Six Things You Should Know About NASA's Opportunity Mars Rover

After 15 years, the mission of NASA's Rover Rover has ended, but its successes on Mars have earned it a place in the robot hall of fame. Here you need to know about NASA  intrepid Martian overachiever:
1. The opportunity was a twin.

The Mars Exploration Rovers Mission included two identical, golf-cart-sizes, solar-powered rovers: spirit and opportunity. On January 4, 2004, the soul landed in the Gazeve Crater On January 24, 2004, on the occasion of PST (Jan. 25 EST) landed on the opposite side of Mars in Meridiani Planham. Both rovers were managed by NASA for Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

2. Opportunity and Spirit showed that Mars had wet and warm conditions in its ancient past that were potentially hospitable to life.

The most important of many scientific discoveries of soul and opportunity: Mars was wet and warm in the past. These conditions could work on Mars as a blessing for life at a time when life has emerged for the first time on Earth.

Opportunity draws many important conclusions on this conclusion It was the first rover to identify and describe the sedimentary rocks on a planet other than the Earth. The measure of opportunity showed these rocks built in ancient almanac dramas. Opportunity also explored the small areas of Hematit nicknamed "Blueberry", which are formed late by rising, acidic groundwater. Once the opportunity reached the end of the Endeavor Crater, Rover found white veins of mineral gypsum - a telltale signal of water that traveled through the underground fracture. The opportunity also meets the more compelling signs of the past of Mars's water in the rocks of Endeavor Crater: Soil Minerals, which are made of neutral-pH (not very acidic, not very basic) water. Of all the places studied by the Opportunity, there were the most favorable conditions for ancient microbial life in Endeavor's environment.

3. Opportunity is an off-world record holder.

Opportunity works on the surface of Mars more than any other robot - more than 14 years. It crossed the original 90-day mission planned for the occasion and the soul.

During the time of the occasion on Mars, it covered a total of 28.06 miles (45.16 kilometers), which set the record for the longest drive in any other world in 2014.

4. The opportunity was the little rover that could.

The opportunity did not save more than 14 years, because its mission was easy. It faced the challenges for which its engineers needed resources. For example, the rover's right-hand wheel is sometimes more current than other wheels, so engineers often left behind to extend the rover to the right front wheel's life.

The terrain was treacherous. After landing in Rover's eagle crater, his wheels slipped on loose slopes when he first tried to get out of the pit. Rover planners had to come up with constructive driving strategies to get out - some of them again on the endurance crater, where the slope was standing as 31 degrees. On April 26, 2005, the wheels of opportunity were dug in a soft, wind-shaped sand-wave and trapped for many nail-cutting weeks in "Purary Dune". But after extensive testing in the sandbox like Mars in JPL, the team was carefully able to get out of the Martian sand trap.

The opportunity had to face two mission-threatening dust storms which prevented sunlight from reaching its solar panels. When the sky was clear when it was minimized in 2007 and sustained enough power in its battery, it escaped the dust storm. Unfortunately, a dust storm of 2018 brought out more sunlight and kept the sky up for nearly a month.

5. Opportunity and Spirit showed us the beauty of Mars.

Opportunity and Opportunity were fond of documentaries, which provided us with a humanistic view of living on Mars. They return more than 342,000 raw images, who were instantly posted online for everyone's pleasure. These two rovers also produced 31 stunning 360-degree color panoramas.

The most memorable picture opportunity - along with the waves of sand, which were similar to the waves on the water, fragments of jumble rock on a pit rim, whirling the devils of dust and their own track with a ridge - the perfect beauty of Mars And discover the drama of exploration.

6. The story of Opportunity and Spirit is not over. Their lessons live on in current and future Mars missions.

The success of the Mars Exploration Rovers helped drive the growth of NASA's Mars program, building support for orbiters and new kinds of rovers. Spirit and Opportunity showed how mobile robots on Mars could communicate reliably with Earth (either directly or by employing orbiters around Mars as relays back to our home planet), use 3-D vision to navigate the Martian terrain and make autonomous science observations.

Curiosity and the upcoming Mars 2020 rovers build upon the lessons of Spirit and Opportunity. And scientists will continue to make new discoveries from the Mars Exploration Rovers data for years to come.

Spirit and Opportunity have been a fertile training ground for the many hundreds of engineers and planetary scientists who have learned at their robotic knees. A number have gone on to lead other space missions. Many of those currently operating Opportunity are sharing their expertise part-time with other missions exploring our solar system. For most, working on Spirit and Opportunity has been transformative.