NASA’s exploration rover Opportunity landed on Mars more than 11 years ago, in January 2004, with what then seemed like ambitious goals: to survive 90 Martian days and drive 600 metres. Opportunity has since driven the first off-Earth marathon (42.2 kilometres, or just over 26 miles) and just passed through its 4,000th Martian day – known as a sol on the Red Planet, lasting 40 minutes longer than on Earth.
I’ve been fortunate to have been involved with the project from the start, but never would I have thought that besides my wife’s companionship, the other constant in my life would be a robotic rover roaming across the surface of a planet hundreds of millions of kilometres away. To put this in perspective, since Opportunity landed I finished my PhD, started a family, and worked at six institutions in three different countries.
