NASA’s Opportunity rover landed on Mars on January 24, 2004. It was planned for a 90-day mission. At one point it got stuck in sand, and controllers spent six weeks freeing it a few inches at a time. In 2007 dust storms cut its power so low that all science was suspended, but after about six weeks it was back in action. It became the first human enterprise to travel more than a marathon on another world, and it kept going for over 28 miles. Opportunity outlived its expected life by 60 times. Its last contact came on June 10, 2018, after a planet-wide dust storm. A plan for 90 days became more than 14 years. Never underestimate what faithful, steady effort can do.
