Opportunity, the longest-lived robot ever sent from Earth to the surface of another planet, roamed the red plains of Mars for more than 14 years, snapping photos and revealing astonishing glimpses into the planet’s distant past. But on Wednesday, NASA announced that the rover is dead.
“It is therefore that I am standing here with a sense of deep appreciation and gratitude that I declare the Opportunity mission as complete,” Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science, said at a news conference.
The golf cart-size rover was designed to last only three months, but proved itself to be an unexpected endurance athlete. It traveled more than the distance of a marathon when less than half a mile would have counted as success.