Before the decade ends, let us remember one of the most remarkable interplanetary image captured this decade: a panoramic view of the desolate Martian landscape known as the Perseverance Valley. It was the last series of images captured by the Opportunity rover before it met its demise in the valley.
WHAT TO SEE
In a press release statement issued by NASA earlier this year, it showed a series of 354 individual pictures captured within 29 days before the Opportunity rover eventually retired. The images were captured by the rover's Pancam from May 13 through June 10. To create the panoramic view of the Perseverance Valley, the rover combined the images capture by three Pancam filters which can admit light-centered wavelengths of 753 nanometers, 535 nanometers, and 432 nanometers, respectively.
According to John Callas, Opportunity project manager from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, the last panorama captured by Opportunity is everything that made the Opportunity rover a memorable mission of exploration and discovery. He describes the parts of the Martian topography present in the panorama. "To the right of the center, you can see the rim of Endeavor Crater rising in the distance. Just to the left of that, rover tacks begin their descent from over the horizon and weave their way down to geologic features that our scientists wanted to examine up close," he said.
Callas also pointed out where the Perseverance Valley is located in the panorama where it is still unexplored.
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GET TO KNOW THE DEARLY DEPARTED OPPORTUNITY ROVER
The Opportunity Rover landed on Mars back in January of 2004, days after its twin rover, Spirit. It was designed to explore Mars within 90 days but it has exceeded expectations and became active for 15 years. The astronomers and engineers behind Opportunity themselves cannot believe that the rover was able to last long. Opportunity was able to withstand extreme temperatures for years and was able to travel for more than 28 miles, giving us a glimpse of what it is like on Mars. NASA noted that Opportunity's 15 years in the Red Planet greatly contributed to what humankind knows about our neighbor's geology and environment. For instance, through Opportunity, we know that water was once present in the Martian landscape.
NASA declared that the Opportunity mission was finally completed by February of this year and noted its remarkable feat as it ended the agency's Mars Exploration Rovers program. According to Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the agency's Science Mission Directorate, everyone in the agency is grateful and appreciative of the rover. "I will never forget the amazing work happened here, it transformed our understanding of the Red Planet," he said.
The Opportunity Rover met its demise after experiencing a global dust storm that prevented sunlight to enter the Martian atmosphere which, in turn, prevented the solar-powered rover to get a sufficient amount of energy. The engineers tried to recover Opportunity by sending more than 1,000 recovery commands over the course of eight months. Unfortunately, when the storms waned, it was too late for the engineers to revive Opportunity due to the rover's malfunctioning antennae.
