Page 1 of 1
Farewell Opportunity (2003-2019)
Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2019 1:23 pm
by ahmedreda
A nice cartoon for the Spirit mission but also applicable to Opportunity.
Re: Farewell Opportunity (2003-2019)
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 11:32 am
by tugger
It's sad an depressing this doesn't get more coverage. They put something on another effing planet and it lasted YEARS instead of 90 days.
Re: Farewell Opportunity (2003-2019)
Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 8:57 am
by merle
Re: Farewell Opportunity (2003-2019)
Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 2:52 pm
by SEmert
Last communication heard from Opportunity last June 10th.
"My batteries are low and it's getting dark."
As reported by Scott Manley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2oFtu_KAbI&ut=
at 0:50
Re: Farewell Opportunity (2003-2019)
Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2019 9:52 am
by Sureshks
If you haven't seen Opportunity's last image...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanoc ... r-on-mars/
It was taken on June 10, 2018 and shows a vast darkness.
The dust storm had already moved in. Sunlight was already down to .002% of normal, which was at the level of very deep twilight here on Earth.
I also read that when Opportunity landed, there was a glitch that caused NASA to switch the internal heaters to keep constantly running. The idea was that there would be just enough power to keep the rover alive during the very cold Martian nights. Without this change, the mission leaders surmised that Opportunity may last just the initial three months.
But 15 years later, with the dust storm raging, the switched on heaters kept draining the limited battery power. Apparently, there was no way to switch that back off. There was a feeling that had the heaters not been on, that Opportunity just might've survived in safe mode.
Suresh