Opportunity , also known as MER-B, was a robotic rover launched by NASA onto the surface of Mars from 2004 to 2018.  As a part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover program, Opportunity landed on the Meridiani Planum on January 25, 2004.  With a planned duration of only 90-sol days, Opportunity persevered through 5353 sols after landing, mantaining and keeping its batteries stable through the use of solar power, and hibernating during dust storms to conserve power.  Using this tactic, Opportunity astounded the world by exceeding its operation by 14 years, and 295 days.  The last contact Opportunity had with NASA was on June 10th, 2018.  By that time, it had already covered a distance of 45.16 kilometers (28 miles) across the surface of the red planet.  During its time on Mars, the rover helped us study many landmarks on Mars, including the Victoria Crater and the Endeavor Crater.  Opportunity was also known for finding and studying meteorites such as Heat Shield Rock, the known meteorite on the surface of Meridiani Planum.  Starting in early June of 2018, a global-scale dust storm developed on Mars, limiting the power that Opportunity could generate, thus disconnecting contact.  The last contact NASA recieved was on June 10th, 2018, in which Opportunity said:

“My battery is low and it’s getting dark.”

NASA stated that they did not expect to resume communications until the dust storm had subsided.  But even in October, when the storms had settled down and all returned to normal on the surface, Opportunity had still remained silent, suggesting only the worst.  The team remained hopeful that the reason for the lack of communication was because of dust covering Opportunity’s solar panels, and they had hopes to wait for a windy period to clear off some of the dust. When wind was detected on January 8th of 2019, commands were broadcasted by the team again in hopes of reaching Opportunity, reassuring everybody that it was still functional.  However, through over 835 recovery commands that were transmitted over 11 days, no response was generated.  Opportunity was silent, and the final attempt to reach our magnificent rover was made on February 12, 2019.  On February 13, NASA officials held a press conference, in which NASA associate administrator Thomas Zurbuchen had stated,

“It is with therefore that I am standing here with a deep sense of appreciation and gratitude that I declare the Opportunity mission is complete.”

As NASA ended their attempts to contact the rover, the last data sent was the song “I’ll Be Seeing You” preformed by Billie Holiday.  The Opportunity mission is considered one of NASA’s most successful ventures into the great beyond.

Opportunity meant more to us, and more to science, than it could ever possibly know.  By turning 90 days into 14 years, by astounding the world with its innovation, and by furthering our progression into space through studies of rocks and crators, Opportunity gave more to us on Earth than we could possibly ask for.  All we were able to do was cheer it on, as it underwent its journey on the unfamilar and vastly empty red planet.  And now that the journey is over, we find ourselves wondering if it was worth it in the end, to send this poor robot to its doom, knowing full-well that it would never return home.  Now I sit here and ask you this, what can we do? I have heard many ideas, many ways to honor a fallen soldier, a relic of scientific history.  In complete honesty, many of these ideas had many holes in their planning, things that we just aren’t able to do with our current budget or technology.  Only then did it dawn on me, the perfect way to truly honor Opportunity.  We seek vengeance.  We strike back on the planet that took everything away from us, the planet that killed our rover in cold blood, slowly and painfully.  I am making this petition to bring upon the idea to nuke Mars entirely, seeing fit that it does not live to see another day after what it has done to our friend.  With our current technology, bombing Mars is a very easy task to do, and would only slightly damage us cost-wise.  In the long run though, money is no problem when dealing with a loss as formidable as this.  My plan of approach would be to launch a craft to hover across the surface of Mars, and drop several bombs that would ultimately be remotely set off once the craft has safely returned.

The devastation we could do to such a wretched planet would be nothing compared to the pain it has caused us, the crators we could create would be nothing compared to the hole it has left in our hearts.  I ask you now to stand with me, as we take our stand against the red devil, with unforgiving eyes and no remorse for the lives of its inhabitants.  Justice for every man down.

Justice for Opportunity.