A sad message from Mars has made social media users cry. A statement from NASA's InSight lander posted Monday reads "My power’s really low, so this may be the last image I can send."
The lander has been on a mission to the Red Planet to study its deep interior. However, a build-up of dust on solar panels has caused it to slowly lose power.
InSight's message continued: "Don’t worry about me though: my time here has been both productive and serene.
"If I can keep talking to my mission team, I will – but I’ll be signing off here soon. Thanks for staying with me."
Twitter user Scott Turek's comment "Why am I crying over a robot?" was answered by a Mx. Bluets with "Maybe because they're made from and carry with them the hopes & dreams of humanity, our curiosity and wonder? This makes them avatars of some of our best collective qualities. I'm crying too & my gratitude to the humans who make these missions possible is endless."
Elsewhere, Emma Hayes posted "Even if it’s only a robot, it’s an honorary member of humanity. I would argue that it’s symbolic of humanity itself, " while another Twitter user added "It’s ok to mourn the loss of an entity".
InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a Mars lander designed to "give the Red Planet its first thorough checkup since it formed 4.5 billion years ago". Launched 5 May 2018, it is the first outer space robotic explorer to study in-depth the "inner space" of Mars: its crust, mantle, and core.
