Semper Fidelis...

Topics: Mars, NASA, Opportunity, Planetary Exploration, Spaceflight

NASA's Opportunity Mars rover was built to operate for just 90 days, but kept going for 15 years. NASA officially declared it dead on Wednesday, and its last message to scientists before it went dark eight months ago is getting a lot of attention.

The rover spent a decade and a half sending data bursts, not words, but according to science reporter Jacob Margolis, scientists at NASA said the last message they received from Opportunity effectively translated to, "My battery is low and it's getting dark."

The solar-powered rover was, in the end, doomed by a ferocious dust storm.

Flight controllers tried numerous times to make contact, and sent one final series of recovery commands Tuesday night along with one last wake-up song, Billie Holiday's "I'll Be Seeing You," in a somber exercise that brought tears to team members' eyes. There was no response from space, only silence.

Thomas Zurbuchen, head of NASA's science missions, broke the news at what amounted to a funeral at the space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, announcing the demise of "our beloved Opportunity."

'My battery is low and it's getting dark': Mars rover Opportunity's last message to scientists
ABC Chicago, Associated Press

Decade Anniversary...

Opportunity's 10-year anniversary: still working for us.

Esperance...

Note: the NEWSY embed refers to Curiosity, not Opportunity as the article elucidates. Wonder if Space.com caught this discontinuity? (NEWSY is correct)

NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has made perhaps the biggest discovery of its nearly 10-year career, finding evidence that life may have been able to get a foothold on the Red Planet long ago.

The Opportunity rover spotted clay minerals in an ancient rock on the rim of Mars' Endeavour Crater, suggesting that benign, neutral-pH water once flowed through the area, scientists said.

"This is water you could drink," Opportunity principal investigator Steve Squyres of Cornell University told reporters today (June 7), explaining why the rock, dubbed "Esperance," stands out from other water-soaked stones the rover has studied.

Space.com: Rover Finds New Evidence That Ancient Mars Was Habitable