Opportunity: Nine Years on Mars...

Yesterday was the ninth anniversary of Opportunity's landing on Mars.  The plucky little rover was designed to last just 90 days, but it did a little better than that – and it's not done yet.  The panorama below was stitched together from many individual images, and shows over 210° of view from Opportunity's current perch on the rim of Endeavour Crater.  Full resolution version here.  From APOD, of course.

How Quickly We Forget...

It's been nine years ago this week:

Opportunity, NASA's other Mars rover, has tooled around the red planet for so long it's easy to forget it's still alive.

Some 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) away from the limelight surrounding Curiosity's every move, Opportunity this week quietly embarks on its tenth year of exploration—a sweet milestone since it was only tasked to work for three months.

"Opportunity is still going. Go figure," said mission deputy principal investigator Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis.

Designed for three months of operation, but here we are 108 months later and Opportunity is still going strong, and still returning good science.  An astronaut wouldn't have lasted quite so long :)

Opportunity's Latest Panorama...

The Opportunity rover, still working hard on Mars, took 817 photos between December 2011 and May 2012 (the latest Martian winter).  These were stitched together to form a panorama that stretches nearly 360°, showing incredible detail around the site where Opportunity spent the winter.  Awesome!  Be sure to click to see it full size (original image here).

The Greeley Panorama...

Opportunity Rises...

We're talking about the Opportunity on Mars, the pluckly little rover that just keeps on going and going.  It's been “asleep” for the Martian winter, and yesterday finally got enough power to motor up and roll around a bit.  All systems are working just fine.  Over the next few weeks, Opportunity will get more and more sunshine on its solar panels, and will do increasing amounts of exploration work around the Endeavour crater where it's currently located.

In a few months, barring some mishap, Opportunity will be joined on the Martian surface by a new rover, this one named Curiousity.  This new rover is much bigger, longer-lived, and more capable than Opportunity – but for those of us who have been avidly following the adventures of Opportunity (and it's lost sibling, Spirit), Curiousity will be hard put to match its predecessors...

More Evidence for Liquid Water on Mars...

And the evidence comes via the plucky Mars rover “Opportunity”, currently exploring the Endeavour Crater.  It's now eight years into it's 90 day mission...

Gypsum on Mars...

Gypsum is a mineral, the stuff that's in the core of drywall.  It's very common on Earth, and had been previously detected on Mars.  What's new here is that the Mars rover Opportunity spotted a vein of gypsum (at right, click to enlarge) – and the only way anybody knows of that such a vein could be formed requires the presence of liquid water.  In other words, this is the equivalent of an old sign saying “Liquid water was once present here!”  Lots of other things found on Mars were already hinting that liquid water was once present on Mars – but this finding makes it all but certain...

Opportunity at Endeavour Crater...

The Mars rover Opportunity is already hard at work in the Endeavour Crater, which it only recently reached after years of travel.  It's already finding things never before seen on Mars, like the rock at right:

This is a clue ... that we may be dealing with a hydrothermal system here," Squyres said. "We may be dealing with a situation where water has percolated or flowed or somehow moved through these rocks -- maybe as vapor or maybe as liquid. We don't know yet.

 Go, Opportunity, go!

Opportunity on Spirit Point...

The plucky little Martian explorer Opportunity has arrived at Spirit Point, named after it's sibling spacecraft now presumed dead on the other side of Mars.  Spirit Point overlooks Endeavour Crater, where Opportunity will likely be working for years.

If you've forgotten all about Spirit and Opportunity, here's a reminder: they landed on Mars in 2003, and were designed to be operational for just 3 months.  Spirit lasted 7 years (it died last fall) and Opportunity is still going strong 8 years later.  Much of the credit for this unexpected longevity is due to the design team, but some of it is just plain luck: it turns out that the dust devils that frequently whisk across the Martian surface keep the explorers' solar panels relatively free of dust.  Prior to the actual mission, engineers were expecting the red Martian dust to slowly accumulate on the solar panels.  This would slowly reduce their power output until finally the explorers would run out of juice.  The entire team was surprised – very pleasantly! – that the unpredictable dust devils have been coming along frequently enough to blow the panels clean well before the explorers ran out of juice...

Seven Years of Opportunity...

APOD has a celebratory post up today – celebrating seven years on Mars by the amazing Opportunity explorer.  Designed for a mission of 90 days, it is still in nearly perfect condition seven years later.  It has now logged over 15 miles (27 km) of roving over the Martian surface, far more than its designers ever dreamed of.  It's also had its share of good luck: unexpectedly common dust devils have cleaned the accumulated dust off its solar panels on several occasions.  Without these lovely dust storms, Opportunity's solar panels would long ago have been blocked.

Opportunity's sibling rover Spirit is also still operational, but it has suffered more component failures (especially its wheels) and is now stuck in one place.  Nevertheless, it's still doing yeoman science work every day.

Click on the image below to see it greatly magnified, or see it on APOD...

Dust Devil...

On Mars, that is.  This image was captured by Opportunity, still hard at work on the surface of Mars, 6.5 years after its 90 day mission “ended”.  This is the first dust devil seen by Opportunity.  It's twin Spirit, halfway around the planet, has seen dozens of them. 

Winter is just ending in Spirit's part of Mars, and NASA has not yet heard from it since it shut down to “hibernate” for the winter.  It may be the end of the line for Spirit; the reports from NASA don't sound very optimistic.  The main problem was that it got stuck in one place of soft soil (probably resting its belly on a rock), and couldn't move to a nice, sunny spot for the winter...