Fifteen years after it landed on mars, the rover, “Opportunity” or nicknamed “Oppy” has died, joining its twin rover, “Spirit”. The end began when the mars rover went silent after a dust storm eight months ago. The two rovers quickly repeated their primary missions which was to follow where the water was going on mars. Then they kept going, exceeding every expectation. The spirit managed until it was caught with a sticky wheel in a sand trap near the winter in 2011.

Opportunity was more intense, breaking every distance for off world driving. It even began to drive backwards when its wheel motor started to fail. The rover now rests from its marathon overlooking Perseverance Valley. In between them, it took 342432 raw photo’s and its final photo was sent back to early in an ominous darkness and abruptly cut off transmission.

The scientists sent pings to Opportunity even as the dust settled. They sent over a thousand attempts to wake the rover up. They played songs for it.

Oddly enough, the line “my battery is getting low, and it’s getting dark” was never said by the rover. It originated with a science reporter named Jacob Margolis. He had tweeted that the rover had basically said that. It was a “poetic translation” of the rovers final transmissions.

The rover now rests from its long journey, joining the other rovers.