After all these years–15 to be exact–the Mars Rover is dead.
Gone..
Transmission last..
But it was a miracle in nature!
After all, NASA’s six-wheeled rover landed on the red planet in January 2004 for what billed as a 90-day mission. The robot was still going until a dust storm on Mars last summer killed it.
From 2004 until now.. Many of you reading this today were just born in or around 2004.. from your youth until this final message from the Red Planet, we have been hearing from a distant friend, in a way..
Abigail Fraeman, the deputy of project science for the Mars Exploration Rover mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, wrote this in a poignant and emotional WASHINGTON POST article,
Tuesday’s communication attempts began with a “wake-up song” played at mission control. The mission’s principal investigator, Steve Squyres, had chosen “I’ll Be Seeing You,” as performed by Billie Holiday. At 8:10 p.m., Holiday’s wistful voice floated up from the command floor. “I’ll be seeing you in all the old familiar places that this heart of mine embraces,” she sang. Tears welled in my eyes.
Opportunity — or Oppy, as we affectionately call her — has been in my heart since she touched down on Martian soil 15 years ago, in January 2004. I was 16 and a high school student at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Md. I loved space, and I couldn’t believe my luck when the Planetary Society offered me the chance to watch Opportunity land at JPL through its Red Rover Goes to Mars program. I was with the science team when we saw Oppy’s first images of Mars pop into view on large projection screens that surrounded the room. Instead of the rocky volcanic plains previous Mars landers had seen, Opportunity revealed a sea of sand with a strip of white bedrock poking through.
Opportunity was, actually, the second rover that NASA managed to land on Mars back in 2004. The tests and data found concludes that Mars was once able to hold life.. that waterways once roams around the now dusty dirt.
But today, Valentine’s Day, a heartbreak: The final words of the Mars Rover.. seemingly painful to read, even though a machine beamed them..
A science reporter, Jacob Margolis, scientists at NASA said the last message they received from Opportunity effectively translated to, “My battery is low and it’s getting dark.”
NASA published their “Opportunity, Wake Up!” playlist on Spotify. It contained hits like “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” by Wham!, “Here Comes the Sun” by The Beatles, “Life On Mars?” by David Bowie, “Telephone Line” by Electric Light Orchestra, “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor, and “I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty.
But the battery went low… it got dark…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBoEMDaDuBA]
