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The rover lasted well beyond its expected lifeNASA
Last week we said a dark goodbye NASA's rover Opportunity, active on Mars for nearly 15 years. What better way to remember the mission than to look at the last picture sent home?
The occasion landed on Mars on January 25, 2004. It was to last 90 Martian days or 87 Earth days, but survived 5,111 soils until June 10, 2018.
It was the day when a dust storm on Mars began to invade the entire planet. Mars experiences seasonal dust storms when the Sun's heat causes it to rise to the surface. These can often last for weeks, moderately reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the surface.
By mid-2018, however, Opportunity had the toughest test of all – a global dust storm that lasted months, bringing light to just 0.002 percent of its usual level. As Opportunity depended on solar energy to survive, these conditions were unbearable. Despite attempts to hibernate through the storm by switching to safe mode, when the storm finally calmed down at the end of 2018, the rover failed to wake up. On Wednesday, February 13, NASA announced that it would stop trying to contact the rover.
Just before the rover entered his endless sleep, he sent a last picture of Mars to Earth. The image, taken by its panoramic camera, was supposed to show an area known as Perseverance Valley. But instead, the image showed static and darkness as the deadly storm infiltrated.
This final image was taken on June 10, 2018NASA
That's right, this picture does not show the stars in the night sky on Mars. The darkness here is actually caused by the storm, while the white spots are static because of the camera noise. The black bar at the bottom represents the data that was not received from the mobile because their transmission to the Earth was interrupted and the mobile disabled.
"We are facing a tiny amount of sunlight – 0.002% of the normal sunlight that we would expect to see," Bill Nelson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), head of the NASA team. Opportunity mission engineering, said Mashable. "If you were there, it would be late twilight, your human eye could still distinguish some features, but it would be very dark."
The mission of opportunity on Mars has been successful. He traveled more than 45 km and took over 217,000 images, revealing fascinating details about what was Mars a long time ago. He found evidence that Mars once had large amounts of water on its surface and was once habitable.
NASA still has two active machines on the surface of Mars, the Curiosity rover and the InSight stationary undercarriage. But for Opportunity, he joined his twin Spirit, which remained silent in 2010, taking a well-deserved rest.
"I can not think of a more appropriate place to survive on the surface of Mars than a place called Perseverance Valley," Michael Watkins, director of JPL, said in a statement. declaration. "The archives, the discoveries and the sheer tenacity of this intrepid little beast testify to the ingenuity, dedication and perseverance of the people who built and guided it."
And this final picture gives us a glimpse of the last thing Opportunity saw before closing our eyes forever.
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The rover lasted well beyond its expected lifeNASA
Last week, we said goodbye to NASA's rover Opportunity, which has been active on Mars for almost 15 years. What better way to remember the mission than to look at the last picture sent home?
The occasion landed on Mars on January 25, 2004. It was to last 90 Martian days or 87 Earth days, but survived 5,111 soils until June 10, 2018.
It was the day when a dust storm on Mars began to invade the entire planet. Mars experiences seasonal dust storms when the Sun's heat causes it to rise to the surface. These can often last for weeks, moderately reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the surface.
By mid-2018, however, Opportunity had the toughest test of all – a global dust storm that lasted months, bringing light to just 0.002 percent of its usual level. As Opportunity depended on solar energy to survive, these conditions were unbearable. Despite attempts to hibernate through the storm by switching to safe mode, when the storm finally calmed down at the end of 2018, the rover failed to wake up. On Wednesday, February 13, NASA announced that it would stop trying to contact the rover.
Just before the rover entered his endless sleep, he sent a last picture of Mars to Earth. The image, taken by its panoramic camera, was supposed to show an area known as Perseverance Valley. But instead, the image showed static and darkness as the deadly storm infiltrated.
This final image was taken on June 10, 2018NASA
That's right, this picture does not show the stars in the night sky on Mars. The darkness here is actually caused by the storm, while the white spots are static because of the camera noise. The black bar at the bottom represents the data that was not received from the mobile because their transmission to the Earth was interrupted and the mobile disabled.
"We expect an incredibly low amount of sunlight – 0.002% of normal sunlight," said Mashable Bill Nelson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the leader of the team. Opportunity mission engineering. "If you were here, it would be the end of twilight, your human eye would still be able to distinguish certain features, but it would be very dark."
The mission of opportunity on Mars has been successful. He traveled more than 45 km and took over 217,000 images, revealing fascinating details about what was Mars a long time ago. He found evidence that Mars once had large amounts of water on its surface and was once habitable.
NASA still has two active machines on the surface of Mars, the Curiosity rover and the InSight stationary undercarriage. But for Opportunity, he joined his twin Spirit, which remained silent in 2010, taking a well-deserved rest.
"I can not think of a place more suitable for Opportunity on the surface of Mars than the one called Perseverance Valley," said Michael Watkins, director of the JPL, in a statement. "The archives, the discoveries and the tenacity of this intrepid little beast testify to the ingenuity, dedication and perseverance of the people who built and guided it."
And this final picture gives us a glimpse of the last thing Opportunity saw before closing our eyes forever.