This painting from the end of March NASA, Opportunity, could make you cry

A piece of the heart of NASA remains silent on Mars. The space agency called a end of the epic mission of the rover Opportunity on Mars This week, after months of unsuccessful attempts to resuscitate the machine after a big dust storm in mid-2018, erased its solar panels and destroyed its ability to communicate with the Earth. Emotional tributes dumped scientists and fans of space.

The Uzbek artist Rostislav Shekhovtsov was so touched by the motorcyclist's final that he created a digital painting to pay tribute to Oppy. It's a tearful. He shows in the future two astronauts who discover the rover covered with dust on Mars.

Shekhovtsov posted the picture on Instagram, stating "It's time to go home, Oppy". The artist says that he created the artwork in Photoshop during five to seven hours.

What makes the piece of art even more exciting is how one of the astronauts addresses Opportunity's head-mounted camera, a recognition that many of us have come to treat the rover like a person who should be crying.

"Oppy is alive for me," Shekhovtsov told me. He is convinced that humans will one day go to Mars and recover the rover.

In 2004, Opportunity survived its initial three-month mission and delivered more than 14 years of scientific discoveries and breathtaking images to Mars.

NASA's longest surviving Red Planet rover could not have deserved a more affectionate tribute than Shekhovtsov's optimistic and heartbreaking vision of the future.