Dex-chan lover
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I just want to share this with other people who may be feeling the same way I feel. I apologize if this isn't the best place to post it.
Eulogy for Opportunity
“My battery is low and it’s getting dark.”
That was the final message from the Mars Opportunity Rover, received last June before she went into hibernation due to a planet-wide dust storm. The storm blocked any light from reaching the surface, but it wasn’t the first dust storm Opportunity had gone through. In the past, NASA was able to reconnect after the storm passed. But when the storm settled, there was no signal.
No signal. And yet we tried over and over to reach her, Earth’s wayward daughter, stranded on a strange world, after one of the fiercest dust storms in decades. A storm that blotted out the sun for months, cutting off her only source of warmth and power. When the sky cleared, NASA sent more than 1,000 commands to wake her. They transmitted music. One of the most human ways of connecting, a testament to our shared companionship. Not dissimilar from Voyager, shouting music into the void, aching for an answer.
On the evening of Tuesday, February 12, 2019, a final series of wake-up commands were transmitted to Mars. It was believed that her internal clock may have been so scrambled by the storm that she no longer knew when to sleep, or wake, or receive commands. The last commands attempted to reset her. At 11 AM on Wednesday, February 13, After eight long months unanswered, on the precipice of a Martian winter she would not survive, NASA finally declared the mission over.
In a final broadcast that brought tears to the eyes of the Opportunity team, they sent one last song. Possibly the last thing she would ever hear on the desolate red planet. Billie Holliday’s “I’ll Be Seeing You.”
Then, silence.
Opportunity, also known as Mars Exploration Rover – B (MER-B), MER-1, and Oppy, was launched July 7, 2003 and landed at the Meridiani Planum plain, located in the Arabia Terra region of Mars, on January 25, 2004. She and her twin, Spirit, were named by a 3rd grader, Sofi Collis of Arizona. They are both survived by their sister, Curiosity (landed August 6, 2012), and cousin, InSight (landed November 26, 2018).
Opportunity’s journey began at Eagle Crater, and after a brief stop by Endurance Crater, she trekked south. Between 2006 and 2008, she spent an extended time at Victoria Crater, exploring from Cape St. Vincent to Cape Agulhas. In 2011, for her seventh Mars anniversary, she explored the Santa Maria Crater, while making her way eastward towards the fourteen-mile-wide Endeavour Crater. For the last six years, she navigated the treacherous, weathered ridge of Endeavour. From the northern edge of Cape York down to Solander Point, she traveled south along the ridge. Much of 2016 was spent exploring Marathon Valley. She continued south and in July 2017, she entered Perseverance Valley, which would become her final resting place.
Her indomitable spirit and wanderlust are her legacy. While her sister traveled nearly five miles, Opportunity traveled a harrowing twenty-eight. While her sister sent an impressive 124,838 images, she shared an astounding 217,594 raw images with her seven billion friends back home. She couldn’t speak like we can, but for a decade and half we received bursts of data where she would tell us everything she learned. She found numerous meteorites dispersed across the Meridiani plain. She and her sister measured atmospheric conditions, detecting argon and observing wind movements. They even gave us confirmation that different types of water once flowed on Mars’ surface, and the environment could have hosted life.
She survived for 14 years and 294 days, outlasting her sister by 7 years.
Her original mission was only 90 days.
Her tenacity and resilience are her most human qualities.
Sometimes we need to leave our friends before the journey’s over. It hurts, but it’s unavoidable. Maybe one day we’ll meet again. Maybe in a hundred years we’ll find you, buried in a sand dune. Maybe we’ll repair you and we can continue exploring. Together. Maybe in thousands of years, on a terraformed Mars, a monument will sit at the weathered ridge of Lake Endeavour, overlooking the water, thanking you for your service. Humans are sentimental. It’s only a matter of time until that day comes.
Until then, we’ll look up at the stars in the night sky and dream.
We’ll be seeing you.
Eulogy created by u/TheDwilightZone.
