Melancholy message from Mars causes people to mourn a robot

By Dean Murray via SWNS

A sad message from Mars has made social media users cry.

A statement from NASA's InSight lander posted Monday, December 19, read "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 May 5, 2018, it is the first outer space robotic explorer to study in-depth the "inner space" of Mars: its crust, mantle, and core.