Opportunity turns 10, makes discovery, shows old rovers can still rock

Opportunity is marking its 10th anniversary on Mars with a little bit of well-earned recognition. The NASA rover was eclipsed in popularity by its much more Wall-E counterpart, Curiosity, when that high-rolling rover landed nine years later.

Curiosity was a superstar. This was a sleek, brawny geochemistry lab, the biggest robot ever landed on another planet. And its Twitter feed is consistently adorable.

Opportunity’s landing mate, Spirit, succumbed on the Red Planet in 2010. The rover got stuck in the Martian soil in 2009, and its last communication with Earth was a year later. But Oppy, as it’s known on Twitter, kept on scooting. Its original projected lifespan was 90 Martian days. So the rover is a bit of a scientific miracle.

As the L.A. Times’ Amina Khan wrote, now Opportunity “has a bad front right wheel, its robotic arm is suffering from mechanical arthritis” and it’s suffered a burp in its flash memory.

Yet the rover -- on the opposite side of the planet from Curiosity -- has found clay minerals pointing to a type of water on ancient Mars capable of having supported life. High five, Oppy. See a fun NASA infographic below on Spirit and Opportunity, by the numbers. (Mobile users, click here.)
Follow me at @AmyTheHub