Mars Lander Sends A Final Sentimental Message From The Red Planet: ‘Don’t Worry About Me’

“My strength is very low, so this may be the last image I can send. Don’t worry about me: my time here has been productive and uneventful. If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will, but I’ll be stopping here soon. Thank you for staying with me.” The Mars rover shared that emotional message on Twitter. The account is managed by the NASA team on Earth, but tweets are always made in the first person.

As a result, the probe has kept its nearly 800,000 fans updated through social media during its four-year stay on the planet. He occasionally shared photos — including selfies — and discoveries of his own, but also tweeted about his “fellows”‘ successes in space.

(Read more below the tweet)

The spacecraft was sent to Mars on May 5, 2018 and landed there on November 26 after a journey of less than seven months and 485 million kilometers. The probe is tasked with conducting soil research on the Red Planet and gathering knowledge about the core and subterranean layers.

Normally, a mission would only last one year on Mars (or two years on Earth), but after the rover succeeded in its mission by the end of 2020, NASA extended the mission by two years. The probe relies on solar energy, and due to the many sandstorms on Mars, it was always only intended to be a short mission. Meanwhile, there is said to be a lot of sand on the solar panels, so the robot has only been able to operate at 20 percent of its capacity since the middle of this year. “We are at the mercy of Mars. The weather on Mars is not rain and snow. The weather on Mars is dust and wind,” said Bruce Banerdt of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “We will continue to do scientific measurements for as long as we can.”

(sgg)