{"id":130248,"date":"2019-02-15T20:10:14","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T20:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=130248"},"modified":"2025-07-01T22:21:38","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T05:21:38","slug":"nasa-opportunity-goodbye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/nasa-opportunity-goodbye\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA’s heartbreaking final words to the Mars rover Opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NASA<\/p>\n

After a record-shattering run on Mars, NASA’s Opportunity rover is dead.<\/p>\n

The little rover was only supposed to last 90 days on Mars, but it kept exploring for more than 14 years over 28.06 miles. And then, the end came. In June of 2018, a dust storm engulfed the entire planet and Opportunity went silent. The last words Opportunity sent back are enough to drive grown men to tears.<\/p>\n

\n

The last message they received was basically, \u201cMy battery is low and it\u2019s getting dark.\u201d They hoped that the windy season would clear dust off the solar panels (if that was the problem). Since then they’ve been pinging her again and again, every way they knew\u2026 3\/<\/p>\n

\u2014 Jacob Margolis (@JacobMargolis) February 12, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On February 13, 2019, NASA finally gave up hope they’d ever hear from Opportunity again.<\/a>\u00a0And the internet mourned the little ‘bot that could.<\/p>\n

\"Opportunity\"<\/a>
Source: xkcd<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

A post shared by blindwire (@blindwire_art)<\/a> on Feb 13, 2019 at 10:42am PST<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

NASA sent one last message to their little rover: Billie Holiday’s version of “I’ll Be Seeing You.” Play this and read the lyrics and imagine our little robot friend hearing this as the darkness closes in.<\/p>\n

So if the transmission went through, the last words Opportunity will ever hear are:<\/p>\n

\"opportunity<\/p>\n

More fitting than our first choice for a goodbye:<\/p>\n

…but that’s why NASA is NASA and we\u00a0just write articles for a living.<\/p>\n

Click here to see the best pictures Opportunity took<\/a> during its record-setting run.<\/p>\n

\r\n

More about space travel<\/p>\r\n

\r\n \r\n
\r\n
\r\n
<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n

3 billionaires racing to build the future of space travel \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n \r\n

\r\n
\r\n
<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n

Watch Elon Musk\u2019s new rocket light up the California sky \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n

\r\n \r\n
\r\n
\r\n
<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n

Take a look at Elon Musk\u2019s crazy new spaceship \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n \r\n

\r\n
\r\n
<\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n
\r\n

Walk on the moon with this 4K guided tour by NASA \u25ba<\/p>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/div>\r\n <\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NASA’s send-off to the brave robot will reduce you to tears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9139,"featured_media":130253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":1},"categories":[1015,3150],"tags":[1572,1774,1773],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-130248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uncategorized","tag-nasa","tag-opportunity","tag-space"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326574,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130248\/revisions\/326574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130248"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=130248"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=130248"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=130248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}