LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE >> NASA recently released a rover’s eye view time-lapse of the first off-Earth marathon.
The Opportunity rover’s 11-year, 26.2-mile trek between January 2004 to April 2015 is condensed into an 8-minute, black-and-white video. The vehicle’s accelerometer recorded vibration measurements that were turned into sound. Louder audio indicates rough terrain while softer volume depicts sandy terrain.
The YouTube video, published July 2, had 307,300 views as of Wednesday morning.
• Video: Rover’s-Eye View of Marathon on Mars
A map of the route from Endurance Crater to Endeavour Crater is on the right half of the video. The trip is recorded in Mars days on the bottom, left-hand corner; Earth equivalents are displayed at the bottom-middle of the screen.
As of June 30, Opportunity’s odometer read 26.33 miles. Opportunity has provided evidence of ancient Martian environments where liquid water soaked the ground and flowed on the Red Planet’s surface. In Endeavour Crater, it also discovered ancient wet conditions less acidic and more favorable for microbial life.
Launched July 7, 2003, Opportunity landed on Mars on Jan. 25, 2004. As a single-string rover, it doesn’t have any electronic redundancies, meaning if something goes haywire, that’s the end of that function.
The rover had a three-month prime mission but has continued to operate way beyond expected lifespan.
Twin rover Spirit went out of commission in March 2010 after six years, 4.8 miles and about 128,000 raw images, according to the Mars Exploration website.
