2517: Rover Replies

Rover Replies

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Title text: I'm so glad NASA let you take your phone to Mars!

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Explanation

The Perseverance Mars Rover is an unmanned, remote-controlled vehicle set to Mars by NASA to explore the surface and collect and examine samples from the surface of the planet. Due to the public interest in this mission, NASA maintains social media accounts (including a Twitter account) for the rover to keep people updated on it's progress and share images and information. The account is maintained by NASA personnel, but set up as if the rover itself were tweeting.

Randall points out that this account and it's replies are "the most unexpectedly wholesome place on the internet". Social media is notorious for being awash with harmful and problematic content, or at least people insulting and fighting and generally creating an unpleasant environment. This strip portrays the responses to the Perseverance account as being almost uniformly encouraging, enthusiastic, and heartwarming. The sole exception is one user trying accuse the rover of being part of some unhinged conspiracy, but they're quickly shut down by the other followers of the account (specifically, Ponytail, who tells that user "we're not doing that here".)

There are a number of reasons why this thread would reasonably be wholesome. One is that most people who would bother to follow such an account are likely to be space exploration enthusiasts, and therefore are most likely excited about the mission, and happy to be watching its progress. NASA in general, and the rover program specifically, aren't particularly controversial, which lowers the likelihood of people going to that thread to stir up arguments. NASA is a government agency, but one that does work that most people support. There are some few people who advance conspiracy theories involving NASA (as portrayed in the strip) but those are small enough in number that they'd be quickly drowned out by the more engaged chorus.

Another factor is the nature of the rover itself. Despite not being human (or even alive), rovers can move, seemingly on their own, and have a form vaguely similar to that of a living creature. This leads a psychological phenomenon of people ascribing human qualities to them (a tendency known as Antropomorphism). We see this in the portrayed comments, with people talking to the "rover" as if it were a person, offering encouragement and praise. The users presumably know that Perseverance is not alive, but they engage with it as if it were. Because the device isn't actually human, it has little potential to make enemies or do anything controversial, so it has the best of the both worlds, being encouraged like a person, but not being subject to the complexities of humanity.

The final reply is a reference to Ingenuity, a small helicopter which Perseverance took to Mars as a technology demonstrator. It was very successful and completed many flights, often taking it quite far from Perseverance and routinely serving as a scout, surveying the area and helping Perseverance plan it's route. However, to the dismay of many, Ingenuity's mission ended after 3 years due to a damaged rotor.

Transcript

[A post of a rocky landscape and a close-up of a rock is next to a profile picture of the camera of a Mars rover.]

Just collected a sample!

[Comments below. Each comment has an icon of a person or other image next to it and an illegible name above the comment.]

[face of Cueball-like character]: These pictures are great!

[curved lines]: I'm so proud of you

[Cueball-like stick figure]: Wow you know a lot about rocks

[Megan]: Go go go go go!

[spiral galaxy-like image]: More propaganda from NASA's 5G vaccine microchip factory

[Ponytail]: Quiet, we're not doing that here

[unidentified stick figure]: Hello from Missouri (Earth)!

[Hairy]: Did you find any skeletons yet

[Miss Lenhart]: I hope your helicopter comes back!

[Caption below frame:]

The most unexpectedly wholesome place on the internet is the replies to NASA's rovers on social media.

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Discussion

Hi! I have added most of the description, but this is my first major edit so could someone please review it? Thank you! SqueakSquawk4 (talk) 16:19, 18 September 2021 (UTC)

I checked out the linked account. First reply to it that I saw was dramatically lamenting about the rover account being a mockery of "proper scientific communication", second reply I saw was sneering at the rover and claiming SpaceX would build Mars bases or something while NASA was "playing with rocks". I don't want to read any more comments. All I can say is that my experience with the rover replies was not the wholesome experience that was promised. 172.68.133.87 17:09, 18 September 2021 (UTC)

I too am disappointed. Poor Rover is not getting the enthusiasm that Rover deserves... Thisfox (talk) 05:12, 19 September 2021 (UTC)

Maybe we should take this as a call to action and go give the rover the love it deserves. 172.70.114.159 14:56, 20 September 2021 (UTC)

I think the title text may also be assuming that the rover is using its phone to post the tweets. Barmar (talk)

Also, Perseverance has a camera mounted on a flexible arm as opposed to previous rovers' mast mounted cameras, allowing it to take pictures of itself. That could give the impression that it is taking selfies with a phone. I understand that the next generation of rovers will be equipped to make duckface. 162.158.187.210 12:49, 20 September 2021 (UTC)

I'm torn between the anti-conspiracy response being basically "We don't want you trollers here, let us have our happy shiny place" at an intruder or "This is considered holy ground, and we shall all be back trolling elsewhere shortly..." directed at a shitposting-padawan who hasn't learnt the subtleties of (mis)behaviour from the more experienced ones. 162.158.91.106 20:46, 18 September 2021 (UTC)

I hadn't considered it before, but I am now fully supportive of it pointing out that the conspiracy is not actually wrong, merely incorrectly attributed, or even just that the factory isn't on Mars. 172.70.98.107 18:07, 21 September 2021 (UTC)

This comic follows exactly same template as 202:_YouTube, 1836:_Okeanos, 2159:_Comments. Also it is kind of related to these review comics 1803:_Location_Reviews, 1869:_Positive_and_Negative_Reviews, 937:_TornadoGuard. Even less related but still a similar structure 1689:_My_Friend_Catherine, 1085:_ContextBot, 1031:_s/keyboard/leopard/, 2015:_New_Phone_Thread. Probably not enough for a separate category such as Internet comments but maybe in the future. CryptoNut1269 (talk) 17:43, 21 September 2021 (UTC)

"We're not doing it here" could mean either that it is a comical reply mening it is not NASA that has the factories or that NASA doesn't have them "here" (on Mars). Could someone with better English skills expand if you agree on my interpretation. BR 162.158.134.115 06:38, 22 September 2021 (UTC)

"Missouri (Earth)" may also be a reference to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (see https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Missouri) CD

it's kinda sweet. idk what this has to do with conspiracies tho... Z1mp0st0rz (talk) 20:12, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
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