Oppy - Tumblr Posts

I just spent nearly an hour crying over Oppy. This is how I'm living my life. But if no one goes up there to get her to let her know she's not truly alone then goddamn it I'll do it myself.

thought about the opportunity rover too hard and started crying

we spend centuries staring up at the stars hoping to one day reach them, to use space to learn and grow. Now we finally have the resources and knowledge to do so and we touch our nearest neighbor. The world rejoices

but to venture farther out is a pole vault to the large step for mankind and undoubtedly dangerous, our first forays into the void taught us that much. So we send machines. We build them strong and powerful and resilient. And we give them names. Names with power, with meaning. We name one Opportunity

Opportunity lands and begins its mission. It take all the hope we imbued in the gears and broadcast out on radio waves and paid it back hundred fold. Its 90 day mission folded out into nearly 15 years. It weathers much. And one fateful sandstorm the solar panels finally get to choked up with dust to function.

back on Earth her engineers are worried as her battery decreases. The final report comes from oppy “my battery’s low and it’s getting dark”

Her engineers do their best to reach her. They hope that some wayward wind will blow away enough sand to restore functionality. They play her a song every day, from a playlist lovingly named “wake up oppy” (it’s the same playlist they used for those first few nights on the red planet. It was always such a relief when she woke up. They hope she wakes up again)

she doesn’t

after eight months with no word back the Opportunity Rover is declared dead

the world mourns

…

but … she’s not dead. She’s sleeping. And maybe someday humans will follow her example and land on mars.

and someone will find her

They will gently brush off the sand, dig out the wheels, and clear off the camera

and she will finally wake back up

and we’ll be able to say “hello oppy. we missed you. we never forgot you. it’s been a long time. but we’re finally here. thank you oppy. we love you”

and oppy will happily continue giving us weather updates and rock samples because that her way of saying

“I love you too”

I’m not sobbing are you?

R. I. P. oppy!! we love you so much

My battery is low... 

Today, a collection of cameras and steel was pronounced dead. She sang to celebrate herself, survived a marathon of miles, shared, and showed her redburned hollow home. We gave her iron claws to drag along a planet's spine, and when, one morning, the sensors would not wake, we shouted out a thousandfold: 'Are you okay?'

To no response.

She had a name. Between hurricanes and stars, we tend to love what kills or dies, ripping up our teddybears in Sunday morning rooms till stuffing snows and tickles throats, brings water to our eyes.

Stuck on an arbitrary globe, we compose 'Space Oddity'. Dream of escape, at least embrace the ache of rust she cannot feel. There is both humor and humanity in loss.

She might be us. Cross-winded, heading straight into the dust. We weave the trails into a 'why', frantic scramble metaphors, and with our scraped up hands, mold her dying code into a poem.

...and it's getting dark

Optimus discovers humans.

Had a vision after remembering this amazing post by artist, Lomonte