It’s both ironic and fitting that the death should have happened in a valley named “Perseverance,” because the explorer had persevered far beyond what anyone had planned or imagined.
Of course, that’s also one of the things that made the death so poignant — the reason the whole world shared stories about the explorer’s last words when the experts finally called off the search, the reason news of the death and memorials trended on Twitter, the reason people all over the world grieved so publicly. It felt somehow personal that after all of the amazing discoveries, the death should have happened so far away, in such an alien setting, with the explorer alone on the edge of that Martian ravine, its batteries faltering as the dust slowly buried it…
Opportunity had been a very good rover, indeed.
Our greatest asset
Humans are not very powerful or intimidating physically. We don’t have very sharp teeth or claws, our skin isn’t tough and we wound easily, and we’re not very strong or fast compared with many other creatures. The one natural asset we do have is an almost insatiable curiosity.
