RIP Opportunity: NASA Gives Up on Extraordinary Mars Rover

As expected, during the press conference held on Wednesday NASA announced it is officially ending efforts to resurrect the machine, after more than half a year of failed attempts. The announcement comes only days after Opportunity celebrated its 15th anniversary on Mars.

Even if it was officially pronounced dead, its legacy would endure for years to come. When it arrived on Mars in 2004, it had only one task: survive 90 days and travel 1,100 yards (1 km). It lasted 15 years and covered 28 miles (45 km), making it the longest-lasting man-made machine ever sent on another planet.

"For more than a decade, Opportunity has been an icon in the field of planetary exploration, teaching us about Mars' ancient past as a wet, potentially habitable planet, and revealing uncharted Martian landscapes," said in a statement Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

"Whatever loss we feel now must be tempered with the knowledge that the legacy of Opportunity continues – both on the surface of Mars with the Curiosity rover and InSight lander – and in the clean rooms of JPL, where the upcoming Mars 2020 rover is taking shape."

NASA lost contact with Opportunity back in June last year, during a massive dust storm. Although the rover's communication's freeze during the storm was to be expected, hopes were it could power back up as soon as the sky and it solar panels cleared.

That didn’t happen, and NASA was forced to come up with a plan to wake it. That plan unsuccessfully concluded last night, when the final transmission was sent via the 70-meter Mars Station antenna at NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Complex in California.