Opportunity, 8 years on Mars
The Opportunity rover landed on the Red Planet at 9:05 p.m. PST Jan. 24, 2004 (12:05 a.m. EST Jan. 25), three weeks after its twin, Spirit, touched down. While NASA declared Spirit dead last year, Opportunity continues to gather data in its dotage, helping scientists understand more and more about Mars’ wetter, warmer past.
“It is amazing. I have to remind myself — my God, this thing is still going!” said John Callas, Opportunity’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “But more importantly, it is still very productive on the surface.”
Source: space.com
I'll be turning 18 soon and am a aspiring physicist. I'm working on a double major at the moment in physics and aerospace engineering and a life goal of mine is to help construct the next line of deep space vehicles.
