Martian rover Opportunity launched
JUL 07, 2015
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.031001
On this day in 2003 NASA launched Opportunity, one of a pair of Martian rovers. The rover landed at the Meridiani Planum the following January. Unlike its twin, Spirit, which was launched a month earlier and became stuck in 2009, Opportunity continues to operate. One of the rovers’ scientific goals was to find evidence of liquid water. Several lines of geochemical evidence suggest that liquid water once covered some parts of the planet’s surface, but the findings can also be explained without invoking water. So far, Opportunity has been on the plant for 4181 Earth days (4069 Martian days) and has traveled 42.2 km.
Date in History: 7 July 2003
© 2015 American Institute of Physics
