ID Tell us what you need
  1. Home
  2. Stories
  3. the rover
the rover

Built for 90 days on Mars, it lasted 15 years

NASA's rover Opportunity was designed to last 90 days. It worked for almost 15 years.

Watch it in Bahasa Indonesia →

Share this story WhatsApp X Facebook LinkedIn

The real story

Opportunity bounced down on Mars inside airbags in January 2004. Instead of breaking down after three months, it kept going, partly because Martian winds kept blowing dust off its solar panels. It drove more than 45 km, farther than a marathon, and found strong evidence that liquid water once flowed there.

In June 2018 a planet-wide dust storm blocked the Sun and its battery ran out. For eight months the team sent more than a thousand commands, playing wake-up songs as they had every morning. On the last night they played Billie Holiday's 'I'll Be Seeing You.' It never answered.

What the narrator says

Tap a line to jump to it.

The facts we checked

  • Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004 on a mission planned for 90 days; it worked for about 15 years
  • It drove farther than a marathon (about 45 km)
  • A dust storm in 2018 cut its power; NASA sent more than a thousand recovery commands
  • The final wake-up song played to it in February 2019 was 'I'll Be Seeing You'
Made by teodolist studio

Want a series like this?

Need videos like this for your brand or school?

We made all 240 of these, in English and Indonesian, from one script each. We make story series for brands, schools and channels.

Tell us what you need How storybook videos work Videos for schools

More stories like this

0:52 the stone A pebble's 10,000-year journey from mountain to sea 0:46 the grapefruit The oldest human-made object still in orbit 0:54 the seed The Arctic vault that saves the world's seeds 0:47 the snowflake Why every snowflake has six arms 0:50 the footprint Why the first footprint on the Moon is still there 0:53 the comet Mark Twain predicted his own death with a comet

← All stories Next story: This tree is almost 5,000 years old (and its location is secret) →