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often get asked well how long will

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opportunity last and you know I can't

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say you know I don't think anyone knows

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you know eight years ago we were

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scratching our heads and said well maybe

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six months if we're really lucky but

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here were eight years later and the

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rover is still a very good health now

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we're at endeavour crater we're seeing

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new geology older geology it's a whole

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new window on the history of Mars it's

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the earliest period of Mars in which

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there was water sustained liquid water

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on the surface it was in that era that

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life started on the earth and so that's

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when we think Mars was the most

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earth-like and we've already seen

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evidence of that era I've reflected in

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some of the minerals that we've

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discovered at distant location we've

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assessed them to be gypsum and that's

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significant because these are minerals

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that form and water and they form in

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place perhaps groundwater came up and

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filled cracks and fractures in the

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geology that formed these veins of like

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toe material that's a great advantage

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that you have with a rover that can

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travel and move it's not the same stuff

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it's new stuff every day right now

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opportunities going through her fifth

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Martian winter this one's a little more

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challenging than the previous winters

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because dust continues to accumulate on

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the solar arrays which is reduced the

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power level so we can produce we had to

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take the rover and drive it up on to a

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ridge that gives us about a 15-degree

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tilt towards the north that's where the

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Sun will be in the wintertime because

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we're in the southern hemisphere it's

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kind of like adjusting your deck chair

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in a very unusual way this roving

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vehicle when it's stationary allows us

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to probe the interior of Mars it's radio

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signal now becomes a proxy for

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rotational rate of Mars and so we're

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going to measure the rotational rate of

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Mars very precisely which will give us a

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handle on the physical interior of the

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planet its distribution of material

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inside the size of the core maybe the

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fluid state of the core right now

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opportunity is alone on the surface of

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Mars we had to say goodbye to spirit

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after over six years of successful

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operation that Rover but soon

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opportunity will have company and

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that'll be curiosity the next Rover now

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curiosity will land a quarter of the way

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around the planet from opportunity so

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there's some chances of ever meeting up