After something like 280 failed reconnect commands sent to our baby boy, Opportunity is dead.
The little rover that could managed 14 years, in a shell designed for 90 days. Survived ditches, survived dust storms, survived everything a hostile world could throw at him for way longer than he was meant to.
Alas, he was finally gotten about 6 months ago, his final words being:
My battery is low, and it is getting dark...
The reason I'm posting this in Hi-Tech is because of the absolute significance technologically that Opportunity had to our (or at least my) generation. I'm 21, so I can barely remember a time Oppy wasn't up there. He's shown us so much of Mars that we now have an almost complete understanding of just what we can expect when colonization comes into play. Hell, Opportunity was kinda the thing that got me into space in the first place.
14 years.
14 happy birthday songs sung to himself in the vacuum of a lifeless dust planet.
Over 200 pictures of mars sent back to NASA, giving a never-before seen view of the world right next to our own, our next big challenge as a species.
I may sound like a bubbling idiot reading the obituary of someone here, but the sheer significance of Oppy's scientific data, and the sheer amount of inspiration brought to young folk such as myself who do look to the stars and wonder credits this post.
Farewell, Opportunity.
See you, space cowboy.
(Feel free to mock me for being a soppy bastard about this.)
