There's an old man on Mars. He's one of the Firsters, born on Earth, helped colonize the Red Planet two generations ago.

Once every 365 Earth days he takes a Rover out into wilds to track down this old robot. Some foundation back on Earth pays him to keep it running. To clean off it's solar panels, replace worn parts, and do periodic upgrades.

It's data gets sent to the sattelite network orbiting above and ends up sent to some AI data cruncher back on Earth. Despite all the yearslif all of the other more advanced probes sent here, no evidence of life has been found in the rocks. The old man still expects the robot will find the answer, one day.

Most of the Real Martians think keeping that old robot going is nothing but wasteful sentimentally. Maybe it is, the Real Martians wouldn't understand the small boy that cried over a dead machine, or the driven young man that wanted to be an astronaut. It's so different now, A lot of his friends are dead or gone back to Earth, these kids just don't get it. They'd shut it down, drag it into the domes and put it on display like taxidermy. No, it's job is to collect data, and it did it for years more than it's planned service life. The old man and the other Firsters saw it come back to life, and he'll see it through to the end of his days.