Poems from Space: Opportunity's Last Call

[In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing (July 20, 1969), I am re-posting some previous entries inspired by some of NASA's achievements. Here is one that was written recently, in February of this year. - CK]

Tim Lennox shared the news of the last photo taken by the Mars Rover, Opportunity on his blog.

                   Here is my own poem inspired by the news and the photo from NASA:

Opportunity’s Last Call

One day,

In my ninth-grade civics class

Taught by the coach

In the classroom by the gym,

There was a knock at the door.

“Open the door,” Coach said,

“It might be opportunity!”

To my young teenage self,

“Opportunity knocks” was already

Old hat enough

For me to laugh at Coach’s pun.

The living never cease

To look for opportunity.

It comes in all shades:

    great opportunity

    poor opportunity

    new opportunity

    limited opportunity

    missed opportunity

    last opportunity

And it always comes with a promise

Wearing a smile

And raising an inquisitive brow.

Most live for it.

Some die for it.

On a distant Martian plain

Opportunity traveled much longer

Than the experts predicted.

New Opportunity

Became on-going Opportunity

Became continued Opportunity

Became old hat

Until that last grainy transmission

Of off-world twilight

Signaled one more lost Opportunity.

                                                         ~ CK

                                                                   *    *    *

From the NASA press release:

Yesterday, Nasa told the world that it’s most successful space voyager ‘Opportunity‘ Mars Rover was dead eight months after it was caught in a gigantic Martian dust storm. The solar-powered rover last communicated with Earth on June 10, 2018 just as a planet-wide dust storm was covering the Red Planet. NASA had launched the twin rovers Opportunity and Spirit in 2003 to explore Martian rocks and soil. Spirit has not been operational for several years but Opportunity persevered.

On Mars Rover Opportunity's final photograph:

Bill Nelson, chief of the Opportunity mission’s engineering team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in an interview just after NASA declared the mission over. “This was the last image we ever took. We are looking at an incredibly small amount of sunlight — .002 percent of the normal sunlight that we would expect to see. If you were there, it would be late twilight. Your human eye would still be able to make out some features, but it would be very dark.”

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Poems from Space: Distant Sun

[In celebration of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing, I am re-posting some previous entries inspired by some of NASA's achievements. ~ CK]

on another world

the rays of the setting sun

are like an old friend

_________________________________
Photo: Martian sunset taken by the Curiosity rover
NASA photograph, courtesy of National Geographic:

Sunset on Mars

The rover caught this stunning view of the sun setting over the rim of Gale crater on April 15, 2015. Unlike our red-hued sunsets, Martian views are tinted blue thanks to fine particles that allow more blue light into the atmosphere.

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Poems from Space: Curiosity Takes a Turn

[In celebration of the upcoming 50th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing, I am re-posting some previous entries inspired by some of NASA's achievements. - CK]

I was inspired to write a poem about NASA's new rover "Curiosity" when I saw this image from an article in the Los Angeles Times.

Images taken by the Curiosity rover on Mars show a plume of dust, left, which had disappeared when 
another photo was snapped 45 minutes later. Engineers say the plume indicates the crash-landing 
of the spacecraft that delivered the rover to the Martian surface. (NASA)

Curiosity Takes a Turn 

Arthur C. Clarke whispers from his grave –

Strains from Songs of Distant Earth –

As the images transmit

From Curiosity on Mars.

The robotic cruiser had descended

Onto a barren landscape.

Her mission: to gather data;

To find any possible evidence of life;

To take note of even a distant notion of cellular being;

To employ scientific curiosity at every turn.

True to her mission,

Curiosity began at once

Surveying the undiscovered country –

A land not seen by human eye.

Then turning,

A plume of dust

Registers in the unblinking lens:

An impact cloud upon the horizon.

The mother ship that dropped her in this

Strange new place –

Now scattered remnants.

She records the data:

No way back home.

Nothing left but to proceed as planned

In silent isolation.

                                                                               Charles Kinnaird

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Opportunity's Final Call

Tim Lennox includes news items of note on his blog each day. Last week he shared the news of the last photo taken by the Mars Rover, Opportunity.

From the NASA press release:

Yesterday, Nasa told the world that it’s most successful space voyager ‘Opportunity‘ Mars Rover was dead eight months after it was caught in a gigantic Martian dust storm. The solar-powered rover last communicated with Earth on June 10, 2018 just as a planet-wide dust storm was covering the Red Planet. NASA had launched the twin rovers Opportunity and Spirit in 2003 to explore Martian rocks and soil. Spirit has not been operational for several years but Opportunity persevered.

On Mars Rover Opportunity's final photograph:

Bill Nelson, chief of the Opportunity mission’s engineering team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in an interview just after NASA declared the mission over. “This was the last image we ever took. We are looking at an incredibly small amount of sunlight — .002 percent of the normal sunlight that we would expect to see. If you were there, it would be late twilight. Your human eye would still be able to make out some features, but it would be very dark.”

Here is my own poem inspired by the news and the photo from NASA: 

Opportunity’s Last Call

One day,

In my ninth grade civics class

Taught by the coach

In the classroom by the gym,

There came a knock at the door.

“Open the door,” Coach said,

“It might be opportunity!”

To my young teenage self,

“Opportunity knocks” was already

Old hat enough

For me to laugh at Coach’s pun.

The living never cease

To look for opportunity.

It comes in all shades:

    great opportunity

    poor opportunity

    limited opportunity

    new opportunity

    missed opportunity

    last opportunity
    “have I got an opportunity for you!”

And it always comes with a promise

Wearing a smile

And raising an inquisitive brow.

Most live for it.

Some die for it.

On a distant Martian plain

Opportunity traveled much longer

Than the experts predicted.

New Opportunity

Became on-going Opportunity

Became continued Opportunity

Became old hat

Until that last grainy transmission

Of off-world twilight

Signaled one more lost Opportunity.

                                                        ~ CK

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