14 YEARS INTO THE MISSION
ILM SFX ANIMATION: Reverse full shot of Oppy, surveying surroundings.
ILM SFX ANIMATION: Old, rickety Oppy travels through Perseverance Valley. She is coming up on her 5,000th day on Mars, an unimaginable feat that is almost 14 years, when she was originally expected to live for a couple months.
GFX LOWER THIRD: 14 YEARS INTO THE MISSION
DOUG ELLISON: So, we’re 14 years into the mission. And Sol 5,000 only comes along once, like it was a big landmark. We’ve got an aging rover. She’s forgetful, she’s arthritic, cameras are still working. What can we do? And I jokingly said a few days before Sol 5,000, “We need to take a selfie.” ABIGAIL FRAEMAN: So we’d been seeing Mars through Oppy’s eyes, but we hadn’t seen all of Oppy herself. Not since she left the planet in 2003.
PRODUCTION ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE: “We’ve got a bit of data mining ahead of us.”
DOUG ELLISON: So, Sol 5,000 planning comes along, and the science lead pipes up and says, “So the engineering team have this request. They’d like to take a selfie.” And you could hear a pin drop, because the entire science team is like, “Come again.” We could be using up the remaining life of the robotic arm on this act of pure robotic vanity.
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