I have to hand it to NASA's communication team, or whoever thought of giving each lander/rover/helicopter its own personality.
> My power’s really low, so this may be the last image I can send. 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.
Look, it's not offensive, it's amazingly good outreach to young minds, it "worked" but it's also artificial, anthropomorphic and cringe.
A core compute voltage check and/or a Battery Management model dropped below a sustainable level for active use. Maybe a programmer put an Easter egg in but truly, it might have said
SYS$SYSTEM:LOW VOLTAGE EVENT SHUTTING DOWN
And they'd have said this sob story.
I know I'm being a grinch. I do not like this infantilism and I do not like the ritualised post countdown motivational speech read to air breathlessly at launch.
> My power’s really low, so this may be the last image I can send. 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.