The wonderful Curiosity rover on Mars has been much in the news lately, but let’s not forget about the previous rover generation! Opportunity landed on Mars nine Earth calendar years ago today on 25 January, and it still works fine. Its mate Spirit was mobile on the Red Planet for over five years and then functioned as a stationary science platform for another year before getting killed off by a Martian winter it couldn’t avoid. Amazing engineering that keeps working year after year without a technician so much as touching it.
Oppy is still on the rim of Endeavour crater, the area where it’s spent the past year, and is currently taking measurements at a spot called Copper Cliff. Check out the project’s web site for news! And meanwhile, elsewhere on Mars, Curiosity’s hammer drill is being prepared for its first outing…
