When NASA ’s chance rover launched on July 7th , 2003 , prospect were modest . It would pass 90 Martian solar day explore soil and rock samples and take panoramas of the Red Planet ; anything else would be a bonus . Nearly ten age after its initial switching was up , Opportunity is still get potent .
Not that it ’s been an easy journey . While chance has n’t experienced the same asperity as its twin scouter , Spirit ( whose desertion was immortalizedin this brilliant XKCD comedian ) , it ’s had its portion of troubles . It spent a niggling over two month trapped in a sand dune before its operators were able-bodied to wriggle it free centimeter by centimeter , and it ’s overcome mechanical problem aplenty . Not to name the overwhelming loneliness .
Despite all that , Opportunity has spent the last 3449 days driving nigh 23 mile around the surface of another public . Its discovery include the first meteorite receive outside of Earth , a temperature visibility of the Martian aura , and tiny , atomic number 26 - rich spheres known as “ blueberries ” that intimation at a prison term when Mars had water . In fact , Opportunity ’s most important breakthrough may have come just last calendar month : A rock that raise that Martian water was once potable . Which in play suggests powerfully that life could once have thrived there .
Opportunity ’s quest is far from over ; the little wanderer that could will keep taking its measurement until it breaks , or gets stick by , or NASA mislay its support once and for all . Godspeed , short buddy . We ca n’t wait to see what the next 10 years hold for you — and for our understanding of the universe of discourse .
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