Accelerate progress in our three core enterprises — Explore Worlds, Find Life, and Defend Earth. You can support the entire fund, or designate a core enterprise of your choice.
The blessing and curse of the Martian Winds Opportunity used her Pancam to take the overhead self portraits above, in January 2014 (left),
when her solar arrays was coated in the powdery Martian dust, and in late March 2014 (right)
after the winds of Mars whisked off much of the dust from the arrays. As the MER team has
learned, what the Martian winds give, they also take away. While the winds have threatened her
life more than once, they have also enabled this ‘bot to live long and prosper. The team is now
hoping that the “Hail Mary” efforts they initiated this month, January 2019, will help the beloved
rover live to rove another day. NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell / ASU