A Rover's Story

These chapters continue to emphasize the importance of teamwork in The Pursuit of Knowledge, even—or perhaps especially—when team members have different talents and personalities. As the friendship between Resilience and Fly continues to grow, the introduction of Guardian brings a new level of relationship complexity to their Mars mission. At first, Guardian reminds Resilience somewhat of Journey, albeit mainly due to her worst traits: Guardian is literally above Mars, Resilience, and Fly, but Guardian seems to interpret this height in terms of status too, which contributes to the satellite’s personality. Guardian starts off haughty and prejudiced against small robots like Fly, indicating that “larger robots” should naturally be in charge. Like Journey, Guardian does not understand why Resilience clings to human emotions and expressions, initially finding this behavior unproductive.

Resilience’s initial reaction to arriving on Mars captures the spark of wonder that is just as key to the pursuit of knowledge as dry, logical, often slow-paced work. At his first glimpse of the planet, Resilience is overcome by how different the beautiful landscape is from his lab. Compared to what he knew before, Mars is completely new. He responds by taking pictures and recordings in an attempt to capture everything he’s feeling and, importantly, share these first moments. Resilience’s reaction thus also expands his understanding of emotions. He wants those he cares about (Rania, Xander, and Journey) to know what it feels like to be in this situation. He extrapolates from his own responses that his friends on Earth are feeling similar emotions after his arrival and successful landing, indicating that Resilience is now fully capable of abstract thought. He has always been able to analyze his existing data and come to conclusions based on it, but now he can use existing data to guess at new data and make conclusions based on what he believes to be true.

Sophie’s letters coupled with Resilience’s initial tests and exploration signify to the reader that time is passing, marking again how slowly science sometimes moves. Resilience’s journey to Mars took seven months, and he spends his first several months on the planet adjusting to his new environment and learning everything he can. No major discoveries are made during this period, reflecting the care with which NASA and scientists in general approach new situations. Though other rovers have gone to Mars, the expense and organization of sending a new one means that they need to make the most out of each chance to explore the planet, something Resilience understands; this understanding, coupled with his desire to do well enough to go back to Earth someday, make him cautious at first. He wants to make his time on Mars count, but he is equally enthralled by everything and a bit uncertain of which things to focus his attention on. During this seemingly passive period, Resilience Balancing Emotion and Logic is key to his success. He takes pictures of the land and sky, including the tiny speck that is Earth, in part because he wants to make sure he documents everything in case something turns out to be more important than he initially thought. He also takes pictures of everything in an effort to share the joy and wonder these images elicit in him.

These chapters introduce the strange sound on Mars, a symbol that ties into both the pursuit of knowledge and, by extension, Grief and Loss as Part of Life. Resilience has no scientific evidence that this sound is anything remarkable, and Guardian repeatedly tells him it is only the wind in an area that has optimal conditions for the wind to make such a noise. Regardless, Resilience is sure the sound must mean something, so during his mission, he strives to find out what it is. He never does. This critical part of Resilience’s exploration, in part, builds the relationship between Resilience and Guardian. Guardian, who is clearly the largest robot, is unaccustomed to smaller robots not listening, yet while Resilience appreciates Guardian’s insight and knowledge, he is prepared to ignore the satellite when it suits him. Resilience is determined to return to Earth, and watching this desire grow seems to give Guardian permission to explore her own inner workings in search of emotions, which she finds by the end of the book. In addition, that the source of this strange sound will remain unknown, despite Resilience’s growing preoccupation with it in these chapters, emphasizes that much of what is unknown will remain unknown.