RIP Opportunity

The Opportunity rover stopped communicating with Earth when a severe Mars-wide dust storm blanketed its location in June 2018. After more than a thousand commands to restore contact, engineers in the Space Flight Operations Facility at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) made their last attempt to revive Opportunity Tuesday, to no avail. The solar-powered rover’s final communication was received June 10.

Fifteen years and more than 45 kilometers… That’s pretty good for a rover that was designed to operate for about 90 days and travel one kilometer. A very fitting XKCD comic to say goodbye.

Thanks for bringing us along
Thanks for bringing us along

Thanks for bringing us along, indeed!