New Delhi: On January, 24, 2017 (Tuesday), NASA's Opportunity rover celebrated her 13 years on Mars, making it to become the first teenager on the Red Planet.
Watch the video below, which has been released by NASA, depicting the veteran rover as a teenager in six ways!
Launched on July 7, 2003 as part of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover program, Opportunity landed on Mars' Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004, three weeks after its twin Spirit (MER-A) touched down on the other side of the planet.
With a planned 90 sol duration of activity mission (slightly more than 90 earth days), Spirit functioned until it got stuck in 2009 and ceased communications in 2010 while Opportunity remains active.
As of January 17, 2017, Opportunity rover had traveled 43.79 kilometres (27.21 miles).
Opportunity has continued to move, gather scientific observations, and report back to Earth for over 50 times its designed lifespan.
The two six-wheeled robots survived dust-storms and reached Endeavour crater in 2011, which has been described as a 'second landing site'.
