The fifteen-year mission of the veteran Mars rover, Opportunity was finally declared over by NASA after the agency lost contact with it during a dust storm in June last year.
According to The Guardian, it was unable to recharge its batteries. Hundreds of messages which were sent from Earth remained unanswered over the months.
The mission’s end was announced by Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate.
He said that the rover remained silent after a last-ditch effort to contact it on Tuesday.
Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004 shortly after its twin, a rover called Spirit.
Together, the pair were part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover programme. However, Spirit got stuck in Mars’ soil in 2009 and was declared defunct in 2011.
People took to Twitter to bid the Opportunity rover a bittersweet goodbye.
“My battery is low and it’s getting dark.”
The last message from the Opportunity rover. It went to Mars with a 3 month lifespan and ended up lasting over 15 years. God speed.#RIP #OpportunityRover— That One Guy (@WhoThat_One_Guy) February 14, 2019