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In August I was invited to give a public presentation at our local library about Successful Blogging. Attendance was wonderful and everyone was interested and engaged and full of questions. One of the questions was, “How do you find topics for your blog entries?” My answer was that I really don’t stress about a topic. I do a blog entry once a month and mostly the topics present themselves when I’m not really looking for one. For instance, I once wrote a very well received blog entry about our cat, with the idea simply starting with him barfing up a puddle of orange cat yak on my white dining room area rug.

Ideas come to me from just about anywhere and when I have an idea, running with it doesn’t seem to be a problem, although I realize this isn’t as easy for some of us. Heck, I can’t sing a lick so we all have our areas of comfort and ease.

Because we’re just two short and busy weeks from Christmas I was planning on doing a holiday blog entry. I’ve had this idea I’ve been wanting to write about but with building a Christmas parade float, writing end-of-year awards for our club members, my husband and I finally getting our tree up and outside decorations done and shopping for gifts I just haven’t had the time. Now I’m MAKING the time because I just want to write this. It isn’t about Christmas.

It IS about technology, the future, tenacity, disappointment, longevity, unbelievable excitement, inspiration, humanity, and in the end, it’s a love story. That’s a lot to include so I will condense it as much as possible.

In November there was a special screening here of the movie, Good Night, Oppy! We are blessed and fortunate that recently retired astronaut, author and photographer, Leland Melvin was born right here and has retired here after a career in space. He was VERY instrumental in bringing the film to a local theater to be screened, one night only on November 20, just three days before its public release on November 23. Melvin himself attended, was part of a panel discussion afterward, and issued special invitations to local school groups. Sponsoring businesses also offered tickets to employees and a couple that are good friends had two extra tickets. They invited my husband and me to attend with them.  It was quite an honor to be there.

 Good Night, Oppy! is a NASA produced feature length film that is a documentary and may even be described as a docuDRAMA. It follows the planning, technology, construction, deployment, and lives of two Mars robotic rovers … Opportunity and Spirit …  on a mission to Mars begun in 2003.  Each landed and lived out their lives on opposite sides of the planet. The information sent back to earth from them has been amazing and continues to be compiled and studied by scientists in preparation for future colonization of the red planet. 

The film features archival and interview footage with scientists and engineers and re-creations of the rover’s treks over the Martian landscape in search of water, which is key to future colonization. The life expectancy of the rovers was supposed to have been 90 days yet both went on to live for YEARS, with Opportunity, following the demise of Spirit, continuing to function several more years. It sent back data to earth scientists and NASA for an unbelievable 15 years, finally “going to sleep” in 2018 … Good Night, Oppy!

We didn’t know what to expect but we weren’t disappointed.

While the technology was amazing and the data collected phenomenal, the human-interest side of the story was what pulled everything together making this an exceptional film experience.

The film follows the project manager from construction of the rovers, which included giving them names and a somewhat recognizable appearance with turning heads, eyes, and, of course, arms, through programming, testing, deployment to Mars and the years of communication with both rovers. That communication with Opportunity continued until its circuits finally went to sleep for the last time in 2018.

It followed several other characters for the duration, including a 16-year-old student that was present for the rover’s launch to Mars with a high school class. So enamored with the project was she that she went on to college and returned to work with the team on the project through the extended lives of the rovers.

Directed by Ryan White and narrated by Angela Basset, we watched the characters physically age, through documentary film clips, as Opportunity and Spirit did. They became ‘involved’ with the rovers on a much deeper level than just technician and machine. They cheered at the victories of the rovers and wept at the failures. Far from being a pathological connection, it brought the humanity of those involved with the project into sharper focus and made the audience feel that special bond in 1 hour and 45 minutes that the managers and technicians developed from 15 years of daily contact with the rovers … and Opportunity specifically.

There really is no way to describe the depth of emotion watching the film brought out in the audience; how there were audible cheers and claps when, after no contact with the aging Opportunity for a number of weeks, contact was re-established. It was a visceral reaction one might expect to experience after having a friend or family member lost in the woods for days, only to find them well and unharmed much later. The rover crew was professionally AND emotionally invested in the project and in the rovers themselves, which extended even longer with Opportunity.

I got a huge lump in my throat when Spirit finally stopped sending signals. Somehow during the film, I got the feeling that Spirit was the more fragile of the two rovers, as ridiculous as that may sound, while Opportunity just kept pushing on, year after year, strong and determined. As we watched the progress of the film, the project manager became a little grayer and a few more wrinkles were evident on his face. The 16-year-old high school student matured, married and had a child but never stopped following the project when family made it necessary to step back for a time from actual project participation. The personal investment was huge.

When Opportunity, after MANY unexpected years of life grew somewhat physically feeble, yet continued sending data sporadically, then all communication was finally lost there was hardly a dry eye in the theater. It was an emotional moment of response in sympathy with those that were actually grieving the loss on so many levels at Mission Control and at our own personal investment in Opportunity – a life well lived. I almost sobbed.

It was a wonderful evening and an unexplainable experience getting emersed in the story and traveling that emotional highway on Mars.

Find a theater near you that is showing this film or watch it streaming on Prime Video. No spoiler intended and if you know the Opportunity story there isn’t one anyway … but be prepared with a Kleenex (or a box full) when at the end you hear, Good Night, Oppy! 

Tags: film of Opportunity, Good Night, history of Mars rovers, Leland Melvin, Mars Rovers, Opportunity rover, Oppy, Spirit rover