The Last Signal

AI-narrated documentary

Opportunity: in its own words

Coming soonAI-made

Chapters

  1. 01Born
  2. 02Launch
  3. 03Landing
  4. 04Life’s work
  5. 05Last signal
Watch it as a story

Born

Born on Earth. Resting among the stars.

Engineers assembling a rover in a cleanroom (AI-generated placeholder)
Assembly · JPL

Planned for 90 sols, Opportunity drove for more than 14 years. It crossed 45 km of Mars and found clear evidence that water once soaked its rocks.

Builder
JPL
Mass
185 kg
Height
1.5 m
Type
Rover

3D model

Interactive 3D coming soon

Launch day

A rocket lifting off at night (AI-generated placeholder)

7 July 2003 · 23:18 EDT
Delta II 7925H
Space Launch Complex 17B

Landing

25 January 2004
Eagle crater
Airbag landing

Route

45.16 km

EagleEnduranceVictoriaEndeavour

Illustrative path, not to scale

Life’s work

They went where we couldn’t.

  1. No. 01

    Eagle crater

    2004

    Rolled to a stop inside a small crater beside exposed bedrock.

  2. No. 02

    Endurance crater

    2004

    Drove down inside to read layer after layer of rock.

  3. No. 03

    Victoria crater

    2006–2008

    Spent two years exploring the rim and walls of a crater 750 m wide.

  4. No. 04

    Endeavour crater

    2011

    Reached a crater 22 km wide and found a bright vein of gypsum.

  5. No. 05

    Marathon

    2015

    Passed the length of a marathon, 42.2 km, in March 2015.

  6. No. 06

    The storm

    2018

    A planet-wide dust storm cut off the sunlight it needed for power.

Discoveries

  • Hematite spherules

  • Evidence of past water

  • Record distance off Earth

Last signal

10.06.2018 · last signal

A planet-wide dust storm blotted out the Sun. Opportunity's final data, sent on 10 June 2018, showed very low power and a darkening sky. Engineers sent more than a thousand commands without a reply and declared the mission complete on 13 February 2019. The often-shared line "My battery is low and it's getting dark" is a journalist's paraphrase of that data, not a transmission.

Twin

No. 09 · Spirit · 2004–2010

Read their story

Tribute wall

Saved on this device for now. A shared wall is coming.

  • No tributes yet. Be the first to say goodbye to Opportunity.

Sources

Resting on Mars. Photos on this page are AI-generated placeholders until credited archive images are added.