The Mars Rover Opportunity reached the crater Endeavour, where NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter revealed the presence of clay minerals and ancient geological deposits. In the area there are a lot of analysis to do and considering the wear of Opportunity this could be its final destination.

Opportunity was launched on July 7, 2003 and arrived on Mars, specifically at Meridiani Planum, on January 25, 2004 for a mission that originally was to last only 90 sols, or martian days. Once the planned mission ended, NASA started developing new tasks for this Mars Rover, which then started travelling the planet.

In 2005 there was a critical time when on April 26 the Mars Rover Opportunity got stuck in a sand dune with four wheels. To try to make it move, a number of simulations were made ​​taking into account Martian conditions. On May 13 a cautious maneuver was started and the results were evaluated movement after movement to study the consequences and on June 4 all Opportunity’s wheels reached a solid ground.

Over the years the Mars Rover Opportunity has conducted scientific studies sending to Earth a lot of new data on soil and rocks in various places deemed interesting. The activity of Opportunity went from intense periods when the wind was cleaning the Mars Rover’s solar panels to other periods of rest or light work when instead sand storms covered its solar panels.

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The long journey to Endeavour crater started almost three years ago and along the way the Mars Rover Opportunity studied other craters. Finally today it reached the crest of the crater that has been nicknamed “Spirit Point” in honor of the Mars Rover Spirit, Opportunity’s twin, which has given no sign of life for over a year and was therefore considered lost last May.

This is an extraordinary result for the Mars Rover Opportunity. Certainly it had a bit of luck because its solar panels have been cleaned more than once by the Martian winds allowing it to have enough energy to keep on being operational. However the basis of this exceptional longevity is certainly a great quality in its design so that both Opportunity and Spirit went far beyond their original mission.

Now we can hope that the Mars Rover Opportunity keeps on working for a long time, in any case its mission was a huge success under a scientific and engineering point of view. I hope that the next Mars Rover, which should be launched in a few months and arrive in about a year, has the same success!