The rolling topography limited drives to around 15 to 30 meters (49.21 to 98.42 feet) in March and was, “the main limiting factor,” elaborated Bellutta, who computed Opportunity’s extended mission route and the “express route” she’s now traveling. “But we are making good progress.”

In a perfect Martian world, the scientists would like the rover to be at Cape Byron and the head of Perseverance Valley in June, Arvidson ventured, so the rover can spend some quality time working before the Martian winter arrives in Mars’ southern hemisphere in November. Should push come to shove or should the science team decide they see something they absolutely, positively must investigate along the way, Opportunity needs to be there no later than September, according to Herman.

That way, the ‘bot will have the time needed to scope out north-facing slopes where she can position herself toward the Sun during the mission’s eighth Martian winter. As Squyres, who never predicts the future, put it: “We're going to try and get there as fast as we can.”

Meanwhile on Earth, Opportunity roved into the spotlight once again at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC) that was held from March 20th through the 24th in The Woodlands, Texas. During the annual gathering, the rover “starred” in about a dozen presentations and posters covering everything from then, now, and when, or past, present and future.

Since landing in 2004, Spirit and Opportunity, together, have sent massive amounts of data and thousands of images home, enough to keep scientists busy for years, maybe decades to come. As a result, the MER mission has figured prominently in every LPSC gathering for the last 14 years, almost always drawing standing room only crowds.

This year, after Arvidson completed his presentation, he was asked if the MER team expected to rove on to Iazu Crater to the south of Endeavour sometime in the future. The mission’s Deputy Principal Investigator said what most MERsters say: “Do not bet against this rover.”

In other MER news, Pete Theisinger, who led the project that developed and built Spirit and Opportunity and who served as the mission’s first project manager at JPL, was honored March 29th with the 2017 National Air and Space Museum Trophy for Lifetime Achievement in a ceremony at the Smithsonian museum in Washington D.C.

Since 2000, when MER was but a concept on a Power Point, the mission has become legendary for so many reasons. From those magical moments when against all odds Spirit and Opportunity bounced to breathtaking landings in January 2004, through all the discoveries of past water and potentially habitable locations for life, and all the jaw-dropping roving records that have pushed the bar way up there for future ‘bots and transformed MER into the first overland expedition of Mars, there has been an almost uncanny, certainly rare camaraderie between the science and engineering teams.

By all accounts, Theisinger’s leadership and his first prime directive to the original MER team, along with Squyres’ charismatic commanding, are the key reasons why this mission has driven again and again into the hallowed halls of space exploration history. “I give a lot of the credit especially for the camaraderie between science and engineering to Pete Theisinger,” said Squyres. “He set the tone from the beginning of this project. On Day One, he said: 'Look, if all we do is land these things safely, we've done nothing. We score no points for that. It's been done.’”

Spirit and Opportunity, you may remember, were the follow-on rovers to Pathfinder’s little Sojourner, and their objectives revolved around the science. “Pete set the tone from the start, among the whole JPL team, that we were doing this [mission] to do good science on Mars,” said Squyres. “And people embraced that.”

Currently special assistant to JPL Director Michael M. Watkins, Theisinger has been “traveling” to Mars since Mariner 9 in 1971, and has worked on missions to six planets since joining JPL in 1967, and also led the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity project.