How The Mars Rover Opportunity Was A Scientific Jackpot For NASA – SlashGear
As it turned out, those dust storms that were expected to cover Opportunity’s solar panels were actually strong enough to blow the dust away, providing them with a regular cleaning. And it’s a good thing, too, because from a scientific standpoint, Opportunity hit the ground running — or roving, as it were.
Opportunity made a major discovery before it even left its landing site in Eagle Crater: small spheres of hematite. On Earth, hematite forms in a wet environment, meaning that Opportunity had found solid evidence of a watery past on Mars, according to NASA. While Mars is a frigid, desolate desert today, scientists had long suspected it was once more Earthlike. Within its first few weeks on Mars, Opportunity was lending credence to this theory, and its work was just getting started.
Over the next 14 years, Opportunity snapped over 228,000 raw images that are all publicly available now. It analyzed the minerals from 52 rocks and inspected 72 additional locations; it set the record for the longest distance traveled in a single day on Mars; and in Endeavour Crater, it found evidence of ancient water that would have been drinkable (via NASA). And all this from a rover that was expected to last three months.
In the end, a dust storm did in fact disable Opportunity — though exactly how isn’t known — and after over a thousand failed attempts to reestablish communication, the mission came to a close. But Opportunity sure lived a good life.
For all the latest Gaming News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.