This site is maintained by the Planetary Science Communications team at, ne of the most successful and enduring interplanetary missions. Opportunity and Spirit showed that Mars had the wet and warm conditions in its ancient past that were potentially hospitable to life. Spirit and Opportunity's many science discoveries, the record for longest drive on another world, ripples of sand that resembled waves on water, Sol 2918: A Short but Sweet Day of Planning, NASA's Perseverance Rover Bringing 3D-Printed Metal Parts to Mars, Sol 2917: Something Old, Something New, Something 'Groken', Something Not-So-Blue, Sols 2914-2916: Curiosity Breaking Open the Mystery of the 'Groken' Nodules, Sol 2911: Sitting on Pins and Needles, aka 'F5 – F5 – F5' in the Modern World.
console.log("received message", event) This illustration shows Jezero Crater — the landing site of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover — as it may have looked billions of years ago.

Opportunity Principal Investigator Steve Squyres noted that scientists were “confident [that] this is a fluid-carved gully, and that water was involved.”. The rover is still actively exploring the Martian terrain, having far outlasted her planned 90-day mission. Opportunity encountered two mission-threatening dust storms that blocked sunlight from reaching its solar panels.

This infographic highlights NASA’s twin robot geologists, the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) Spirit and Opportunity. A slam-dunk sign that Mars was one more hospitable to life than it is today! On May 16, 2013, NASA announced that Endeavour had passed the previous record for the farthest distance traveled by any NASA vehicle on another celestial body: 22.21 miles (35.744 kilometers)—a record set by the Apollo 17 Lunar Roving Vehicle in December 1972. toggleFullscreenMessage() var w = window.innerWidth Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/USGS. Once Opportunity reached the rim of Endeavour crater, the rover found white veins of the mineral gypsum — a telltale sign of water that traveled through underground fractures. if($full.length > 0){ This far exceeded the original 90-day mission planned for Opportunity and Spirit. The last signal from the spacecraft was heard on June 10, 2018. Director, NASA Planetary Science Division: fullHeightWidthIframe() Of all the places studied by the twin rovers, this environment at Endeavor Crater once had the friendliest conditions for ancient microbial life. 4. In March 2006, Opportunity began the last mile (2 kilometers) of its journey to Victoria, a crater that stretches a half-mile (800 meters) in diameter—wider and deeper than any yet examined by either rover. NASA's Perseverance Mars rover will carry the first samples of spacesuit material ever sent to the Red Planet. We are in the homestretch of our time at the “Mary Anning” and “Groken” drill sites, and today’s plan checks off some of the final important boxes to complete our analyses here before we head back uphill. Amanda Barnett Opportunity landed on the opposite side of Mars at Meridiani Planum on Jan. 24, 2004 PST (Jan. 25 EST). function toggleFullscreenMessage(){ In addition to exceeding its life expectancy by 60 times, the rover had traveled over 28 miles (45 kilometers) by the time it reached its most appropriate final resting spot on Mars -- Perseverance Valley. Each rover, about the size of a golf cart and seven times heavier (408 pounds or 185 kilograms) than the Sojourner rover on Mars, was targeted to opposite sides of the planet in locales that were suspected of having been affected by liquid water in the past. A 3D model of the twin Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. Later that year, the rover got stuck after driving into an area where several of its wheels were buried in sand. "image": "https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/system/resources/list_images/2370_spacecraft_th_mer.jpg", The rover is continuing to investigate this curious surface rock, called 'Pinnacle Island' that apparently was kicked up by the rover during a recent traverse. The Mössbauer Spectrometer and the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer were designed to analyze the particles collected and help determine the ratio of magnetic particles to non-magnetic particles. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. As Perseverance hurtles through space toward Mars, the six-wheeler's twin is ready to roll here on Earth. Opportunity is an off-world record holder. "name": "Mars Exploration Rovers 3D Model",
Read More › Watch Video › As it continued to explore the Martian surface, on July 28, 2014, NASA announced that Opportunity had passed the distance record set on another celestial body, set by Lunokhod 2, when the American rover’s odometer showed 25.01 miles (40.25 kilometers), exceeding the Soviet vehicle’s record of 24 miles (39 kilometers). Jezero crater was picked as the landing site for Perseverance because scientists think the area was home to an ancient river delta. A number have gone on to lead other space missions. It survived a dust storm in 2007 by minimizing activities and maintaining enough power in its batteries to recover when the skies cleared. During this period, Opportunity continued to explore the western rim of the 13-mile (22-kilometer) wide Endeavour crater, particularly the south side of Marathon Valley, which slices through Endeavour crater’s rim from west to east. By June 1, 2001, Opportunity—still heading towards Endeavour crater—had logged about 18 miles (30 kilometers). Near its discarded heat shield, Opportunity discovered an unusual basketball-sized rock in January 2005 (named the “Heat Shield Rock”) that turned out to be an iron-nickel meteorite. Curiosity and the upcoming Mars 2020 rovers build upon the lessons of Spirit and Opportunity. } NASA History Program Office, 2018. Opportunity also found more compelling signs of Mars' watery past in the rocks of Endeavour Crater: clay minerals that formed in neutral-pH (not too acidic, not too basic) water. Spirit and Opportunity each found evidence for past wet conditions that possibly could have supported microbial life. for collecting magnetic dust particles. In 2015, Opportunity broke the record for extraterrestrial travel by driving more than the distance of a marathon, with a total of 28.06 miles (45.16 kilometers).First among the mission's scientific goals was to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils for clues to past water activity on Mars. 2. console.log("Toggling fullscreen", $('.gltf_viewer').length) Opportunity was the second of the two rovers launched in 2003 to land on Mars and begin traversing the Red Planet in search of signs of past life. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Vertical lift aircraft, including helicopters, is something NASA researchers have studied since the earliest days of flight. $full.find('iframe').css({'height': h, 'width': w, 'min-width': '', 'max-width': ''}) Together, powerful steam eruptions from heated underground water produced some explosive volcanism. for removing dusty and weathered rock surfaces and exposing fresh material for examination by instruments onboard. On April 26, 2005, Opportunity's wheels dug into a soft, wind-sculpted sand ripple and got stuck for several nail-biting weeks at "Purgatory Dune." END OF MISSION March 22, 2010. LANDING SITE Gusev Crater. That's why it's packing PIXL.

} Sols 2906-2907: Continuing to 'Grok' These Martian Sediments. The twin missions’ main scientific objective was to search for a range of rocks and soil types and then look for clues for past water activity on Mars. Spirit discovered that an ancient volcano erupted at "Home Plate," the rover's final resting place. } Looking Back on Opportunity Rover Tracks: This scene from the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity looks back toward part of the west rim of Endeavour Crater that the rover drove along, heading southward, during the summer of 2014. LAUNCH June 10, 2003 UTC. Spirit landed at Gusev Crater, a place where mineral deposits suggested that Mars had a wet history.Each rover bounced onto the surface inside a landing craft protected by airbags. Science Writer: You can read many of their stories here. During Opportunity's time on Mars, it also drove a total of 28.06 miles (45.16 kilometers), clinching the record for longest drive on another world in 2014. $('.gltf_viewer iframe').css({'height': "450px", 'width': '1px', 'max-width': '100%', 'min-width': '100%'}) Perseverance is one of a few Mars spacecraft carrying laser retroreflectors. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. } Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

Opportunity and its twin Spirit were tasked with studying sites on Mars where conditions may once have been favorable for life. Through late 2012 and into 2013, Opportunity worked around a geographic feature named Matijevic Hill, which overlooks the Endeavour crater, analyzing rocks and soil. Their lessons live on in current and future Mars missions. The story of Opportunity and Spirit is not over. Spirit and Opportunity showed how mobile robots on Mars could communicate reliably with Earth (either directly or by employing orbiters around Mars as relays back to our home planet), use 3-D vision to navigate the Martian terrain and make autonomous science observations. The plan was for the rover to travel into a gully that slices Endeavor and is about two football fields in length. A “selfie” from March 2014 showed a rover swept clean by wind earlier in the month. By March 24, 2010, Opportunity had about 12 miles (20 kilometers) on its odometer, more than double the distance recorded by Spirit, and far more than was originally considered a nominal mission—1,968 feet (600 meters). In its seventh Martian winter (Earth winter 2015–2016), Opportunity was kept at “energy-minimum” levels due to the relative lack of solar energy. The rock appeared to have originated deep in the Martian crust and someplace far away from the landing site, unlike almost all the rocks previously studied by Opportunity. These two rovers also produced 31 stunning 360-degree color panoramas. Opportunity. While dragging a wheel, Spirit churned up soil and found 90 percent pure silica at "Home Plate."

Opportunity operated almost 15 years, setting several records and making a number of key discoveries. Foremost among Spirit and Opportunity's many science discoveries: Mars was likely wetter and warmer in the past. Opportunity didn't survive for over 14 years because its mission was easy. Weather sensors aboard the InSight lander stopped providing data on Aug. 16, 2020, a result of an issue affecting the sensor suite's electronics. Opportunity landed at Meridiani Planum, a possible former lake in a giant impact crater. }) Credit: NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD), What's Up Video: August 2019 Skywatching Tips from NASA, Scientists Watch Comet Impact Jupiter (1994). Finally, after a journey of nearly three years and about 13 miles (21 kilometers), Opportunity arrived at Endeavour crater on Aug. 9, 2011. for identifying promising rocks and soils for closer examination and for determining the processes that formed Martian rocks. "encoding": [{"@type":"MediaObject","contentUrl":"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/system/resources/gltf_files/2370_MER_static.glb","encodingFormat":"model/gltf+json"},{"@type":"MediaObject","contentUrl":"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/system/resources/usdz_files/2370_MER_static.usdz","encodingFormat":"model/vnd.usdz+zip"}] Right now, Mars is one of the brightest objects in the sky, outshining even Jupiter, due to the close timing of both the Martian opposition and perihelion. Opportunity contributed several key findings to this conclusion.

Opportunity landed on Mars in early 2004 soon after its twin rover Spirit. NASA is working with ICON, a company that has printed 3D communities on Earth, to develop a space-based construction system.