain and an X band high-gain antenna for communications to and from the Earth, as well as an ultra high frequency monopole antenna for relay communications. The low-gain antenna is omnidirectional, and transmits data at a low rate to Deep Space Network antennas on Earth. The high-gain antenna is directional and steerable, and can transmit data to Earth at a higher rate. The rovers use the UHF monopole and its CE505 radio to communicate with spacecraft orbiting Mars, the Mars Odyssey and (before its failure) the Mars Global Surveyor (already more than 7.6 terabits of data were transferred using its Mars Relay antenna and Mars Orbiter Camera"s memory buffer of 12 MB).high-powered antennas.

ICER is based on wavelets, and was designed specifically for deep-space applications. It produces progressive compression, both lossless and lossy, and incorporates an error-containment scheme to limit the effects of data loss on the deep-space channel. It outperforms the lossy JPEG image compressor and the lossless Rice compressor used by the Mars Pathfinder mission.

A periscope assembly for the Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES), which identifies promising rocks and soils for closer examination, and determines the processes that formed them. The Mini-TES was built by Arizona State University. The periscope assembly features two beryllium fold mirrors, a shroud that closes to minimize dust contamination in the assembly, and stray-light rejection baffles that are strategically placed within the graphite epoxy tubes.

I used to live in an orphanage. It was dark and cold and lonely. At night, I looked up at the sparkly sky and felt better. I dreamed I could fly there. In America, I can make all my dreams come true. Thank you for the "Spirit" and the "Opportunity."

Prior to this, during the development and building of the rovers, they were known as MER-1 Rover 1 (Opportunity) and MER-2 Rover 2 (Spirit). Internally, NASA also uses the mission designations MER-A (Spirit) and MER-B (Opportunity) based on the order of landing on Mars.

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory maintains a pair of rovers, the Surface System Test-Beds (SSTB) at its location in Pasadena for testing and modeling of situations on Mars. One test rover, SSTB1, weighing approximately 180 kg (400 lb), is fully instrumented and nearly identical to Spirit and Opportunity. Another test version, SSTB-Lite, is identical in size and drive characteristics but does not include all instruments. It weighs 80 kg (180 lb), much closer to the weight of Spirit and Opportunity in the reduced gravity of Mars. These rovers were used in 2009 for a simulation of the incident in which Spirit became trapped in soft soil.

These rocks can be classified in different ways. The amounts and types of minerals make the rocks primitive basalts—also called picritic basalts. The rocks are similar to ancient terrestrial rocks called basaltic komatiites. Rocks of the plains also resemble the basaltic shergottites, meteorites which came from Mars. One classification system compares the amount of alkali elements to the amount of silica on a graph; in this system, Gusev plains rocks lie near the junction of basalt, picrobasalt, and tephrite. The Irvine-Barager classification calls them basalts.

Towards the middle of the six-year mission (a mission that was supposed to last only 90 days), large amounts of pure silica were found in the soil. The silica could have come from the interaction of soil with acid vapors produced by volcanic activity in the presence of water or from water in a hot spring environment.

After Spirit stopped working scientists studied old data from the Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer, or Mini-TES and confirmed the presence of large amounts of carbonate-rich rocks, which means that regions of the planet may have once harbored water. The carbonates were discovered in an outcrop of rocks called "Comanche."

In summary, Spirit found evidence of slight weathering on the plains of Gusev, but no evidence that a lake was there. However, in the Columbia Hills there was clear evidence for a moderate amount of aqueous weathering. The evidence included sulfates and the minerals goethite and carbonates which only form in the presence of water. It is believed that Gusev crater may have held a lake long ago, but it has since been covered by igneous materials. All the dust contains a magnetic component which was identified as magnetite with some titanium. Furthermore, the thin coating of dust that covers everything on Mars is the same in all parts of Mars.

The Opportunity rover landed in a small crater, dubbed "Eagle", on the flat plains of Meridiani. The plains of the landing site were characterized by the presence of a large number of small spherules, spherical concretions that were tagged "blueberries" by the science team, which were found both loose on the surface, and also embedded in the rock. These proved to have a high concentration of the mineral hematite, and showed the signature of being formed in an aqueous environment. The layered bedrock revealed in the crater walls showed signs of being sedimentary in nature, and compositional and microscopic-imagery analysis showed this to be primarily with composition of Jarosite, a ferrous sulfate mineral that is characteristically an evaporite that is the residue from the evaporation of a salty pond or sea.

The mission has provided substantial evidence of past water activity on Mars. In addition to investigating the "water hypothesis", Opportunity has also obtained astronomical observations and atmospheric data.

The extended mission took the rover across the plains to a series of larger craters in the south, with the arrival at the edge of a 25-km diameter crater, Endeavour Crater, eight years after landing. The orbital spectroscopy of this crater rim show the signs of phyllosilicate rocks, indicative of older sedimentary deposits.

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SAN FRANCISCO — NASA plans to follow up its Mars rover Curiosity mission with a duplicate rover that could collect and store samples for return to Earth, the agency"s lead scientist said on Tuesday.

The rover will use spare parts and engineering models developed for Curiosity, four months into the $2.5 billion, two-year mission on Mars to look for habitats that could have supported microbial life.

Replicating the rover"s chassis, sky-crane landing system and other gear will enable NASA to cut the cost of the new mission to about $1.5 billion, said John Grunsfeld, the space agency"s associate administrator for science, said Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco.

Budget shortfalls forced NASA to pull out of a series of joint missions with Europe, designed to return rock and soil samples from Mars in the 2020s. Europe, instead, will partner with Russia for the launch vehicle and other equipment that was to have been provided by NASA.

Grunsfeld said NASA will provide a key organics experiment for Europe"s ExoMars ro