During 14 years of intrepid exploration across Mars, it advanced human knowledge by confirming that water once flowed on the Red Planet – but NASA’s Opportunity rover has analysed its last soil sample.
The robot has been missing since the US space agency lost contact with it during a dust storm in June last year and was declared officially dead on Wednesday, ending one of the most fruitful missions in the history of space exploration.
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“Spent the evening at JPL as the last ever commands were sent to the Opportunity rover on #Mars,” Tanya Harrison, director of Martian research at Arizona State University, tweeted after a stint at Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“There was silence. There were tears. There were hugs. There were memories and laughs shared. #ThankYouOppy #GoodnightOppy,” she wrote.
Read more: Mission complete: NASA announces demise of Opportunity rover