48. Opportunity (the rover)

Opportunity was a rover that rolled over the rocky surface of Mars, but it was like no other

rover. It achieved something that no one would have expected; its 90-day mission lasted 14 years and 138 days.

Opportunity and it's twin rover Spirit launched on 25 January, 2004. seven months later Spirit and Opportunity landed on opposite sides of the planet. Opportunity was the second of the two rovers as part of the Mars Exploration Rover program (MER) with the goal of searching for signs of ancient water.

Opportunity showed that it is possible to operate a rover on another planet for more than ten years and generated an immense scientific legacy. The rover explored the Martian surface for 5111 sols (14 years) before it stopped communicating with Earth due to a severe dust storm in June 2018. The dust storm, like every other one, blanketed out the sun and therefore, took away Opportunity's source of energy. But unlike the other dust storms that Opportunity had survived, there were no miracles this time.

Opportunity's mission was to find traces of past water. During its mission, Opportunity made several amazing discoveries about Mars, including evidence of water activity in the distant past and exciting discoveries of huge craters and sand dunes Additionally, Opportunity gave us an insight into the Martian environment by measuring temperatures, wind speeds, and atmospheric pressures

Opportunity has made a number of discoveries in its 14-year mission on Mars. It visited and studied over 100 craters on the Martian surface. It measured the type and rarity of water-carved iron rich minerals in the rocks on the ground. It also found some stones containing some interesting minerals, which may lead to the discovery of early life forms on Mars.

Opportunity also discovered dozens of daily 'dust devils' during the Martian spring. These dust devils are like mini tornados. They are swirls of dust that helped clean up the solar panels of Opportunity after a long travel on Mars or after a huge dust storm. Opportunity discovered the first meteorite ever found on another planet, in this case, Mars. The meteorite was named Heat Shield Rock, and it was a baseball sized stony iron rock that created an unknown sized crater, as it was worn away by the time we discovered it. Heat Shield Rock is one of the only of it's kind. The rover also sent images to Earth that included panoramas of an alien landscape and information about colour variations in rocks, soils, and dust.

By demonstrating that it is possible to land safely and operate sophisticated equipment on Mars, Opportunity opened up many possibilities for future space exploration.

Until next time, give me space!

Henry