NASA Mars Rover Opportunity Still At Work After Eight Years

The NASA Mars rover Opportunity is ailing but still functional after eight years on the red planet's surface. That's a very long time in rover years.

Most of Opportunity's missions have involved looking for water on Mars. In addition, it's been transmitting a signal that helps scientists gauge the rotation of the red planet—thereby helping determine whether Mars' core is liquid or solid.

According to PhysOrg,

"The top priority at [Opportunity site] Greeley Haven is the radio-science campaign to provide information about Mars' interior," said JPL's Diana Blaney, deputy project scientist for the mission. This study uses weeks of tracking radio signals from the stationary rover to measure wobble in the planet's rotation. The amount of wobble is an indicator of whether the core of the planet is molten, similar to the way spinning an egg can be used to determine whether it is raw or hard-boiled.

Opportunity's data collection also led to what one NASA scientist called 'slam-dunk' evidence that liquid water once flowed on Mars. It accomplished this by detecting veins of the gypsum, a 'hydrated' mineral that had to have been formed with the help of water.

A large chunk of Opportunity's lifespan was spent on that mission. The journey alone took three years, and in the mission's last year Opportunity travelled almost five miles. This may not seem like much, but the solar-powered rover is built for safety and precision rather than speed.

How much longer will Opportunity last? No one knows.

Opportunity's counterpart on the other side of Mars, called Spirit, was declared dead from hypothermia last year after a malfunction kept its solar panels from following the sun.

Now, Opportunity's robotic arm is malfunctioning, but the team of scientists have sworn to get everything they can out of the venerable rover. John Callas, Opportunity's project manager, told SPACE.com, "We just keep charging ahead as if every day is our last day, and we want to maximize the science we can do with this vehicle."

Comments

[SwiftJonathan]

09:38 PM on 01/31/2012

What amazes me most is that the batteries are still working... sadly, the technology is toxic and not a good idea for civilian application.

[tidalwave4455]

12:06 PM on 01/30/2012

What a warranty! My truck warranty is 100,000 miles...if NASA had built it...3 million miles before breaking down. NASA hoped the rovers would last 3 months.

[Craig Koebelin]

12:01 AM on 01/30/2012

It's foolish to waste billions on vainglorious manned missions when we don't have the money and you can achieve so much with these handy little robots at a tiny fraction of the cost.

[MilesLong]

11:23 AM on 01/29/2012

American ingenuity at its finest...

Miles "Money Well Spent" Long

[LiberalAsTheDayIsLong]

11:34 AM on 01/29/2012

Agreed....I just came from the Christa Macauliffe/Alan Shepard Space Center with my son and the Cub Scouts and am more convinced than ever that space exploration is essential for our advancement as a species..

[coolguyjonah]

11:05 PM on 01/28/2012

Well done NASA. Imagination made possible.

[JShankel]

04:37 PM on 01/27/2012

Cuz, you know, the government never does anything right.

[Tom Weidermeijer]

02:53 PM on 01/26/2012

Awesome little rovers!

Keep going little guy.

[mamacat]

12:15 PM on 01/26/2012

I have cars that did not last as long as the Mars rovers. Well done NASA!

[coffeeparty]

08:03 AM on 01/26/2012

Opportunity was engineered to last 90 days. That it has sent scientific data back to us for eight years is absolutely amazing. Kudos, NASA.

[chaapai]

03:03 AM on 01/26/2012

When I was a kid, I dreamed that men would walk, work and live there by the time I was forty. That's come and gone now and I doubt I will live long enough to see men set foot on Mars. It's very, VERY disappointing.

[SolarPowerGuy]

01:26 PM on 01/26/2012

Yes, but did you dream that the robots would ever be able to do so much? I think it's a pretty decent consolation prize.

Remember that when Mars gets as close to Earth as it ever gets, it is still 180 times as far away as the Moon! Manned interplanetary travel is truly a lofty goal.

[Miketou]

09:56 PM on 01/25/2012

As an American, this makes me so proud. What an accomplishment. Keep up the good work NASA!

[beauwulff]

09:48 PM on 01/25/2012

An amazing piece of engineering. Congrats, NASA.

[cosmicdart]

06:07 PM on 01/25/2012

We should place a manned space craft around Mars for six months whereby astronauts would operate a team of interactive robots in near real time. A team of them on the planet could repair each other from spare parts sent down. We'd get more done that way. Once a mining and manufacturing infrastructure is placed on an asteroid that has the raw materials with which to manufacture more space craft, and enable us to produce our own atmosphere and food, this would build upon itself. All we need to do is prime the pump. The Solar economy would outshine Earth's economy cuz the Solar System has a billion times the resources here on Earth. Also, no OSHA, EPA, and taxes to worry about. The asteroid Ceres has a surface area the size of Texas, and it's filled with raw materials for the taking.

[SwiftJonathan]

12:46 AM on 01/26/2012

Good dreaming. Now go and get yourself a degree in aerospace engineering and space sciences and then we talk again about the details of your "plan". But I doubt you would even wanted to be reminded of having written this comment...

[cosmicdart]

01:11 AM on 01/26/2012

This isn't just aerospace engineering. It's just as much interactive robotics engineering. Most of the work out there would need to be done through interactive robots controlled as close in as possible cuz of the speed of light signal time delay. Humans would not enter their asteroid space habitats until they are robotically built. Humans would need to be shielded from radiation within their interactive orbital work stations at first. Robots work in hostile environments. A team of interactive robots would be directed to repair each other should one breakdown.

[mamacat]

12:29 PM on 01/26/2012

How would we protect the astronauts from radiation? Unlike Earth, Mars does not have a magnetic field capable of protecting astronauts in orbit from most of the harmful radiation that they would otherwise be exposed to. The trip from low Earth orbit to and from Mars would also be threatened with radiation. I am not aware that any manned spaceships have yet been built that are capable of protecting the astronauts outside of the Earth's magnetic field. When we sent men to the Moon we just rolled the dice and took our chances, but a trip lasting years would likely be exposed to a few periods of lethal radiation emanating from the Sun. There is also the smaller possibility of a radiation burst from outside this solar system threatening any astronauts who venture outside the protective shield of this planet's magnetic shield.

I am not saying it can't be done, but it will be need to figured out, unless we want to ask future astronauts to go on one-way death missions.

[cosmicdart]

05:08 PM on 01/26/2012

The only reason that we'll need astronauts out there in the first place would be to interact in short signal time with an interactive robotic infrastructure on Mars or an asteroid. They would not need to leave their control station on board their orbiting ship. They will have the illusion that they're within the body of the robot that mimics them. First we automatically land our interactive robotic infrastructure on Mars, or asteroid, then we place supplies in orbit to be used later, and then we send a team of interactive controllers. These humans would be past their prime humans of small body size (midgets) with high IQ's. The control room that they work in would be shielded, and have a strong magnetic field around it to deflect high speed protons. Also the skin of the control room would be covered with diffraction crystals that diffract particles away from the control room. Their water supply would be wrapped around the control room too. As they close in on Mars, they'll gain more and more real time control of their robot avatars. Robots will build shielded human habitat on planet with native materials.

[J0E1]

02:51 PM on 01/25/2012

Want to know when it's going to break down? Take the warranty date and add 1 day.

[carloarnone]

04:08 PM on 01/25/2012

lol

[SwiftJonathan]

12:47 AM on 01/26/2012

That's true when you buy incandescent light bulbs... they are actually engineered to fail shortly after the guaranteed time.