It is genuinely the end of an era today. NASA has officially declared the Opportunity rover mission complete after failing to regain contact following last year's massive global dust storm.



"Oppy" was only designed for a 90-day mission, yet it roamed the Martian surface for nearly 15 years, travelling over 28 miles and fundamentally rewriting our understanding of Mars's wet, habitable past. There is something deeply poignant about its final transmitted status—essentially translating to "my battery is low and it's getting dark." A heroic little machine that vastly exceeded every possible expectation.