NASA declares Mars rover Opportunity dead

NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has been declared dead, eight months after contact was lost during a furious dust storm on the red planet.

NASA rover Opportunity landed on Mars 15 years ago and roamed a record 45km around the red planet. (AAP)

NASA'S longest-running rover on Mars, Opportunity, has been pronounced dead, 15 years after it landed on the red planet.

The six-wheeled vehicle was built to operate for just three months.

Mars 2020 project system engineer Jennifer Trosper, left, points to a replica of the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity on 13/2/19. Source: AP

But it kept going and going until it was finally doomed by a ferocious dust storm eight months ago.

Flight controllers made numerous attempts to contact it and sent one final series of recovery commands on Tuesday night, accompanied by one last wake-up song, Billie Holiday's I'll Be Seeing You.

There was no response, only silence.

Remarkably agile until communication ended last June, Opportunity roamed a record 45 kilometres around Mars.

Opportunity and its long-dead twin rover, Spirit, found evidence that ancient Mars had water flowing on its surface and might have been capable of sustaining microbial life.