6–13 YEARS INTO THE MISSION
GFX LOWER THIRD: 6 YEARS INTO THE MISSION
ANGELA BASSETT (V.O.) Rover Diary:
Sol 2042. Six years into the mission. Opportunity seems to have become a meteorite hunter. She has discovered three meteorites so far on her journey to Endeavour. ANGELA BASSETT (V.O.) Rover Diary: Sol 2213. Oppy is in her 4th winter on Mars – and the coldest yet. So, in order to save energy, the rover is sleeping more to keep her electronics warm. DOUG ELLISON: So, we’re sprinting and we’re sprinting and we’re sprinting. Some days getting great distance, some days not getting very far at all. But we keep going.
MARS MARATHON AT JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
KOBIE BOYKINS: At this point, we have well exceeded our warranty and then the extended warranty and then the phone call on your phone that says, “Hey, we’ll give you more warranty.” We’ve run past that too. ILM SFX ANIMATION: As she extends the arm to start drilling, the elbow pops loudly and she makes some painful beeps. We hear the gears grinding violently, painfully – but she can’t retract her arm anymore, it’s stuck extended. KOBIE BOYKINS: And Oppy started to show signs of age. Her gray hair was the dust accumulation in the crevices between the cables. ASHLEY STROUPE: One of the shoulder joints in Opportunity’s arm started getting arthritis. We ended up realizing that if we keep trying to move it, it’s going to quit somewhere that we don’t want it to be. VANDI VERMA: So we just kept the arm out in front of the rover for the rest of the mission.
GFX LOWER THIRD: 7 YEARS INTO THE MISSION
ANGELA BASSETT (V.O.) Rover Diary:
Seven years into the mission. Opportunity is only about two kilometers away from Endeavour Crater. She’ll make landfall at Spirit Point, named in honor of Oppy’s silent sister.
PRODUCTION ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE: “Welcome to the very first Mars Marathon at the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The Opportunity rover has achieved a marathon’s distance on Mars just a week and a half ago. Congratulations everyone!”
94
95
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker