Last week marked the cessation of NASA’s JPL (Jet Propulsion Lab) Mars Exploration mission’s efforts to reach the Opportunity Rover, after a historic dust storm wreaked havoc on practically the ENTIRE planet in June of 2018.
After 8-months’ worth of “sweep and beep” commands sent with no response, the Mars Exploration Mission team determined that Opportunity was most likely irreparably damaged (too long without sunlight to power its solar panels, too much dust to uncover them), and its mission ended. What started as a 90-day mission turned into 15-years of Mars exploration. That’s 14 years and 293 days of overtime (in Earth time) for Opportunity, with a little over 28 miles of exploration on the surface of Mars. The final message received from Opportunity can be summed up as:
“My battery is low, and it’s getting dark.”
If my post seems a bit lifeless, it’s because far too often the achievements and accomplishments that are made, which pave the path of success for much larger undertakings, are so frequently overlooked or even dismissed. The foundation for all monumental tasks, projects, or goals (that have any hope of success) always begin with the tireless, thankless, and quiet heavy lifting that comes with making sure that this “thing” that is in the works doesn’t fail. That foundation is made up of a lot of pieces, a lot of people, and a lot of work coming together to prop up whatever it is that will sit on its shoulders. Every big, sexy skyscraper has a foundation – a foundation that people had to design and get covered in sh!t to build. When the foundation is built, those same people move on to the next foundation; no accolades, no ceremonies. Just the quiet knowledge that they made possible what is to come next.
Opportunity was part of that foundation crew. The team that worked on Opportunity was part of that foundation crew. I know that the years of people (as a population) being interested in and getting excited about scientific achievements is long gone, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t take a moment to thank NASA’s JPL (and their Rovers) for doing meaningful things for humanity. For contributing immeasurably to society and paving the future for things I can’t even imagine. For laying the groundwork for life on Mars when the inattentive masses make this planet uninhabitable.
Besides, I’ve always preferred the company of computer systems to people 😊