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Scott Maxwell, former Mars
rover driver team lead
“Put simply, I loved Opportunity,
as I did her twin sister, Spirit. I was
privileged to be part of a team that
was ecstatically devoted to them
for years. We sacrificed dinners
with family, vacations, whole
marriages to those rovers. And
they were worth it: In exchange,
they gave us a planet. They were
our eyes and ears, our remote
robot bodies.
“The thought of saying good-
bye to Opportunity fills me with
mixed emotions: pride, certainly,
at her enormous accomplish-
ments, but grief and despair at
her loss. And, truthfully, I think
the pride will have to wait a while.
There’s no room for it now.”Abby Fraeman, deputy
project scientist, who first
worked with the mission as
a teenager
“In terms of the science accom-
plishments, Opportunity was
the first rover to find definitive
evidence for liquid water on the
surface of Mars. We learned a
lot about how to drive rovers on
another planet using Opportunity.
“Another legacy that I think
is important from my personal
story is the legacy of inspiration.
I know I’m not the only one whohas a story, who thinks that Spirit
and Opportunity flipped a switch
in their heads and said, ‘Oh my
gosh, I’d love to pursue a career
in math or in science to be able
to do something like this for
a career.’ I think that’s another
important legacy that’s a little bit
harder to quantify, but it’s just as
important as the science results
that have come out.”Keri Bean, science planner
on Opportunity
“I think Opportunity has made
the solid case that, at least in
some point in the past, Mars was
habitable. We don’t know when,
we don’t know if it ever happened,
but at least there were several
spots on Mars where we could
have potentially had life, whether
now or in the past, and I think
that’s really fascinating.
“For me personally, I think
Opportunity has always just kind
of persevered. Mars has thrown a
heck of a lot at her. This isn’t even
her first global dust storm. She’s
survived so much. Parts have
broken along the way. There’ve
been problems along the way. Yet
every single time, we’ve overcome
it, and this is finally the one we
can’t overcome. I wish she could
have persevered a little longer, but
Mars had other plans.”Tanya Harrison, science team
collaborator
“If I had the chance to say one
last goodbye to Oppy, I would
thank her for her tireless service
above and beyond all possible
expectations. There’s probably no
more fitting way for her to have
gone than in the strongest dust
storm we’ve ever seen on Mars —
for her, I would expect nothing
less. Now she can rest beneath a
thin layer of dust, knowing she
did humanity proud.”Remembering the
Opportunity Rover
BY JOHN WENZi
After some 15 prolific years on the martian surface, NASA’s Opportunity rover has gone silent. It took
a whopping planet-wide dust storm to fell the solar-powered robot, but, in February, the space agency
officially ended the mission. We talked with NASA scientists about their experiences working on the
golf-cart-sized rover and what Opportunity meant to them. Their eulogies for the lost rover, originally
intended to last just three months on Mars, are below.Intended to last just three months on
Mars, Opportunity went the distance for
about 15 years, providing invaluable data.