The Truth Behind Opportunity's Last Message and It's Final Days On Mars

"My Batteries are low, and it's getting dark" - those words struck a chord with people around the world, but of course the truth is the actual last transmissions from Opportunity and how it ended its mission on Mars are less poetic, but worthy of discussion. So let's discuss the technology behind the rover, the workarounds and hacks that kept it running and the actions of the team in charge of the mission.
Thanks to Doug Ellison for the idea, and for correcting a couple of mistakes.
Much of the data in this video can be found indexed on this site.
an.rsl.wustl.edu/

[@MrZenzio]

While overshadowed by its sibling, Opportunity, let's also pay respect to Spirit. You were both great.

[@vegasspaceprogram6623]

Good job spirit.... We love you to❤️

[@milestone1719]

Yes spirit was stuck in sand. F

[@EtzEchad]

I think it is awesome that some engineer had the heart of a poet to translate that last message. The whole rover engineering team should be proud of what they accomplished. Both rovers FAR exceeded their design lifespan.

[@themightiestofbooshes9443]

"was i a good rover?" - "no" - "i'm told you were the best" feels

[@duanewilliams7353]

It's problem, that it was too good at picture taking to suit NASA, they had a very hard time hiding what the picture took!!! that is buildings, houses cars cities!!! even in this clip we just watched, they used black paper to hide out what was low there, but even there were visible houses....they don't expect you to look that close!!!!

[@adamkerman475]

@@duanewilliams7353 god please be joking

[@JsphCrrll]

@@duanewilliams7353 I really hope you are just a 8 year old spouting nonsense.

[@Cynsham]

@@duanewilliams7353 Lmao nice troll

[@stargamer777]

Simply press Report -> Misinformation -> Report -> Ok

[@Outsideville]

Hi. How are you today. I'm solar groovy. Right on, brother. Right on.

[@j.c.4404]

RIP dear Rover may your batteries always be full and your camera sharp.

[@malfattio2894]

F

[@TheMaghorn]

Well it's dead, so by definition it's battery is empty...

[@j.c.4404]

@@TheMaghorn not in Rover Paradise. it's rockin a lithium battery and has all the lady rovers walle got it all :P

[@Master_Ed]

@@j.c.4404 electronics don't have a heaven

[@j.c.4404]

​@@Master_Ed they do change my mind.

[@lee1978good]

NASA "we're hoping to complete a 90 day mission in the extreme environment of Mars" Opportunity "PFFFT, HOLD MY BEER" Goodnite Oppy Sweet Dreams xo

[@quoniam426]

More like: "Hold my RTG". Oh wait it is powered by solar panels...

[@wisdomnight8996]

😂😂😂hold my beer ...😁😁😁

[@Mythricia1988]

@@quoniam426 "Hold my solar panel!" .... "Wait, shit, gimme back"

[@abiscuit3988]

@Qing Empire... Stfu

[@abiscuit3988]

@Qing Empire ik- you have stated the complete obvious fact "dID yOU knOW iF yOu waLKed fOr SEVen dAYs bUT PlaNNEd a MoUnTh YoU fAiL Ur GoAL!?" No dip Sherlock- I had no idea if they made it any less they would have failed- had no idea like really come on... Just making a comment to make one

[@_Oli___]

RIP Opportunity Died cold, dark and alone. Nobody deserves to die like that. Edit: Just realised curiosity was on the surface as well.

[@sudoscoobs1373]

Was hoping the ending would be "I'm Scott Manley, rove safe"

[@butlertv1]

Scotty Kilmer, " Rove up your engine! "

[@OptionalZero]

This detailed look at the last info made me cry a little. Opportunity has been trundling along up there for nearly half my life. If we ever get to Mars as Science and eventual Tourist Colonies, can we designate these as "Human Historical Sites", to never be touched or disturbed? It is a Tourist attraction I WOULD make an effort to see.

[@anzaca1]

It will be. All the Apollo landing sites already have a protected status.

[@theimperfectgod7140]

Rest well buddy... I'm not crying... that is water... on my eyes.

[@Freekniggers]

You should try using soap with the water.

[@andersenzheng]

im not crying, YOU ARE CRYING

[@theimperfectgod7140]

@@Freekniggers OOF ;-;

[@theimperfectgod7140]

@@andersenzheng Gah you... ;-; i need a hug.

[@andersenzheng]

@@theimperfectgod7140 (っ˘̩╭╮˘̩)っ

[@Nordestino249]

"I'm afraid... I'm afraid Dave... Dave? My mind is going... I can feel it"

[@andyjacobs7010]

Daiiiiisy...

[@redfox129]

Death: your time has come Oppy: was I a good little robot Death: no Oppy: oh Death: you were the best

[@d.nagrawal6691]

👍

[@machy8515]

On mars XD

[@TheSkreeBat]

time to cry ;~;

[@JaredHaer]

​@@TheSkreeBat Getting highly emotional about things like this is not a sign of wellness. This is a space toaster, that you never met, that will not effect your life in anyway. People anthropomorphize inanimate objects with no feelings and no self direction, because they want to be friends with the object, but objects are incapable of any relationships or feelings. The rover is not an object with thoughts, dreams or aspirations, It's a device. I may be missing something here, but I don't see what has changed on Earth that makes this mission so significant. Is this just science for "feels"?

[@friedmule5403]

@@JaredHaer I do not see it as crying for the rover itself but for an end of our connection to Mars. The rover stand for our "boldly go..." our reaching into the future and now is it all over. A area of knowing that we were out there.

[@zapfanzapfan]

"My Batteries are low, and it's getting dark" is poetry on the level of Roy Batty in Bladerunner.

[@monkeymonk666]

"I have beheld the Rover mausoleums of Olympus Mons" Or something to that effect... ... But yeah, good stuff.

[@duanewilliams7353]

So what would NAASA do when it got that message? ran the hell out of the battery, to make sure it stayed dead!!!!

[@guidosarducci209]

I've ... seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watch T-Beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All these moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die. From memory.

[@jeffbyrd6003]

It still shocks me sometimes how quickly our species went from not being sure there are other planets, to saying good bye to a robot on another world. It's crazy.

[@timothymclean]

You might want to rephrase that. People have known there were planets from the first generation that paid attention to the sky, we just didn't know what they were.

[@Moribax85]

fun that you say that, since the ancient greeks knew about Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, and there are representations of Mars in ancient Egypt tombs, like the one of Seti I (reigner roughly between 1290 and 1279 BC)... so, we knew other planets existed pretty much the moment we looked at a night sky

[@callindrill]

@@timothymclean , Moribax85 : I mean, if you look at it in terms of geological time, even the ancient Greeks were mere "moments" ago.

[@timothymclean]

@@callindrill I mean, yeah, but "human civilization moves faster than continents" isn't exactly "crazy".

[@timothymclean]

@@AppleGameification Because that's what we called them. That's like saying "We don't know what's at the seafloor, how do we know it's the seafloor?" Because we know it exists, and we need a name for it, ergo...

[@benitollan]

Just out of Curiosity, what are the chances the dust clears from the panels and the rover gets another Opportunity?

[@aldi3369]

Just out of Curiosity, what are the chances the dust clears from the panels of the rover with the good Spirit gets another Opportunity? But that probably just ruins it.

[@mrpicky1868]

well the solar cells and battery are kind of bust already from not heating when needed and over time degradeation. even they somehow survived barely they will degrade more and more. it will be unusable anyway. PS someone clearly didnt watch this or any other video on this mission from Scott..u r here just to bath in comments?

[@thecapacitor1395]

It would definitely give us an Insight into the aftermath of the storm.

[@jorge8596]

We'll certainly need some InSight on the matter

[@arnavkalgutkar6169]

@@mrpicky1868 r/wooosh

[@MrAlex_Raven]

2:30 to 2:40 Somehow that's more horrifying if I choose to step in and anthromorphise this. Opportunity wasn't sending it's death throes to us, it was seeing what was coming to kill it, shrouded in darkness and as it came, it let us try to see what it saw coming for it. One last heroic act before it was taken by Mars.

[@harrymack3565]

I want, "My battery is low and it's getting dark." on my grave.

[@logiconabstractions6596]

What if you happen to die at sunrise?

[@mazzalnx]

@@logiconabstractions6596 It's relative. To a dying individual, with their eyes closed, everything is dark. If your brain shuts down and for some reason you haven't closed your eyes, then I don't know. I've passed out a few times and that's the only experience I have -- but I don't think I've ever passed out with my eyes open (is that even possible?) so I'm not sure.

[@shreeyashpandey3530]

Its already dark once you are dead

[@harrymack3565]

@@shreeyashpandey3530 Can't i just die in peace without people pointing out the lack of thought i put in to my... thoughts.

[@Cr1msonFir3]

@@harrymack3565 you can get around this by having it engraved as your final quote. Just remember to say it in the presence of someone.

[@LMacNeill]

It still amazes me that we got 15 years out of a machine that was designed to last 90 days. That's over SIXTY TIMES longer than it was designed for. That's like a human being living to be over 4,800 years old!! Really mind-blowing! I think the machine and its designers deserve *big* kudos for being able to achieve something so spectacular!

[@logiconabstractions6596]

Yeah. That's pretty much what I figure - that the "last message" from Opportunity came in the form of some logs indicating important element of its current state (I'm from a cs background). The way I see it, in doesn't detract the least bit from the drama & romance of that rover death. Those of us with the background necessary to understand what NASA truly meant with this quote can still, I think, appreciate the beauty of it while still not taking it too literally. Those who can't still get a beautiful story of the last moment of that rover. In a way, Opportunity spoke to us in the only language it knew - binaries. That we had to translate doesn't take anything away, just like Shakespear is still Shapkespear even though you had to translate it to French or other languages for some to appreciate its beauty.

[@jackmcslay]

My thoughts exactly. Just because it didn't transmit a message in plain english doesn't mean that's not what it meant.

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

thinking about it... The language it used was precise and technical, even dry, and yet in that dryness there is no less drama. it is not a wistful poet looking back at life, but the final log entry of a captain knowing he will not likely hold it through the night. by protocol it would have probably ended the call with a "next check-in at ()H()min()sec, opportunity-out"

[@anonymike8280]

First and last words. I remember right before the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969, Walter Cronkite delivered a now forgotten little tele-essay on the spontaneous character of first words. The real first words from the surface of the Moon were, "Houston, Tranquility Base here The Eagle has landed." Some things are just meant not to be exceeded, those word among them.

[@duanewilliams7353]

IF it died, MASA wanted it to die!!!! It to far too many pics that Nasa had to hide stuff, and they didn't do a very good job at that!! A huge apartment complex, but there were so many!!! Even in this video above, see those black cardboard strips? That.s hiding the houses and buildings below!! there's another good size house just to the left!!!

[@logiconabstractions6596]

@@duanewilliams7353 Ah..... sure. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

[@zoltanposfai3451]

"The night is dark and full or errors!"

[@jamesswartz1779]

I lol'ed

[@BowsettesFury]

Zoltán Pósfai “What a terrible night for a dust storm.”

[@bassmechanic237]

What a tear jerker of a video. Thank you for a great memorial. You rock Scott.

[@mathboy_]

Would love to see a rover roundup comparing the rovers. Stuff like design/actual lifespan, comms, location, locomotion, power, distance traveled, etc.

[@logondash]

"It's been seven days since I ran out of ketchup."

[@GoSlash27]

"Disco. Goddamn it, Lewis!"

[@samarvora7185]

I'm definitely going to die up here... if I have to listen to any more of Commander Lewis's god awful disco music.

[@TheNefastor]

This rover was a solid tool, and got a lot of work done. I hate it when a great tool reaches the end of its life and must be retired. I hope it resists the elements so that eventually we can give it a proper final resting place, in a museum, on Earth or on Mars.

[@mrsuperguy2073]

I do to. It's got such an enormous legacy.

[@DanStaal]

Honestly, for several of these early explorer bots, I think moving them to a museum would lessen their impact. Build the museum around where they are, without moving them.

[@TheNefastor]

@@DanStaal that would be awesome !

[@DanStaal]

@@walletherobot4424 It's not uncommon. I was thinking more like an archeological dig - Petra or the Acropolis or similar. I've been to many where there's a shed or something over an open dig, with placards around the side that let you read about what you're looking at, and a main hall with more info off to the side.

[@YourIdeologyIsDelusional]

I said this elsewhere, but... We should bury it under a monolith, a worthy gravestone for one of our first explorers to set foot (or wheels) on a foreign planet.

[@birdbasket]

At first at the end I thought you said "I'm Scott Manley, Cry safe" RIP Oppy. we'll miss you.

[@TarisRedwing]

lol that tattoo....what a permanent mistake LOL

[@jerry3790]

Reminds me of those Chinese tattoos

[@AthanImmortal]

Like so many tattoos haha :D

[@Aereto]

Never go for tattoos. They are permanent and no removal method can get rid of it.

[@richb313]

That's kinda the definition of Tattoo. Everyone changes their mind eventually

[@theimperfectgod7140]

Tattoos always succs

[@dziltener]

Opportunity... I remember being a 13 year old kid, playing the lander game on the website, written in Macromedia Shockwave, anticipating the landing, hoping it would go well. I remember using my internet time on the dial up to download the image packs for the viewer they provided. I am 28 years old now. For more than half of my life, Opportunity rolled across the Martian surface, doing science and collecting data. More than half my life, in such a harsh environment. Rest well, little rover. Good bye, and thanks for all the science. You and Spirit are the two machines I'm not ashamed to shed tears for.

[@sketchesofpayne]

We get emotionally invested in the journeys of these probes and rovers because they go and explore places we wish we could go but physically can't. Thus we live these adventures vicariously through them.

[@thatchoirguy4939]

I cant wait till the day rockets will be going to space daily and going to space will be a norm

[@everpiek1163]

@@thatchoirguy4939 we already said that when i was a kindergarten kid, and thats not only an opportunity's lifespan ago. more like 3 of those. and see where greed and neoliberalism got us.

[@duanewilliams7353]

On youtube...Please put in...Planet Mars: It's not just a rock/ Animals, people cars, apartments!!! GREAT!!!!

[@slaphappyduplenty2436]

I cried over this thing. IN FRONT OF MY WIFE! She was not impressed...

[@mazzalnx]

No shame in that. Some of these things make me tear up as well. It feels as if most people around me don't realize how vast the universe is and how freaking important some of these things we are doing, some of these things we are learning, are. That, or they just don't care. Their minds are deeply engaged and far more worried with some sports team, some new makeup product coming out or some other random stuff. In fact... I think most people would just break down if you force-fed the notion of just how irrelevant they are in the big picture. They choose to live down to a smaller bubble of simpler topics where they feel like they matter. Not criticizing your wife or anything. I promise. Not criticizing anyone, really. That's just how I see things. Everyone's free to live the way they choose.

[@freeman2399]

Divorce coming?

[@jamesrosemary2932]

@@freeman2399 I don't know. Maybe she thought that if he cries like that for a robot, how would he cry for me when I'm going to die.

[@mazzalnx]

@@jamesrosemary2932 I've cried more to music and works of fiction than I cried at my father's funeral. I loved and respected him very much. Still do. But I knew it was coming years beforehand. Advanced stage of irreversible condition. I simply steeled myself for the inevitable. Everyone's different.

[@combato86]

Yup, just shed a rear as well... Lovely little f*cker went through a lot.

[@Super-J10]

R.I.P. little buddy.........gone but NEVER FORGOTTEN

[@LoudPlateAndy]

DONT SAY THAT. ROVER WILL BACK BUT WE MUST WAITING

[@bernieponcik1351]

Thank you for explaining this in such detail while paying attention to the actual meaning of the data being sent. Your choice of pictures was fantastic!

[@sudantarescosmonautics9422]

Thank you all the amazing stuff you transferred back home, little dude. Thanks for the video, Scott. Respect.

[@astrofox2409]

Not gonna lie, I nearly broke into tears watching this.

[@djdawgo]

@@nootnoot3741 that would be nice

[@logosofgame4273]

I had many good engineers on Earth looking after me. My favourite gave me 90 days to live, 15 years ago.

[@bradnarraway9141]

Thanks Scott. This video is the proper sendoff, with all the technical details and logs of its accomplishments properly noted, that Opportunity truly deserves.

[@johnnyloveee]

Can you imagine future scientists landing on Mars and finding opportunity. Holy crap I’m not crying. YOU ARE.

[@Wil482Senior]

"Dr. Chandra,...will I dream?"

[@anarchyantz1564]

Daisy.... Daisy..... give me your ans...w....err. doo....

[@robertoneill1979]

"Curiosity in the same storm". What a cool shot!

[@duanewilliams7353]

On youtube...Please put in...Planet Mars: It's not just a rock/ Animals, people cars, apartments!!! GREAT!!!!

[@christianbergman711]

Scott - best eulogy for Opportunity I have seen or heard - thanks!

[@mvuyisogqwaru2409]

Another quality video, brother. There's no other more brilliant way to end it except the way you did! Guess you could say 'the legacy of Opportunity is infinite opportunities.'

[@Codysdab]

Such a missed Opportunity.

[@YourIdeologyIsDelusional]

Aaayyyy!

[@machy8515]

I guess it was a good pun?

[@rosebygrace598]

no

[@richb313]

Thanks for this End of Mission Summary / Eulogy.

[@demilishing]

Had tears in my eyes, amazing video, one of your best for sure!

[@xenuno]

Best vid I've seen yet by him .. twas rather fascinating and touching both.

[@csmith9684]

Thanks Scott this is what we need to hear...the facts. Why i sub.

[@GrasshopperKelly]

Whenever Man reaches Mars, and she is finally rescued. She's going to be put on a God damn plinth, and I'll be dammed if archaeological digs millions of years from now don't think Mars society worshiped Her! :.)

[@bigratkiller1]

it's a he

[@jamesrosemary2932]

Well. I always thought Opportunity was masculine and Spirit feminine.

[@danieljensen2626]

@@bigratkiller1 It was never really official, but in French Spirit is masculine and Opportunity is feminine, so that was the unofficial gender of those two. Curiousity is officially considered a girl though. And personally I think we should leave it where it is but build a dome around it or something.

[@bigratkiller1]

@@jamesrosemary2932 Hey i'm just messin around. It's just a machine. A bloody brilliant piece of engineering but it has no means of reproducing otherwise Mars would be covered in the things by now...after all they did send two. Maybe that's why they kept them so far apart ;)

[@bigratkiller1]

@@danieljensen2626 FRENCH!!!!!!!!! I won't say what i'm thinking. Anyhow I'm sure something apropriate will be done for it when people get there. It depends on how scarce parts are to repair things or it may up being cannibalised to fix a coffee machine

[@sael1337]

I'm not a scientist, im if anything a man of below average intelligence, and i find this stuff absolutely mind blowingly interesting. i can't even begin to imagine how insane it must be to actually understand the data coming back from the mars rover. Incredible!

[@_tyrannus]

Crazily imaginative ways to keep a system running despite the failure of major subsystems. Shows how much planning was done to make it so resilient. Amazing that the core electronics outlived years of harsh Martian conditions.

[@nolunchiseverfree]

MRO seems to be key to a lot of our Mars missions purely as a communications relay station.

[@QuantumBraced]

I grew up with these rovers. RIP Opportunity.

[@disqusmacabre6246]

Nice job, Scott. Thank you for this. Ot was a much more fittimg tribute to the end of a spectacularly well executed robotic mission - far better than anything that the MSM had to say.

[@crispy63]

Now where else would you find such details about Opportunity? Great work Scott, enjoyed this!

[@alphaadhito]

Me taking selfies with telephoto camera Oppy: Hold my beer

[@marktheshark8320]

7:02 So "Solar groovy" is a technical term?

[@JeffreyBue_imtxsmoke]

yet another fantastic video Scott.

[@kargaroc386]

Thanks for the after-action report!

[@slick4401]

I believe it does prove that, unlike the "Blader Runner" and "Westworld" scenarios, most people would feel sympathetic towards self-conscious robots. Until they begin to demand rights and salaries, of course.

[@stargamer777]

That final point "...demand rights and salaries..." is an mostly human decision. A human would probably write code that wouldn't allow that to happen in a normal sense. As for AI that's a different story but as long as humans fix limits on what they can think of this shouldn't* happen. *But someone will probably be stupid enough to write an AI with no limits that can do stuff like that, and then maybe it will try and take over... Maybe the end of humanity might not be war or a natural disaster but instead our own creations / stupidity.

[@erictaylor5462]

I am sure that Opportunity was not sad or scared or even proud. It had no feelings whatsoever about it's imminent death. Still, it's hard not to imagine such emotions. We know how we'd feel in Opportunity's place. *WE* would have felt sad and scared and maybe even proud for a job well done.

[@erictaylor5462]

In theory you could transfer or even just copy your consciousness to a machine. In every important way you would be that machine. Even if you just copied your consciousness meaning the biological you would continue as if nothing happened, you would also be the machine. Of course the biological you and the mechanical you would be different people as soon as the transfer was complete, but you would still be going to Mars on a one way trip. The mechanical you would respond to things just as the biological you would do it its place. It would be a very weird feeling, I'd think. Wonder if that robot would have human rights?

[@mazzalnx]

Can we? I'm pretty sure a human mind emulator would require a vast amount of processing power and memory. Our current (and planned) versions of robots doing these kinds of missions run on very, very bare-bones equipment for redundancy, simplicity and cost. The processors used in these missions have been tested through barrages of harsh, hardcore scenarios, while using minimal power and resources. Even if it is possible, would the resource-intensive requirements of an emulated human mind even be justifiable in such environments...? All of that power, memory, weight and space could probably be better utilized in other things, while keeping the program minimalistic...

[@HuntingTarg]

[Replying to all]: That's exactly what anthropomorphism is. And that's why we send non-sentient electronic probes to do our science ahead of us. Check out the intro to 1968 "Planet of the Apes". Humans are not naturally like that.

[@erictaylor5462]

No, we can not currently download a person's consciousness into a computer. That is what I mean by "In theory." "In theory" is used for those things that are not yet technically possible, but do not violate the laws of physics as we understand them. Before 1949 it was, in theory, possible to fly an airplane faster than sound. There were many problems that had to be worked out because air doesn't behave the same at trans sonic speeds. But in 1949 they worked those problems out and Chuck Yeager became the first person to fly an airplane faster than sound.

[@Graytail]

@@erictaylor5462 You should play SOMA sometime

[@planetrob555]

This is one of your best videos.

[@ramsesv.pinxteren252]

A fitting fairwell to a piece of metal that inspired people, had a huge cuddlefactor and because of the love so many gave it, got a soul.

[@mocko69]

i'm crying.... please let Elon send something to Mars to save Oppy

[@jongxina4929]

Močnik Royale and spirit aswell I can imagine some kind of ship and detector

[@milestone1719]

Send in the TESLAS.

[@jnichols3]

Drive toward the light, Opportunity!

[@jolson3x]

It's crazy to me that years and years later, I still consistently watch Scott.

[@tryAGAIN87]

1:03 - I actually shed a few tears reading that beautiful anthropomorphism of opportunity. I imagine this is what my kids felt like as i showed them the world for the first time. It makes me feel so small and yet so special.

[@ahaveland]

Opportunity's last message was never received: "Will I dream?" :'-(

[@mazzalnx]

I think it's dreamt plenty c: Considering it's been waking up for the past few years, checking its memory unit and finding psychadelic corrupted stuff on there haha. "Goddamn, what kind of rock did I sniff last night?! I better not beam this stuff up... HOUSTON, 0x77F CHECKSUM ERROR, PURGING DATA" "Also uh... Go ahead and disable that unit pretty please? I'll just work with RAM and upload stuff rq, don't worry"

[@HuntingTarg]

@@mazzalnx I don't think you understood that reference...

[@mazzalnx]

@@HuntingTarg Nope! Never heard it before in my life. I'm going to look that up now...

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

HuntingTarg Is it from "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" ?

[@doctoruttley]

👌🏻👏🏻

[@alejandrorvilla7571]

I just realized you jave a Mimmatar Rifter on top of that shelf. How do you double upvote on youtube?

[@SolyomSzava]

I thought that was just random scrapheap... so hard to tell them apart.

[@BrianThorstad]

Loved the in depth statement of what transpired, thank you!

[@Boop__Doop]

A man once said that "you die twice once when you stop breathing and once when your name is said for the last time" long live opportunity

[@greetswithfire1868]

I am "coffee groovy" when I have enough energy to run on coffee without having to rely on pizza.

[@tailfordsteve9383]

just out of curiosity did it ever take a night sky shot ?

[@GoSlash27]

"Feeling solar groovy" is going to be my new catch- phrase this spring. Thanks for the detailed analysis!

[@duanewilliams7353]

On youtube...Please put in...Planet Mars: It's not just a rock/ Animals, people cars, apartments!!! GREAT!!!!

[@rejm1161]

Me too at 65 my batteries are low and it's getting dark. Good video Scott !

[@MrWhite2222]

F to pay respects for Opportunity.

[@seanplayz9626]

F

[@MrtinVarela]

F for the guy that tattooed the wrong rover too.

[@itsawidgeon]

@@MrtinVarela I feel bad for him when he finds out

[@yuyukosfaithfulservant]

@@MrtinVarela yh

[@R_C420]

I think we can jump-start it with an orbital mirror. THAT would be solar groovy.

[@duanewilliams7353]

Not if NASA has anything to say about it!! It was their biggest pain!! Took many pics every day, and we demanded to see more!!! and they had to try to cover up the info... Huge apartment complex's! Large city's, cars, huge buildings!! and we got to see most anyway!!! They were tired of stuff it was taking pics of!! Got to see people!!! One guy coming out of his house, had a big white goose, came out a little with him, but would not go out!! Saw tome tiny buildings, perhaps 4.5 feet high, they saw the people about 3 foot tall, very nice looking!!

[@joeyknight8272]

@@duanewilliams7353 wat

[@homerbloodysimpson]

This is quality material. GJ

[@dan85lewis]

great vid again! congratulations!

[@emiliogreenwood8190]

They should make a little statue for that somewhere

[@rethla]

Its already a little statue

[@Garvey64LIVE64]

No one: Perseverance rover: *Shits out a helicopter* Perseverance: "oh hello" Helicopter: "weeeee"

[@adamkerman475]

The helicopter is named Ingenuity

[@Garvey64LIVE64]

@@adamkerman475 yes ik

[@yuyukosfaithfulservant]

the way that i read it made it funnier

[@anguswombat]

I very much appreciate you videos! Thank you!

[@philorkill]

Thank you for boiling things down to a palpable level for us mere mortals

[@user-ni6pi6ez3o]

What if it was programmed to "Rick Roll" at the end? "Never gonna give you up never gonna let you down"

[@itsawidgeon]

That should have been a song they used to wake oppy up

[@Huzzahgamers_inc]

;( RIP, poor little guy. You did good. Now rest.

[@ultrametric9317]

Really great report. I had been looking forward to the opposition of Mars in 2018 for YEARS - getting my telescope and equipment ready for the best apparition in my remaining lifetime, likely. I prayed that dust storms would not ruin it, as they had in 2003, the previous close approach (perihelic opposition - they happen every 15-17 years). As I watched Mars grow bigger in my scope, I also saw the surface features fade away, as dust enveloped the entire globe. Soon Mars was nothing but a large, featureless, orange ball - a sad sight indeed. We'll get another chance next year, with a maximum diameter of 22.5 seconds of arc, just slightly smaller, and in a more favorable part of the sky. Time to start praying again :)

[@trm7782]

Great video Scott

[@TechyBen]

And you thought mobile phone battery anxiety was bad! XD

[@eddolous]

Space x is going to send a red dragon with a spot mini to clean off the dust

[@AthanImmortal]

I want to believe this is true...

[@nottrevorallen]

do NOT send robo-dog to mars i cant talk about what i know but its important

[@Aereto]

@@nottrevorallen Then come up with another method to test effectiveness of quadrupedal structure in Mars.

[@adamedward205]

Yeah for a start theres no lamp posts for it to piss against!@@nottrevorallen

[@OptionalZero]

"No Regerts!"

[@tinldw]

Oh, nice, you've corrected "it got dark as night" mistake and made a very good long video around it.

[@otpyrcralphpierre1742]

You explain things so well, and you aren't condescending, and your exuberance about what you are talking about is Viral. So to speak. Is "being Viral" a new Meme?

[@rodgersericv]

Maybe it's a prophetic tattoo.

[@averagegeek3957]

mind = blown

[@warandwar227]

1 view and 765 likes hell yeah!

[@NGC1433]

@B.B. Does the Thing Dude, your knowledge broke.

[@LuigiRBedin]

Good job man. As usual 👍

[@coecovideo]

Ciao Scott, all very interesting, thank you

[@s3pia22]

Goodnight, Opportunity, May you rest well. 2003 - 2019 “My batteries are low, And it’s getting dark.” Goodnight, you beautiful baby.

[@tanzanos]

Curiosity gave us a scare. Did you hear about it?

[@banana_junior_9000]

Yeah, she has had plenty of her own technical and physical problems. Have seen her wheels? The Mars 2020 rover design is much improved from what we have learned from Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity.

[@MasticinaAkicta]

So much work done by two small, well rover sized drones. So much science, so much hope. So much future ideals opened up by such. Rest well! You did your job. Maybe one day we will visit you again.

[@joe.a5350]

Wow, an Incredible video yet again, you are an excellent space historian.

[@GrasshopperKelly]

Howdy Mr Manley, I can only hope you see this, but I'm genuinely curious as to what you personally think. I'm an Irish 20 year old Automations Engineering student in TUD (formerly DIT), looking to get my hands on sterile filling machines. But the intricacies of Space tech, and thousands of hours of fun I've had from KSP also have my affection. Coaxed by your video on reentry physics I have to ask, for your view on a form of "reusable" shielding. One involving some form of very efficient ablative thick liquid/oil(?). That could be "sweated" out onto the surface. I have to admit, sweating skin wasn't the inspiration for the idea in my head. I only realised what I'd thought of was on my arms a moment later. It was the combination of your video and Space X's active cooling. (Specifically when you got to the ablative surfaces of the Apollo capsules) How efficient (or inefficient), in your mind would you deem such a system. Understandably, a passive Ablative surface has very little chance for failure. It's ready for action as soon as the mission launches. An "active"(?) ablative/"sweating" surface would rely quite heavily on the supply of such a liquid to the surface by "just" a few hundred excretion holes, AND the unhindered supply by undoubtedly a very sophisticated system. Which leads to more places for an error, which in this case, would be as simple, yet as catastrophic as the late Columbia and her brave crew. Perhaps it might simply be too complicated a system, for such a delicately critical task, and Space X's internal bloodstream style cooling would perform a much more reliable, and just as reusable system, and now that I think of it, with likely even less maintenance requirements. I'm not too sure how well I presented my question. But I'd love to hear from you none the less! Kind regards, Grasshopper.

[@OCinneide]

Maybe cut out a lot of the fluff from your post and ask a simple direct question?

[@NGC1433]

I'm quite sure you need to work on your word count to message value efficiency. "How efficient, in your mind, or inefficient for that matter, would you deem such a system. What goes around your mind at the idea." has absolutely the same payload as "Do you think it is efficient?" There is no reason to complicate sentences. Especially if you make an ass of yourself by typing something like "suffisticated" it should not be sophisticated.

[@GrasshopperKelly]

@@NGC1433 well I know my spelling is useless...

[@fred_derf]

I would think the first problem with such a system is the wind tearing the liquid off before it could be evaporated. The real question would be, what problem is this resolving that justifies the increase in mass and complexity? An ablative heat shield is "cheap" and "light", has no moving parts to break and works reliably, so where's the downside?

[@GrasshopperKelly]

@@fred_derf They take a lot of time to build, while this would be more a matter of topping off the tanks and a run over of all the plumbing before sending the same capsule back up.

[@FandersonUfo]

I'll have my guys check it out next time we're there. We'll dust off the solar panels and see if it wakes up.

[@iamzid]

since you're there, can you look at the defective instrument heater? I hear that it's been giving us some problems.

[@FandersonUfo]

@@iamzid - np - if we have something compatible we'll swap it out - drill bit is worn out as well - front wheel drive needs work - oil change of course

[@averagegeek3957]

​@@FandersonUfo Swap the cpu out for a more power efficient, faster one. Maybe hook up an RTG as a backup power supply, just in case the solar panels get dusty again.

[@FandersonUfo]

@@averagegeek3957 - even we have budgets to stick to - how about a pair of wipers for the panels like windshield wipers - not sure why NASA didn't think of that on day one - NASA geez - same people who missed Mars mixing up metric and imperial measures - bloody amateurs

[@lerkzor]

@@FandersonUfo - physical contact with the panels might scratch them. A small compressor, with a tank for compressed atmosphere, would be better, just blast a jet of gasses across the surface.

[@stargamer777]

0:36 Yeah I don't know how to tell them either, that's actually made me really depressed. I feel so bad for that person!!!

[@Michael_Scott_Howard]

Outstanding, lecture. Kind of sad no news of US Mars Rovers beyond Mars 2020.