Opportunity, a Mars rover that landed on a mission to the Red Planet in 2004 scheduled to last 90 Martian days, is still operating 10 years later. This mission also breaks a distance record for offworld operation of a spacecraft, previously held by the Lunokhud 2, set four decades ago.
Opportunity, along with Spirit, was one of a pair of small rovers launched to Mars in 2003. Spirit ceased operations in March 2010, after six years of investigating the Red Planet.
The Lunokhud 2 was a Russian spacecraft, whose name means "Moon walker," was launched to our planetary companion in January 1973. The primary mission of the vehicle was to study the lunar surface, including soil mechanics and investigations of magnetic fields on the Moon.
The Lunokhod 2 only operated for a total of four months before failing. However, during the time, the vehicle traveled more than 24 miles over the lunar surface, setting a new distance record for interplanetary rovers. Curiosity has now eclipsed that mileage, covering 25 miles over the surface of Mars.
"Opportunity has driven farther than any other wheeled vehicle on another world... Opportunity was intended to drive about [six-tenths of a mile] and was never designed for distance. But what is really important is... how much exploration and discovery we have accomplished over that distance," John Callas, Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said.
The last month of travel has seem Opportunity travel along the western rim of the Endeavour Crater. The vehicle reached that geological feature in 2011. Since that time, Opportunity has exploded outcroppings and loose stones that could contain clays, which could provide evidence for water-rich environments on the surface of ancient Mars. One of the next locations for the rover could be Marathon Valley - a total distance of 26.2 miles from Oportunity's landing spot, the length of an official marathon.
"The Lunokhod missions still stand as two signature accomplishments of... the first golden age of planetary exploration, the 1960s and '70s. We're in a second golden age now, and what we've tried to do on Mars with Spirit and Opportunity has been very much inspired by the accomplishments of the Lunokhod team on the moon so many years ago. It has been a real honor to follow in their historical wheel tracks," Steve Squyres of Cornell University, stated in a NASA press release.
A day on Mars lasts about 40 minutes longer than a day on our home planet.
