In 2004, NASA landed its Opportunity rover on Mars. Initially intended to run for 90 days, it’s now spent 11 years trundling around the planet — in that time covering a distance of over 40km. Here, you can watch its multi-year marathon in just eight minutes.
This timelapse video is made up of a series of images captured by the Oppurtunity rover’s hazard-avoidance cameras between January 2004 and April 2015, with its location mapped on the right in the full video below. The audio track has been created from vibration measurements as the rover travelled across the Martian surface: loud noises indicate that the ground was rough beneath its wheels, while quiet sounds indicate the terrain was smooth. Watch carefully, and you’ll see the rover get stuck in a sand dune for several weeks in 2005!