Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren Vogaba. Back on January two thousand four, NASA's
Speaker 1: Opportunity Rover descend into the Martian surface and survived its
Speaker 1: bouncy landing, to the relief of scientists anxiously monitoring the
Speaker 1: space probe back at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Speaker 1: The four hundred million dollar rover, one of a pair
Speaker 1: that NASA landed upon the Red planet that year, was
Speaker 1: designed to last for just a few months on the rough,
Speaker 1: dusty terrain of the Martian surface. Instead, to the astonishment
Speaker 1: of researchers, it lasted for nearly fifteen years in Earth time,
Speaker 1: the longest time that any robot from Earth has operated
Speaker 1: on another planet, until it finally stopped communicating with Earth
Speaker 1: after a severe Martian dusk storm in June. After unsuccessful
Speaker 1: attempts to restore contact, NASA officials on February finally gave
Speaker 1: up and declared that Opportunities mission was over. The exact
Speaker 1: cause of the probe's demise is unclear. It could be
Speaker 1: that it's solar panels went dead under a choke gingly
Speaker 1: thick layer of Martian dust or that its electronics failed
Speaker 1: due to the extremes of Martian weather. Opportunity had outlived
Speaker 1: its robotic twin, the Spirit Rover, by nearly eight years.
Speaker 1: Its final resting place is the aptly named Perseverance Valley.
Speaker 1: During its astonishing lifespan, this gulf cart sized planetary probe,
Speaker 1: weighing three hundred and eighty four pounds that's a hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy four rams in Earth gravity, managed to cover
Speaker 1: twenty eight miles or forty five kilometers that's forty four
Speaker 1: times the distance scientists had designed it to cover. It's
Speaker 1: set a single day Martian driving record of seven hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty one feet that's two hundred and twenty back
Speaker 1: in two thousand five. During its travels, it accomplished plenty
Speaker 1: of other amazing feats. Here are a few. It took
Speaker 1: a whole lot of pictures. The Opportunity snapped two hundred
Speaker 1: and seventeen thousand images of the Martian surface, including fifteen
Speaker 1: three hundred and sixty degree panoramas. Those images were more
Speaker 1: than just pretty pictures. Images from its panoramic camera, equipped
Speaker 1: with thirteen different color filters, gave scientists the Oportunity to
Speaker 1: enhance the wavelengths and study changes in the features of
Speaker 1: Martian rock formations. It discovered the Martian blueberries just a
Speaker 1: few months after arriving on Mars. The probe discovered tiny
Speaker 1: globules rich in hematite, which scientists dubbed blueberries because of
Speaker 1: their shape and color. These blueberries provided evidence that ancient
Speaker 1: Mars had a watery environment, and Opportunity found more signs
Speaker 1: of ancient water and possibly ancient life on Mars. At
Speaker 1: the Endeavor Crater, Opportunity found clay minerals that were formed
Speaker 1: in flowing neutral pH water in the distant past. This
Speaker 1: discovery raises the possibility that the environment around the crater
Speaker 1: may have been able to support microbial life millions of
Speaker 1: years ago. It also studied a whole lot of Martian
Speaker 1: rock samples. Opportunities tools exposed the surfaces of fifty two
Speaker 1: Martian rocks to reveal fresh mineral surfaces for analysis, and
Speaker 1: cleared seventy two more rocks with a brush so that
Speaker 1: their surfaces could be investigated by its instruments. Also, it
Speaker 1: was one heck of a climber. Opportunity proved to be
Speaker 1: a remarkably nimble robot, scaling gravel slopes as steep as
Speaker 1: thirty two degrees, an off Earth record. With this ability,
Speaker 1: it explored a whole lot of craters in the course
Speaker 1: of its travels. Opportunity studied more than one hundred impact
Speaker 1: craters of various sizes and gathered insights about how craters
Speaker 1: form and a road over time, and it learned a
Speaker 1: lot about the Martian environment. Opportunity study Martian clouds and
Speaker 1: the opacity of the Martian atmosphere, including how it affects
Speaker 1: solar panels on space probes. That information may help scientists
Speaker 1: to design even more rugged, resilient rovers in the future.
Speaker 1: The rovers instruments also tracked changes in Martian clouds as
Speaker 1: they accumulated, providing scientists with the opportunity to study Martian weather.
Speaker 1: In the end, NASA scientists sent eight hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: five commands to Opportunity in an effort to revive it
Speaker 1: before finally giving up. The final transmission from Earth was
Speaker 1: the Billie Holiday song I'll be seeing You, So hats
Speaker 1: off to you, Opportunity. You're the best little rover ever.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Patrick J. Keiger and produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler Clang for iHeartMedia. And how stuff Works. For
Speaker 1: more on this and lots of other exploratory topics, visit
Speaker 1: our home planet, how stuff Works dot com