It’s not often in the high-tech world of planned obsolescence that a robot over-delivers. So when NASA declared this week that the Mars rover, Opportunity, had reached the end of its mission, scientists and science fans around the world actually mourned. Lori Glaze, acting director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, gives a briefing about the Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, on the day the space agency announced the little probe’s 14-year mission was at an end. Not that NASA scientists who had grown up with the robot — some were in high school when it launched — gave up on it at that point. Thanks to Opportunity, we now know Mars is a planet where water not only existed, but flowed freely and abundantly.

Source: thestar February 14, 2019 21:56 UTC