ILM SFX ANIMATION: SIDE-BY-SIDE — INTERIOR MS: Spirit and Oppy in each of their spacecraft, both collapsed into fetal position. KOBIE BOYKINS: We call it the quiescent period, six and a half months of quiescent time. Nothing going on. Well, that’s not exactly true. ILM SFX ANIMATION: Suddenly, violently, the sun pulses and bellows, shooting out aggressive torches of fiery plumes into the solar system, full of particles and debris. Camera tracks across huge sun to reveal particles flaring into space… ROB MANNING: We got hit by the largest series of solar flares that had ever been seen before. And we saw this ejection of the sun’s energies and particles racing toward our spacecraft. ILM SFX ANIMATION: Camera follows, and passes by particle clouds forming… camera finds tiny Oppy, traveling slowly through space, and then particles overtake Oppy. ASHITEY TREBI-OLLENNU: Throughout solar flares, the sun releases bursts of plasma. Plasma is a highly charged cloud of electrons.
ROB MANNING: And these energetic particles, which could actually kill a human, they go slamming right into our rovers, all the way into the computer.
ILM SFX ANIMATION: SIDE-BY-SIDE VIEW — MS: Inside, we see Spirit and Oppy rattling forcefully as electron particles start to shower them… they are inundated with electron particles… Dissolve a transparent window to reveal the computer inside. Blinking lights go haywire with flashes and beeps.
KOBIE BOYKINS: Really bad for spacecraft.
ILM SFX ANIMATION: Oppy and Spirit, curled up in darkness. It’s quiet…continues…
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