Opportunity operated on Mars for 5,352 Martian days, or sols. NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover landed in Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004, and continued working until its final communication on June 10, 2018.
The rover was designed for only 90 sols—about 92 Earth days—but its solar panels, rechargeable batteries, and careful power management allowed it to survive for more than 14 years. Opportunity sometimes entered low-power states during dust storms and depended on favorable winds to remove dust from its solar arrays.
During its mission, Opportunity traveled about 45.16 kilometers, a record distance for a planetary rover at the time. It studied rocks and soils for evidence that liquid water had once existed on Mars, finding minerals and geological features shaped by ancient watery environments.
The 5,352-sol figure refers to the period from landing to mission-ending loss of communication, not merely the time when every instrument was continuously active. Its twin, Spirit, had a shorter mission and ceased communicating in 2010, another reason the two rovers’ operational totals are often confused.