Don't Bogart My Blog: Science Times: A Special #ThanksOppy Mars Edition

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Friday, February 15, 2019

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Opportunity Knocks Off

Baby picture of the rovers. Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory check Opportunity's solar panels as they were preparing the spacecraft for launch. NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

On Wednesday, NASA announced that Opportunity, the intrepid robotic rover that has studied Mars for more than 14 years had reached the end of its mission. It fell silent last summer after being engulfed by a vast dust storm, which likely covered Opportunity's solar panels and cut off its power. For months NASA tried to contact it, to no avail; Opportunity's time had come.

"On Tuesday night, NASA made one last call to Opportunity," Kenneth Chang wrote for The Times. "There was no reply."

Mr. Chang joined The Times's science desk in 2000; Opportunity, which was launched in 2003, was the first NASA mission he covered here. "It doesn't feel like 15 years ago," he recalled on Friday from his desk. "It feels like last week."

At first, he said, "it looked like the whole mission might go up in flames." A twin NASA rover, Spirit, had already landed on the other side of Mars, but it stopped communicating with Earth three days before Opportunity was due to touch down. NASA engineers finally fixed it from afar. But, Mr. Chang said, they were still nervous about the unusual landing method – cocooned in giant air bags, bouncing along the surface of Mars.

No worries. Mr. Chang was at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., anxiously waiting alongside the engineers for a call from Opportunity. When it sent back its first photo a few hours later, "everyone was flabbergasted," he said. During its landing, the rover had managed to roll into a small crater with exposed layers of sedimentary rock – an open textbook of Martian geological history. NASA couldn't have asked for better luck.

Opportunity's mission was meant to last just three months, but the rover kept going, and going. "It went from, 'This isn't going to last' to 'This is working' to 'This is never going to end,'" Mr. Chang said.

But, finally, it did. Mr. Chang has already turned his reporter's eye to what the next generation of Mars explorers reveal, as well as NASA's Curiosity rover, currently trundling up a mountain, and the Insight lander, which will listen for marsquakes. But that data will be months to years in arriving. "Everything is a waiting game," he said.

Time moves slowly in outer space. Not so on Earth.

One of Opportunity's project managers had a new son back when the mission was first conceived; now the son is 19. A high-school student who once visited the Opportunity team at J.P.L was appointed the mission's deputy project scientist in 2016. And while Steven W. Squyres, a Cornell astronomer and the mission's ebullient principal investigator has the enthusiasm of "a twelve-year-old who's excited about everything," Mr. Chang said, he now has white hair.

Alan Burdick

Science Times senior staff editor

Scenes from a long drive on Mars. Clockwise from top left: a raised section of the western rim of Endeavour Crater; tracks along a sand ripple; a view of the plain after a drive in 2011; and the edge of Santa Maria crater. NASA/JPL

Photos From the Opportunity Rover's Mission on Mars

By KENNETH CHANG

Scientific highlights and snapshots from the journey of NASA's long-lasting robotic explorer.

Follow the Path of Opportunity

By JONATHAN CORUM

Fifteen years and 28 miles on the red planet.

The shadow of NASA's Opportunity rover on the Martian surface in 2004. The rover was designed for 90 days of exploration, but remained functional for more than 5,000 Martian days.

NASA/JPL

NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity Concludes a 15-Year Mission

By KENNETH CHANG

Silent since a giant dust storm last summer, the rover was the longest-lasting robot on another planet ever.

The spacecraft almost did not have wheels

NASA often changes its mind. In one of the incarnations of the Opportunity mission, the same set of instruments that ended up on the rover were going to be put on a stationary lander that set down in the same plain that Opportunity explored. The mission would have found the hematite iron oxide mineral that was primary goal.
"And that would have been it," said Steven W. Squyres, the principal investigator.
As a rover, Opportunity was able to do much, much more. "It's funny how life works out sometimes," Dr. Squyres said.

Around the web

Abigail Fraeman, the deputy project scientist, reminisces. (The Washington Post)

The Onion offered its usual funny and touching take on the news.

In his comic strip XKCD, Randall Munroe also offered a tribute to Opportunity.

Opportunity through the years

"NASA to Send Large Rover To Explore Surface of Mars," July 28, 2000.

"A Second Mars Rover Lands as NASA Tries to Repair the First," Jan. 25, 2004.

"Mars Rover's Latest Find: Shiny Pebbles In a Crater," Feb. 20, 2004.

"Martian Robots, Taking Orders From a Manhattan Walk-Up," Nov. 7, 2004. (A piece of aluminum that protected cables on the rovers' drills was machined out of metal debris recovered from the fallen World Trade Center towers.)

"Beyond Their Martian Dreams: Two Rovers Are Still Informing Experts Two Years Later," Jan. 3, 2006. (In this article, Dr. Squyres said, "We're tired." When reminded of this quote last week, he laughed and said, "I got a second wind.")

"Mars Rover Discovery Elates NASA," Sept. 1, 2011.

"Opportunity, a Mars Rover Past Its Best-By Date, Keeps Going," Dec. 10, 2012.