A Starfield player has uncovered the lost NASA Opportunity rover on Mars.
Starfield was hailed as "NASA-punk" by the game's lead artist last year, and apparently that sentiment translates into literal easter eggs and hidden secrets in the new RPG. Below, one player managed to stumble upon NASA's Opportunity rover, stranded forever on the surface of Mars, while they were exploring the red giant.
I found an Opportunity exploring on Mars from r/Starfield
For those unfamiliar, this is the rover that NASA famously lost contact with back in 2018. Dispatched from Earth in 2003, it landed on Mars roughly a year later, and proceeded to document the gigantic planet, searching for signs of water. Signals were lost when a dust storm came about in 2018, and just two days after the storm commenced, Opportunity entered hibernation.
The rover has stood rooted to that spot ever since, with NASA declaring Opportunity's mission effectively complete in February 2019. At least in Starfield's version of humanity's future, we can eventually get all the way to the Opportunity rover by the 24th century.
There's some confusion about how to find the Opportunity in Starfield, though. The Reddit post's author claims that it's found via reading a book, but then another player reveals it can be tracked when you read the information board associated with the Opportunity in the NASA Museum, located in the MAST District of New Atlantis.
It actually sounds like the NASA Museum could be well worth visiting in New Atlantis for other reasons. It's been billed by other players as a bit of a lore deposit, where you can catch up on the backstory of Starfield and it's various factions, as well as the events leading up to the main game's story, like the intergalactic war. If you're a bit overwhelmed in Bethesda's new game, this could go a long way to helping.
You can read our in-depth Starfield XP farm guide for a handy list of hints to level up fast.
