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

"My battery is low and it's getting dark" kinda breaks me heart, and makes me want to yell at NASA to get the fuck to Mars NOW and fix the poor little rover's batteries, or bring it home, or something.

14 years.

I was pregnant with Anne-Chloe, and visiting Quéte when Sojourner landed, on 4 July 1997. Every evening at whatever hotel we stayed at, we turned on the TV and watched. Spirit and Opportunity are part of when Linnea was a baby, and indeed, they're been on Mars her whole life.

Another part of my kids' childhood, Mike Wazowski said in Monsters Inc: "Once you name it you'll start getting attached to it", and that's proving very true here. I'm weeping at poor little Opportunity, alone in the dark and far far away and I know rationally, it's a freaking ROBOT that ran out of battery, ya know?

I cried when Spirit shut down, and I'll cry when Curiosity does too. So very silly of me, but we sent them so far away. In 2003, Pioneer 10 sent its last message and I cried then too.

There are many many heartbreaking tributes written today, (and I cried reading each one), but I think the one that makes me both saddest and happiest that these little rovers went to Mars and did great things is the following graphic.




A job well done, Opportunity. Thank you.