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