NASA hoped to re-establish contact with the Opportunity rover, citing a recurring windy period which was forecast for November 2018 to January 2019, that could potentially clean off its solar panels.
| FactSnippet No. 2,076,486 |
17 Facts About Opportunity rover
2.
On February 13,2019, NASA officials declared that the Opportunity rover mission was complete, after the spacecraft had failed to respond to over 1,000 signals sent since August 2018.
| FactSnippet No. 2,076,487 |
3.
Spirit and Opportunity rover were launched a month apart, on June 10 and July 7,2003, and both reached the Martian surface by January 2004.
| FactSnippet No. 2,076,488 |
4.
Opportunity rover lasted 55 times longer than its 90 sol planned lifetime, operating for 5498 days from landing to mission end.
| FactSnippet No. 2,076,489 |
5.
From its initial landing, by chance, into an impact crater amidst an otherwise generally flat plain, Opportunity rover successfully investigated regolith and rock samples and took panoramic photos of its landing site.
| FactSnippet No. 2,076,490 |
6.
Subsequently, Opportunity rover examined the impact site of its own heat shield and discovered an intact meteorite, now known as Heat Shield Rock, on the surface of Mars.
| FactSnippet No. 2,076,491 |
7.
From late April to early June 2005, Opportunity rover was perilously lodged in a sand dune, with several wheels buried in the sand.
| FactSnippet No. 2,076,492 |
8.
Opportunity rover was directed to proceed in a southerly direction to Erebus crater, a large, shallow, partially buried crater and a stopover on the way south towards Victoria crater, between October 2005 and March 2006.
| FactSnippet No. 2,076,493 |
9.
In late September 2006, Opportunity rover reached Victoria crater and explored along the rim in a clockwise direction.
| FactSnippet No. 2,076,494 |
10.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter had detected phyllosilicates there, and the Opportunity rover analyzed the rocks with its instruments to check this sighting on the ground.
| FactSnippet No. 2,076,495 |
11.
In light of this, on Sol 4027, the Opportunity rover was configured to operate in RAM-only mode, completely avoiding the use of non-volatile memory for storage.
| FactSnippet No. 2,076,496 |
12.
Spirit and Opportunity are twin rovers, each a six-wheeled, solar-powered robot standing 1.
| FactSnippet No. 2,076,497 |
13.
Opportunity rover was 'driven' by several operators throughout its mission, including JPL roboticist Vandi Verma who cowrote the PLEXIL command language used in its software.
| FactSnippet No. 2,076,498 |
14.
In late December 2004, Opportunity rover reached the impact site of its heat shield, and took a panorama around Sol 325.
| FactSnippet No. 2,076,499 |
15.
Opportunity rover has provided substantial evidence in support of the mission's primary scientific goals: to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and regolith that hold clues to past water activity on Mars.
| FactSnippet No. 2,076,500 |
16.
On March 24,2015, NASA celebrated Opportunity rover having traveled the distance of a marathon race, 42.
| FactSnippet No. 2,076,501 |
17.
On Sol 3894, Opportunity reached the summit of "Cape Tribulation, " which is 443 feet above "Botany Bay" level and the highest point yet reached by the rover on western rim of Endeavour Crater according to NASA.
| FactSnippet No. 2,076,502 |