The End of the Opportunity Rover

[Fartsniffage]

We should seize this opportunity.

Your puns are intensifying my sadness.

The next rover should be called Matt Damon, we always bring that fucker home.

[Bombadil]

We should seize this opportunity.

Your puns are intensifying my sadness.

I just saw this as a golden opportunity.

[Gordfield]

https://xkcd.com/695/
We need a counter part for this one too now



Edit:
https://xkcd.com/1504/
The dream is gone

[Valrifell]

Your puns are intensifying my sadness.

I just saw this as a golden opportunity.

;-;

[Bombadil]

I just saw this as a golden opportunity.

;-;

I understand it sent back a lot of images, I guess it was a photo opportunity.

Okay ok I'll stop..

[Valrifell]

https://xkcd.com/695/
We need a counter part for this one too now

I expect one of the next few XKCDs will be about this, that rascal Randall is always on top of news like this.

[Gordfield]

https://xkcd.com/695/
We need a counter part for this one too now

I expect one of the next few XKCDs will be about this, that rascal Randall is always on top of news like this.

I wonder if it’ll break my heart as much as the spirit one

[Ethel mermania]

Mankind has decided to leave trash on another planet. We should have the decency to clean up our mess.

Do you have any idea how much it would cost to build a rocket to fly to mars and back? We don't even have rockets capable of that.
And for what? To pick up a tiny rover on an abandoned planet?

Humanities new slogan
veni, vidi, ego ad sinistram purgamentum

[Idzequitch]

https://xkcd.com/695/
We need a counter part for this one too now



Edit:
https://xkcd.com/1504/
The dream is gone

Those comics were the first thing I thought of when I read this news.

[United Muscovite Nations]

Nasa's baby boy is all gone!

[The Supreme Magnificent High Swaglord]

The US space agency (Nasa) has called time on its Opportunity Mars rover.

The six-wheeled robot last contacted Earth in June last year, just before it was enveloped in the darkness of a global dust storm.

Engineers hoped Oppy would power back up when the skies cleared and sunlight hit its solar panels again - but there has not been a peep out of the rover.

The routine prompt commands that have been sent to Opportunity will now end. The mission has been declared over.

"We tried valiantly over these last eight months to recover the rover, to get some signal from it," explained project manager John Callas.

"We've listened every single day with sensitive receivers, and we sent over 1,000 recovery commands. We heard nothing and the time has come to say goodbye."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47231247

It's amazing how we can anthropomorphise tech isn't it?

Opportunity has finally been declared as lost and I'm genuinely upset that it's dead. Curiosity is still going so there is still science happening on Mars but Oppy managed to last for 14.5 years, 14 years and 3 months longer than it was designed for. It was a plucky little rover.

The thread title is the last message NASA received from Opportunity.

What are your favourite parts of Mars explorations so far?

So you deny the truth of Machine Spirits? 01001000 01000101 01010010 01000101 01010011 01011001 00100001

[Ors Might]

Press F to pay respects

F

[Evil Dictators Happyland]

Press F to pay respects

F

F

[Unstoppable Empire of Doom]

"My battery is low....and it's getting dark"

That was the last message they received, I had to look that up to make sure.

That is incredibly sad. Sounds like an Isaac Asimov story...

It really does.


Most rovers that successfully land last much much longer than the "90 days" or whatever their mission calls for. Some last a year, some last five, this one lasted a decade and a half. I watched it leave our planet. I watched it land on Mars. I read it had stopped replying last year.


...


*****I have a contract for the recovery of a Rover from Duna for 20000 funds and a bunch of rep.

[Xmara]

It's like when Cassini burned up in Saturn's atmosphere...

So long, Oppy. May we meet again in that great Martian landscape in the sk-

Wait. Well, you know what I mean. RIP.

[The South Falls]

Send another one as soon as possible. Oppy II.

[Kowani]

Send another one as soon as possible. Oppy II.

Call it a “2nd Chance.”

[The South Falls]

Send another one as soon as possible. Oppy II.

Call it a “2nd Chance.”

Say it'll last for 15 years. It'll last for 1400.

[Ifreann]

We should mount a rescue mission. Just don't tell Elon, he'll be calling everyone at NASA paedophiles for years.

[Ors Might]

We should mount a rescue mission. Just don't tell Elon, he'll be calling everyone at NASA paedophiles for years.

I unconditionally support this.

[Imperium of Dragonia]

Rest in peace you magnificent robot. After 15 years of service on a unforgiving, empty world, you've earned your rest.

[The South Falls]

We should mount a rescue mission. Just don't tell Elon, he'll be calling everyone at NASA paedophiles for years.

I unconditionally support this.

Hell yea. Put a few trillion in it.

[Ors Might]

I unconditionally support this.

Hell yea. Put a few trillion in it.

#BringBackOppy

[Bombadil]

We should mount a rescue mission. Just don't tell Elon, he'll be calling everyone at NASA paedophiles for years.

Alas his space Tesla is already making a u-turn.. he doesn't want to miss this opportunity.

[Imperium of Dragonia]

We should mount a rescue mission. Just don't tell Elon, he'll be calling everyone at NASA paedophiles for years.

Alas his space Tesla is already making a u-turn.. he doesn't want to miss this opportunity.

.....
Bad, Bombadil. BAD!