What was originally intended as a 90-day exploration of the Opportunity Rover has now reached 5,000 days. The longest-working explorer remains on Mars for 13 years.

On Feb. 16, NASA's Opportunity Rover celebrated its 5,000 sols or Martian days on the Red Planet. This milestone is the latest in the list of accomplishments of the golf-cart-size robotic field geologist.

Martian day or sol is about 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth while a year on Mars is equivalent to almost two Earth years.
Milestones On Mars

"We've reached lots of milestones, and this is one more," says John Callas, Opportunity Project Manager of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who also noted that the exploration and scientific discoveries are the rover's more important achievements.

It has explored the Victoria and Endeavour craters. It survived sand traps, dust storms, and more importantly, it discovered multiples signs of water on the arid planet.

The rover has sent a total of 225,000 images to Earth. All the images captured by the rover's engineering and science cameras can be viewed online. Its built-in Panoramic Camera recorded its 4,999th day on Mars.
Many Years Of Opportunities

The solar-powered NASA Opportunity Rover landed on Mars on January 25, 2004. Since then, the rover had been trekking the planet's surface to provide significant revelations about the Red Planet.

"Five thousand sols after the start of our 90-sol mission, this amazing rover is still showing us surprises on Mars," Callas said.

Source :- techtimes