Engineers gave the Opportunity rover 90 sols to live. It refused to die for more than 14 years and, when it finally fell silent, people around the world grieved for a machine. This episode tells the biography of Oppy, launched in July 2003 and landed in January 2004 three weeks after her twin Spirit. The hosts explain the six-wheel rocker-bogie suspension that let her tilt 30 degrees without tipping, a top speed of two inches per second, 140 watt solar arrays, aluminum from the World Trade Center in her drill shields, and why the 90 sol estimate was driven by the expectation that Martian dust would smother her panels.

From Eagle Crater onward, Opportunity ground into rocks with her abrasion tool to expose evidence of sedimentary cementation and hydrothermal activity, proving ancient Mars had liquid water, and found Heat Shield Rock, the fir ...