I’m seeing some people confused about why so many others are genuinely crying about a robot that’s a million miles away that happened to run out of power. I can’t speak to each individual experience, but I can speak to mine.

Scientific institutions whose primary goal is to explore and expand knowledge is completely divorced from the brutal, cold logic of markets or nations. They exist to expand our understanding of a universe that is so large we can’t conceptualise its size in physical terms. They are exploring depths so deep we don’t have language for it. These goals are purely altruistic and deeply emotional; they function on the assumption that human beings are worthy of knowing more. When we look up and see the infinite vast of space, it’s a collective, united step towards another sliver of understanding.

Opportunity’s name itself is highly personal and empathetic. She is a symbol of our curiosity and hope and yearning. She is our brightest wishes and deepest desires to know our true place in this infinite space, and her death marks an end to one of these journeys. We will make so many more, but she forged a path longer than anybody thought possible, and there is nothing more human than defying the odds set by the previous, more narrow assumptions of the universe.

It is a robot, but it is more than the sum of its parts.