don't make shitty posts like that, thanks.

Holy shit, my first warning ever. That's awesome.

I'm just expressing my opinion. It doesn't seem like there's much to gain from this probe, and the way Inri Cheetos said it (somehow, the world will be a better place? How?) made it seem a lot like that reoccurring internet meme. Not really a joke post so much as a simple statement of fact, but whatever.

The drone will go out of commission in approximately 2 months and 3 days.  Prior to earth losing contact with it, we will notice some very strange behaviour of the unit, such as it being immobile for long periods of time as well as odd defects in the images it sends back.

This will be the last straw for NASA and their failed robotic attempts, as they will finally reveal to the world their plan for a manned mission to Mars.  Throughout the next 2 years the preparation will be extensive and the media will be all over it, covering everything to the possibilities of the ship exploding on lift-off or finding alien life forms on Mars.

It is finally the day of launch, and the manned shuttle appropriately named "Heracles" will have a picture perfect launch and the world will watch in awe as such a historic undertaking takes place.  The journey will last 2 years before the astronauts reach Mars.  By that time, the media has almost completely forgotten about the mission, and the astronauts.  It seems that they ahve been literally shot out of this world and lost, but as soon as the reach the planet, they come back into the lime-light.

As the lander unit carrying Flight Sgt. Johnathan Flintmaker and Commander Deborah Tiddle breaks through the martian atmosphere, history is also broken, and a moment that will never be forgotten has taken place.  Looking out of the small triangular window of the lander Johnathan sees what seems to look like a landing strip of some sort off in the distance, but can't quite make it out.  "Hey Debbie, did you see that a second ago? about 4 oclock. It looked like a landing strip."

"No I missed it, you get it on film?" replied Debbie.
"Oh I forgot about that, ill check it when we land." concluded John.

The lander deployed its slowing chutes, and landed safely on the martian surface, only meters from where the robot landed just a few years before.

John and Debbie were so excited to see the status of the robotic unit, they forgot to investigate the curious site of the landing strip earlier; John discounted it as just a mirage.  Stepping out on the martian surface, it felt just like training did back home in the pool with their newly designed walkabout suits.  The gravity on Mars is very close to that of Earth, so it wasn't that much of a different feeling to John.  The only difference was the constant dropping feeling in his inerts, which was mostly caused from his excitement.

As they stepped out of the lander unit, they look at where the robotics unit should have been to only find imprints in the martian soil that were distinctly that of the robotic rover unit.  "Where the hell did it go?" said John, gesturing with his heavy glove.  "I really have no idea" sad Debbie twisting around, looking for any sign of the missing robotics unit.