Opportunity Mars Rover Still Working After Thirteen Years Posted by Martin R on January 25, 2017
Opportunity Mars Rover Still Working After Thirteen Years
Posted by Martin R on January 25, 2017
Approaching the crest of Endeavour Crater's rim.
The Opportunity rover landed on Mars thirteen Earth calendar years ago today, and it still works fine after driving ~44 km! This is the farthest any off-planet vehicle has gone so far. Oppy’s 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.
More:
http://scienceblogs.com/aardvarchaeology/2017/01/25/opportunity-mars-rover-still-working-after-thirteen-years/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Here's a link to the power source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_(rover)#Power
Plus it has some radioisotope heaters containing a few grams of plutonium-238 to keep it warm during the nights:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_heater_unit
burfman.........................
