On Tuesday, February 12, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) made its last attempt at contact with Opportunity, the record-setting Mars rover. Since June 2018, NASA has been unable to receive signal from the damaged rover — a devastating dust storm had covered the craft’s solar panels. Over one thousand attempts were made to try to receive signal from Opportunity, but the likelihood of getting anything from it was far too low to continue trying.
Opportunity not only completed its mission purpose, but went above and beyond its expected work. Landing on January 24, 2004, Opportunity’s initial purpose was a 90-day exploration of the surface, and the distance it was going to travel was not expected to exceed half of a mile. Its twin rover, Spirit, landed 20 days earlier and ended its mission in May 2011 after it got stuck in a sand trap. However, Opportunity trekked on for the next 15 years, covering over 26 miles and discovering more than NASA had ever imagined it would.
Within its first few days on Mars, Opportunity made an astonishing discovery. Landing in a crater, the rover’s cameras immediately detected layers of bedrock. When looked at closer, these rocks were found to be formed in liquid water. Mars was no longer a planet known for dust and desolation; the prospect of past liquid water provided evidence that Mars could have been a habitable planet several billion years ago. Smaller rocks, nicknamed “blueberries,” were also found at the surface and contained high levels of hematite. Hematite is typically found in places where there was once a body of liquid water, and these discoveries suggested that Mars was once home to a large lake full of drinkable water.
Exploration on Mars is far from complete as both NASA and the European Space Agency are currently working on rovers to launch in July 2020. The purpose of these crafts is to search for signs of past microbial life on Mars as well as provide engineers with a thorough understanding of the Martian environment. This thorough understanding will lay the foundation for humans to orbit and land on Mars, which is expected to happen in the 2030s.
Be First to Comment