NASA Announces Closing of Exploration Robot Mars Exploration Opportunity – Space – Science



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NASA has officially declared this mission closed, communications with Opportunity being interrupted since June 10.

"After more than 800 contact attempts with @MarsRovers Opportunity, we are announcing today the end of a successful Mars mission," said NASA leader Jim Braidenstike. "Oppy, who was supposed to study the red planet for 90 days, has gone beyond the life of his mission of more than 14 years."

Mars landscape made by probe opportunity.

PHOTO: NASA / JPL / Cornell

"Opportunity" arrived on Mars in January 2004. It was only silent last June during a dust storm that had invaded the planet. NASA engineers continued their efforts to communicate with the robot, believing that the dust from solar panels could have blocked the sunlight. In recent months, they have been trying in the hope that the March winds could clean the dust from November to January.

One of the newest companies Opportunity.

PHOTO: NASA

NASA engineers last tried to revive "the opportunity" on Tuesday.

Braidening said that this mission was "one of the most successful and long-term interplanar research activities", where the data obtained can guarantee that astronauts will never be able to move on Mars.

NASA has announced that the robot has a life expectancy 60 times higher and has traveled a total of 45 kilometers on Mars, well above the expected kilometer.

The main objective of the robot was to look for historical evidence on the climate and water of Mars in places where life might have been favorable at one time. Mars has been discovered to be a wet and potentially habitable planet in the distant past.

"Opportunity" sent over 217,000 images.

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