Mars Rover selfie; Photo credit: NASA’s Opportunity Rover

NASA’s Opportunity Mars Rover was designed to operate for just 90 days, but it ran on for 15 years. NASA officially declared Opportunity dead on Wednesday, after trying to wake up the little rover one final time.

Looking back on Mars’ Perseverance Valley; Photo credit: NASA’s Opportunity Rover

Opportunity has been silent since June 10 of last year, when a massive Martian dust storm engulfed Opportunity. The dust storm overtook the entire planet 10 days later, and that would have prevented the rover from using its solar panels to recharge its batteries.

The final message from Opportunity to NASA was “My battery is low and it’s getting dark.” Rest in peace, Opportunity.

NASA’s final wake up call to Opportunity was Billie Holiday’s “I’ll be seeing you”.

The Onion also had a final tribute to the golf cart sized explorer:

https://www.theonion.com/spacecraft-travel-from-all-over-galaxy-to-honor-end-of-1832602862