Directed by: Ryan White
Written by: Ryan White, Helen Kearns
I don’t recall being very excited or even paying attention to the launch of the Mars rovers almost 20 years ago. At the time, I had just graduated high school and was elated to start my new life as an “adult in the real world.”
Just as I was venturing out on my own (while still living at home with mommy) NASA engineers were setting their “babies” out into space. Their babies being robot rovers built to go to Mars’ surface.
In the summer of 2003, twin sister robots named “Opportunity” and “Spirit” were sent to Mars. The story tells the true story of Opportunity, a rover sent to Mars that had a 90-day mission to search for signs of ancient water but ended up surviving for 15 years.
But getting the robots to Mars was not so simple.
The documentary goes in depth about the task of getting the funding and research needed to get these rovers safely to Mars as well as ensuring they operated as intended when the rovers arrived.
Narrated by Angela Bassett, the film interviews the engineers, mission managers, scientists, and interns about the Mars exploration rovers. While Bassett will undoubtedly draw in movie-goers to check out this film, I feel like it really could have been narrated by just about anybody. The story has strong legs to stand on without needing . . . star power.
Most missions to the red planet were lost and considered failed missions due to bad components, glitches, or more famously, computational errors like the metric math mistake where engineers failed to convert units of measurement from English to metric. The lessons learned from previously failed attempts lead engineers to find new ways to solve problems. From maximum vibration tests to parachute failures, the film shows the difficulty the engineers faced with the mission, even before getting out of Earth’s orbit.
Where the rover named “Spirit” would test and fail, the rover named “Opportunity” would pass. All testing was not able to be completed by the mission launch, but it was time to set them free. This is where I felt unexpected emotions in the film.
I found it curious that I felt a sense of emotional attachment to the rovers in the way the engineers and mission managers felt. Having children of my own, I felt the excitement, the worry, and the underlying bittersweet feelings the engineers felt as they sent their life’s work out into space where anything could happen. Space is a pretty unforgiving environment and the rovers had a rough path ahead to Mars.
While on their six-and-a-half-month journey to the Mars surface, our Sun had a temper tantrum. During the rover’s journey through space, the Sun had a series of solar storms that produced coronal mass ejections and solar flares. This series of storms generated the largest solar flare ever recorded. On Earth, this caused some major blackouts and mechanical issues. While in space, the radiation emitted completely corrupted the rover’s software.
The film continues with challenge after challenge, and the ups and downs of the mission progress. One fact in the film that had me gobsmacked was that a process of 86 events needed to complete in order perfectly, for the rover to land successfully.
From jubilant cheering of successful landings to unsettling radio and signal silence, the film describes the unending emotional rollercoaster of this mission.
This documentary from Amazon Studios is one of the better scientific documentaries I’ve seen. The film tells the story of the rovers while keeping it simple enough to understand and doesn’t get too much into the weeds of particular scientific wordiness.
Watching this film with children would definitely be a good opportunity for you to talk with them about how the impossible can become possible. Our children will grow up to create their own incredible accomplishments and films like this will inspire them to learn and create now and into the future.
The internet provides all the knowledge you need to learn about this mission, its successes and failures. This film; however, provides heart to the story. Like rooting for the underdog in films like Rocky or Rudy, you really want the mission to succeed. The storytelling of this endeavor is inspiring and expands the way you’ll see future missions to space.
At the end of the film, you might need a hug from your favorite person as the title Good Night Oppy leaves you with joy for the work the rovers did and the bittersweet feeling of saying farewell to a good friend you will never see again.
Consider watching this film to learn more about the mission and to feel good about humanity. With all the craziness that surrounds us, this film reminds us of the vast universe and the relationships we have with each other that bring out the best in each of us.
