‘Biggest challenge was to create a photoreal Mars,’ says ‘Good Night Oppy’ director Ryan White

The NASA Mars rover Opportunity is the subject of the documentary ‘Good Night Oppy.’ Opportunity was intended to spend only 90 sols, or solar days, on the Red Planet (approximately equivalent to 92.5 Earth days), but ended up staying for 15 Earth years.

The rover’s goals included examining the planet’s geology and environment as well as looking for possible signs of past or present life.

The documentary, co-written and directed by Ryan White, uses pensive music, computer-generated visuals (designed by the wizards at Industrial Light & Magic) and archival footage to recreate the journey of the cute, WALL-E-like robot that almost assumed a kind of life of its own, despite basically being a lifeless piece of metal come alive by the magic of technology.

Oppy, who NASA scientists frequently referred to as ‘she’ as if it were a personal friend or a cherished pet rather than a machine, proved to be indispensable during her 15-year trek over the harsh, bleak and windy surface of Mars with its cratered terrain and ominous temperature.

The film encompasses everything that we find fascinating about the universe. It’s the fact that, when it comes to the earth, very few or no corners remain undiscovered. However, we have only just begun to explore the cosmos and it could take us several lifetimes to leave our solar system, let alone explore the known universe as a whole.

Until then, it is Mars that is the current centre of attention of cosmologists. It beckons us towards itself and challenges us to uncover its secrets. If life, or evidence of it, can be found on the planet, it can help us learn more about why the earth is the only place that is so friendly to living beings.