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The Night NASA Said Goodbye to Oppy
I was in the room for the final transmission to Opportunity. It was emotional to say the least.
Gathered in “The Darkroom” above Mission Operations at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, members of the Opportunity team somberly awaited news of what was to become of our dear rover.
Steve Squyres, Opportunity’s principal investigator, came up the darkened stairway. He shook everyone’s hand, then stood looking out over the Mission Ops floor from our glass-encased viewpoint. “It’s been a hell of a ride,” he said.
It was a ride that included 5,111 martian days (“sols”) of operations and more than 45 kilometers of terrain. There were “blueberries,” ancient watery environments, and a couple dozen meteorites discovered. Oppy had one massive global dust storm under her belt, but would the rover survive a second? Perhaps not.
The Darkroom filled with attendees uttering names like a roll call as they came up the stairs: “There’s Larry!” “Oh hey, Keri is here!” “Hi Fred!” Like a class reunion of sorts. There was Jon Proton, the person who has probably commanded more images of Mars than any other human. And Paolo Bellutta, who has driven a rover more miles than any other human off-world. There were operations folks old and new. As someone who had only been on…
