Opportunity has been on Mars for 10 years.

Yes, time is running fast. I just recently, on sensations, read about the launch of this rover on the Red Planet. But since the time when Opportunity first fell to the surface of Mars, 10 years have passed. It happened on January 25, 2004. Since then, the rover has worked on the planet 40 times more than originally planned.

During this time, the rover traveled 38.7 kilometers, was able to "see" 3556 Martian dawn, take many thousands of photos transmitted to Earth, and also received evidence of the existence of water on the surface of Mars. Last year, at the beginning of the summer, evidence of the existence of fresh water on Mars (last) was obtained .
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Now is the time to put into this post a comic about this rover, where, according to the device, he will have to stay 90 days, after which its creators will take the rover back ... Although, there is a continuation of this comic, and not sad, but very positive:



About what the rover found on the Red Planet, they wrote repeatedly both on Habré and on other resources, so there’s no point in repeating. However, probably, the main achievement of the project “Opportunity” was a clear and repeated proof that Mars in the distant past was a warm planet with liquid water, which had all the conditions for a normal life of microorganisms.

More recently, the rover was able to detect this mysterious pebble , which caused violent disputes and discussions on a possible way to get this object in the field of view of the rover.



Well, it remains only to wish the device to work another 10 years, and make even more discoveries. We wish the same for Curiosity, the rover, who also works hard for the benefit of humanity.



Ps . By the way, on January 4 of this year, it was 10 years since the landing of another Mars rover, the Spirit.