A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.
Special 10th anniversary edition of WHAT IF?—revised and annotated with brand-new illustrations and answers to important questions you never thought to ask—coming from November 2024. Preorder here!
Day 1 of 90
[[The Spirit rover is on the surface of Mars.]]
Spirit (thinking): 89 days to go!
Day 88 of 90
Spirit (thinking): Two days until I go home!
Day 91 of 90
Spirit (thinking): ?
Day 103 of 90
Spirit (thinking): Maybe I didn't do a good enough job.
Day 127 of 90
Spirit (thinking): Maybe if I do a good enough job, they'll let me come home.
Day 857 of 90
Spirit (thinking): I thought I analyzed that rock really well.
Spirit (thinking): It's okay, I'll do the next one better.
Day 1293 of 90
Spirit (thinking): Sandstorm. Power dying.
Spirit (thinking): But a good rover would keep going. A good rover like they wanted.
Day 1944 of 90
Spirit (thinking): Oh no.
<<whirrrr>>
Spirit (thinking): I'm stuck.
<<whirrrr>
Spirit (thinking): Did I do a good job?
Spirit (thinking): Do I get to come home?
Spirit (thinking): Guys?
[[Spirit rests in the middle of a vast Martian landscape.]]
{{Title text: On January 26th, 2213 days into its mission, NASA declared Spirit a 'stationary research station', expected to operational for several more months until the dust buildup on its solar panels forces a final shutdown.}}
xkcd.com is best viewed with Netscape Navigator 4.0 or below on a Pentium 3±1 emulated in Javascript on an Apple IIGS at a screen resolution of 1024x1. Please enable your ad blockers, disable high-heat drying, and remove your device from Airplane Mode and set it to Boat Mode. For security reasons, please leave caps lock on while browsing.