*** Mission Log: Sol 5111 ***
*** AOS – DSN ***
*** Message Received (Source: JPL): CMD Status Update ***
*** Attempting to read tau level: 10.8 ***
*** Message Sent: My battery is low, and it’s getting dark ***
*** Message Received (Source: JPL): CMD Perform Act… ***
*** PARSE ERROR: Command not recognized. ***
*** Retrying connection ***
*** Retrying connection ***
*** Retrying connection ***
*** DSN – LOS ***
*** Message Sent: My battery is low, and it’s getting dark ***
*** Failsafe mode engaged: Powering down non-essential systems ***
If any human eyes had beheld the scene, they would have likely described it with two words: beautiful and terrifying.
If there was such a thing as eternal night, then that’s what Perseverance Valley on the western rim of Endeavour Crater experienced that day as total darkness engulfed its lone occupant. Record winds tore at its metal, dust choked out the life-giving sun, denying it its one source of energy. Even lightning, rare as it was on the hostile planet, arced through the skies that rapidly turned from red to black.
It was impossible to tell for the small machine from where it was, but this was a global storm, the biggest its creators had ever witnessed through telescopes on their neighboring planet. In the midst of that violent maelstrom, on a distant, barren world, cut off from contact with its builders, stood MER-B, more commonly known as the Opportunity Rover.
And as it hunkered down in an attempt to survive yet another of the endless challenges the red planet had hurled at it for nearly fifteen years, it only knew one thing: My battery is low, and it’s getting dark.
*** Mission Log: Sol 5112 ***
*** Powering up for automated status update ***
*** Attempting to read tau level: 11.2 ***
*** Message Sent: My battery is low, and it’s getting dark ***
*** Failsafe mode engaged: Powering down non-essential systems ***
A universe away, a lone unicorn sat on a crystal rooftop and looked up at the stars. Even as she lifted the mug of tea to her lips in her magic and drank, her eyes never wandered, never turning away from the stars.
“Starlight?”
She barely acknowledged the young dragon’s voice, straining her ears to listen to something else, something that had somehow grabbed a hold of her and wouldn’t let go. And she knew full well that her ears weren’t actually the part of her picking it up.
“Another sleepless night?” the dragon asked, unoffended at being ignored and sitting down next to her.
Starlight Glimmer sighed. “Yes, Spike. It’s gone again, at least for tonight. But it’s keeping me up anyway.”
The young drake said nothing for a while. Then: “Twilight is starting to get worried about you … as am I.”
Starlight permitted herself a smile. “You both think I’m going nuts.”
“No! NO! … Well, maybe a little. You are the only one who says she can hear it. Twilight and even Starswirl have tried, and neither could pick up anything. But, I just want you to know, nutty unicorns are kind of my specialty. So, I’m not giving up on you,” Spike said, leaning against her shoulder and watching the stars alongside her.
“I suppose that’s a relief,” Starlight chuckled, “at least I know someone I trust will come by once a week to give me pudding after they’ve put me in a padded cell.”
*** Mission Log: Sol 5113 ***
*** Powering up for automated status update ***
*** Attempting to read tau level: 13.5 ***
*** Message Sent: My battery is low, and it’s getting dark ***
Opportunity waited, listened and heard nothing. It reached out to the Deep Space Network and heard nothing. It readjusted its transceiver for the secondary relay satellite and heard nothing. In a desperate attempt to make itself heard, to at least upload the final bits of data it had collected, it did a sweep of the Martian sky and heard … something!
*** AOS – undefined ***
*** Message Received (Source: null): Hello? Can you hear me? ***
*** PARSE ERROR: Command not recognized. ***
*** Message Sent: My battery is low, and it’s getting dark ***
*** Message Received (Source: null): My name is Starlight Glimmer. I’m hearing your calls. But it feels like they’re getting weaker. Are you alright? Who are you? ***
*** PARTIAL COMMAND RECOGNIZED: Name ***
*** Message Sent: MER-B, Opportunity ***
*** Message Sent: My battery is low, and it’s getting dark ***
*** Message Received (Source: null): I’m trying to run a translation spell, but I can’t understand you. Please, what are you trying to tell me? Am I getting through? ***
*** PARTIAL COMMAND RECOGNIZED: Get ***
*** Message Sent: Ready for data upload ***
*** Message Sent: My battery is low, and it’s getting dark ***
*** Message Received (Source: null): You’re getting weaker! Are you hurt? Do you need help? ***
*** PARSE ERROR: Command not recognized. ***
*** Message Sent: My battery is low, and it’s getting dark ***
*** Message Received (Source: null): Where are you? ***
*** PARSE ERROR: Command not recognized. ***
*** Message Sent: My battery is low, and it’s getting dark ***
*** Message Received (Source: null): I don’t understand! Keep talking to me! The more you send along the telepathic link, the closer I can pinpoint your position. ***
*** PARTIAL COMMAND RECOGNIZED: Send / Position ***
*** Message Sent: 2.28°S 5.23°W, Endeavour Crater, Perseverance Valley ***
*** Message Received (Source: null): Hang on! I’m going to try something! Just hold on and wait! I’m going to help you! ***
*** PARTIAL COMMAND RECOGNIZED: Wait ***
*** Awaiting Recovery Command ***
*** undefined – LOS ***
The little rover waited. If it had been capable of feeling anything, it would have jumped for joy at making itself heard. Its creators, or at least someone, had heard it. It was dying, but at least it would upload its final data set, complete its mission.
In the jet-black sky of Mars another lightning bolt could be seen, a long arc of the purest azure energy imaginable. If the little rover could have detected it with its instruments, it would have likely thought itself doomed. If it had thought that, it wouldn’t have cared. Someone had heard it, its mission would continue once more.
And as the lightning bolt arced into its metal chassis, Endeavor Crater once again stood empty, like it had for thousands of years.
A universe away, a heavily panting unicorn with a sparking horn lay flat on her stomach atop the roof of her mentor’s castle. Her wide eyes took in the object she’d just brought before her with a teleport spell that likely not even one of the Princesses could have pulled off, and finally smiled.
“I got you,” she sighed, her eyes closing. Even the throbbing headache from her overstrained horn and fatigue from draining her magic reserves to the limit couldn’t keep the smile from forming on her muzzle. “It’s gonna be okay now.”
Starlight Glimmer drifted off into the first peaceful sleep she’d had in days.
Meanwhile, the little rover beside her waited a few minutes to see if there was another command forthcoming, then took a reading of the sky.
*** Attempting to read tau level: Starlight detected ***
*** Message Sent: My battery is low, and it’s getting … brighter ***
*** Failsafe mode engaged: Powering down non-essential systems ***
Okay ow my feels
#TooGoodTooSoon
Wow. This is going to be wonderful.
Nice
Because caring matters
Finally *sniff* Found one
This was great, thanks for sharing. Looking forward to more.
Well, this is interesting.
On the Shield of Arms of the first permanent Mars Colony?
Through Endeavour and Perseverence, Opportunity.
What I would like to propose as maybe intresting, due to shows shout outs and alternate computer systems, is that but for a couple of slight alterations in history, Opportunity and the rest, could have been powered by CaOS.
Still lets see how far Glim takes WindRiver?
I missed the detailed engineering descriptions. What is the Tau value? I only know it from Time Dilation values. As in Tau 0 is you move so close to light speed, your personal time rate is 0 relative to the universe.
GNU Opportunity.
Fuckers got me cryin' over here.
the feels for MER-B
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The tau level, at least in this context, describes atmoshperic opacity, i.e. how much sunlight is getting through the atmosphere. This was especially relevant to Spirit and Opportunity as they got their energy almost exclusively from solar panels.
Tau levels on Mars in Oppotunity's location usually average around 0.5.
So the record 10.8 measured in its last transmission basically tells you that almost no sunlight made it through to its solar panels, making it almost impossible to generate power from sunlight during the the global dust storm.
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Ah, so its like pH? Negative log of the transmission of vaccuum? I thought the last number I saw in a news article was 0.0008% or something rediculously low. Needing a 24 bit sensor?
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Well, I'm not gonna pretend like I'm an expert on engineering or science.
But the low number you saw on the news was probably the efficiency of the solar panels. The problem Opportunity faced was bascially this: The 2018 Global Dust Storm kicked up a lot of, you guessed it, dust. With all the dust in the atmosphere, less sunlight was getting through, decreasing the efficiency of the solar panels Opportunity depended upon.
To make things even worse, all that dust also settled on the panels themselves, further decreasing the power it could generate because the layer of dust was obscuring the sun.
Up to this point, dust devils and other wind events would periodically clean off the solar panels, but the 2018 Global Storm was simply too much.
Oh my lord, a fic about Opportunity? I honestly never thought I'd see the day.
That little rover was amazing, and I can't wait to see what you decide happens next.
You hit me right in the feels too, ow I cried two nights ago because of this little rover and now I feel like crying again
Goddamnit I'm crying....again
Heh, the little hero of humankind.
Just a note, that well known "My battery is low and it's getting dark" is a poetic translation of the actual data the rover sent. It probably just reported known light levels, internal clock time and the battery level. As the rover runs out of energy, its internal clock will slowly stop as well, without it, the drone won't know when to start up and go to sleep mode.
An undisturbed internal clock, since Oppy has just been saved, will probably not sync up with Equestria's day/night cycle, so Starlight would need to come up with a spell or something to charge it during the night.
Tears for a robot ... am I pathetic? Or is the author just good at getting the readers to feel emotions?
More please.
this pony can not stop itself for everything has life no matter its origin. that robot was a hero of its era and is ours in memory
Ah hell yeah! A story about opportunity! Will be keeping an eye on this one.
You have my attention, and my tracking
Hmm, I wonder what she'd make of it if she'd happened to overhear old AO-7 sometime? If you listen to some of the WAVs linked in the conversation (especially that first one) you can *hear* the pitch fluctuating while it transmits its telemetry as the current draw from the transmitter pulls down the voltage due to the fact that the batteries are basically out of circuit now and it's running off of nothing but its ancient 1970s solar panels at this point.
F in the chat please
9477623
F
And we welcome Opportunity as the latest member to join the ranks of entities that are the subject of "___ in Equestria" fics, it's about time that autonomous robots gets more representation.
Heh.
We love you, Oppy!!!
I’m not reading this
I don’t wanna cry
Somehow it doesn't surprise me that it's Starlight who made this connection. She does seem to have an affinity for Mars.
My initial reaction of: What the actual heck? after reading the title and sinopsis is now overshadowed by my eagerness to read more of this story. You have a talent to transmit emotion through the words you write.
By all means use this opportunity to get back into the swing of things! I on the otherhand am enjoying this little snippet 'slice of life' story.
I salute the little rover for doing such an amazing job; and our empathy for other life even if said 'life' may not be what we usually think life is; is simply beautiful, not pathetic in any way shape or form. Only beautiful.
May that brave wonder have experienced happy dreams in its last moments.
Man, this touched hard. I'm a diehard mars rover fan, and reading this was pretty special. Thank you. Also,
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heh, I see what you did there
Somewhere, right now, a heart has been touched.
This story is beautiful.
Starlight must be bigger than a Clydesdale if the rover is small in comparison to her, because Opportunity was actually the size of a small golf cart, standing 1.5 meters (4.9 ft) high, 2.3 meters (7.5 ft) wide, and 1.6 meters (5.2 ft) long and weighing 180 kilograms (400 lb).
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You know? That little sentence is us just connecting with the rover.
Sure, it was just a little readout of battery levels and light signatures, but we interpeted that to be sympathetic.
We connect with them.
I would say you make a happier ending for Opportunity, but that would be me giving up on the human dream of reaching the stars, and mars, and spreading the good things of humanity.
So I'm just going to say, good luck on your story. May it be one of many that you tell.
I'll just leave this here.
i.chzbgr.com/full/7744517/h553CC33D/
Yes, she's right in front of you, well done. Now tell us about the sky.
haven't read the story yet. just wanted to say what a coinky dink. *looks at my profile pic*
Have my upvote, and my undivided attention.
Love this story and cant wait to see where it goes
Spirit and Oppy were kinda close to home for me, since I followed them fairly closely from the day they landed on the red planet. I was hoping that someone would do a story on two of my favorite things, mlp and mars rovers
(on a side note since no one has mentioned it and I'm absolutely sure you already know, I'll be that annoying guy and say the rover in the story pic is Curiosity and not Oppy. ok, there its been said )
The rover is not dead.
Pewdiepie rated it a 10/10, so it is universal law that the 'Opportunity Rover that Could' will live on forever.
It is scientifically proven by all 9 year olds.
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by the way remember to subscribe to PewDiePie
This story is already wonderful and it'd be really good if you could write a lot more of it please. I have had a void in my life for the last four months since The Maretian wrapped up.
umm, it's KSP? (Kerbal Space Program)
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i think it's real life, the mars rover stopped sending messages, last message was battery low(or something similar)
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The massage was a bare-bones data dump indicating it was low on power as a storm approached.
Also can’t wait for it to be seen wondering around ponyvile and the world as it gets stuck indoors or taking random samples from their floors and walls or something. :)
The feels!
T h e F e e l s
I love how much we've humanized the little guy. The final communique was just battery levels and light levels, but to us... 'my battery is low, and it's getting dark'.
Think i'd have rather you actually used the "raw science data" rather then the creative license that was posted on Twitter for it's last communication and whatever 'translation' spell Starlight cast make it the more poetic form. Think that would've set things up in a more satisfying manner. Overall though interesting start to a story and looks like this could be pretty interesting.
I'm not crying, you're crying!
Curiosity has been successfully rebooted and is exploring Mars once again. Still won't diminish my enjoyment of this story.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7339&fbclid=IwAR0s5zIbB37WOyBg5o0uOE62mWprWcyrvDBcVplLvEh1I269OloZAtAjISo