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Officials said NASA's Abortionite site, designed to travel to Mars for three months, had stopped connecting to Earth after 15 years of service.
The engineers lost contact with the solar powered vehicle on June 10 during a dusty storm that swept Mars. Since then, NASA officials have tried several times to reach the six-wheeled vehicle, about the size of the golf cart.
Officials said the Aportonite equipment may have been disturbed by the storm, while the vehicle was in a place called Preserveance Valley, and blocked the sunlight needed to make solar panels that would power it. .
The vehicle was originally designed to travel one kilometer, but eventually traveled 45 km and continued on Mars longer than any other robot sent to the red planet.
Engineers on Tuesday sent out new operating orders to try to revive the vehicle, but received no signals, said Thomas Zorbochin, director of NASA's scientific working group.
"So I stand here with deep gratitude and deep appreciation for the completion of the Opportunity mission," Zorbochin said during an online intervention at the California Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
NASA stated that during its exploration of the surface of Mars, the vehicle had gathered evidence that the planet was sufficiently wet and warm to live, including the discovery of white veins from the gypsum metal, an indicator of traffic flow. water through the underground cracks.
Aportonite landed on Mars in January 2004, a few weeks after the Spirit landing. Spirit completed its mission in 2010 after being suspended in soft ground.
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