I once wrote an article about the US space station Skylab crashing back to Earth near remote smalltown Western Australia in 1979, and one of the tonal elements I had the most fun with was how such highly specialised technological science directly impacts the emotional lives of human beings and connects people together who'd otherwise have nothing to do with each other. This film has the same really lovely quality.

If you have any interest in space exploration you might know all the amazing hallmarks of Opportunity's story.

Launched along with another rover with the same specs (Spirit), Opportunity landed on Mars in early 2004 and everyone in mission control watched during the famed seven minutes of terror – the delay of the signal returning to Earth that would tell everyone whether the landing worked and the rover was intact and functioning, all breaking into delighted cheers when it transmitted everything was OK.

Then there was the amazing lifespan – after being expected to last about three months due to degradation of the solar panels, Opportunity was researching and broadcasting 15 years later until 2019 because as NASA scientists quickly discovered, dust devils on the surface jostled the car-sized robot, brushing sand off the panels and out of its innards and cleaning it to near-perfect condition.

They sent it on many more research adventures than it was originally intended for and eventually it fulfilled its mission of finding evidence of liquid water in Mars' past, driving hundreds of miles further than it was designed for. It's final long trip – from the Victoria to the Endeavour Craters – took five years across a barren plain, a trip of about 15-20km.

Then there was the day a bit like mourning a death when they announced they were giving up trying to get back in touch with it – after being covered by a six month dust storm, Opportunity was still unresponsive.

The film is quite simply the story of Opportunity's life, from engineers and designers building and testing it to the launch, heart-in-throat landing and its life on Mars.

Mostly it's about the connections it had back to Earth. Some of them were literal, and there are several really cool parts of the story where mission managers had to make on-the-fly fixes to extend the rovers' lives.

In one instance, when one of Spirit's front wheels started getting jammed, they simply had it drive backwards for the rest of the mission, dragging the errant wheel behind instead of using it for propulsion and further damaging it. When one of the rovers got bogged in deep sand they spent days directing it backwards and forwards like a 4WD on a dirt road to dislodge it.

In another, they had to simulate how Opportunity would perform going down a sandy slope into the Victoria crater by dumping sand into the JPL carpark and testing the trip with a scale model. When the retractable arm carrying one of Opportunity's cameras started to get gummed up and move slowly, they just left it extended to conserve power and not risk losing it altogether.

But the connections were more than just about data and technology. Many of the people who worked on the project talk about it in either archival footage or in interviews for the documentary in very reverent and emotional tones. The planetary geologist who formed the early brains trust for the whole project tears up when he talks about the decision to stop trying to reestablish communications.

Some of the scientists and engineers who ended up working on it in later years talk about being interns or visiting NASA on school trips back when Opportunity and Spirit launched and being determined to be part of the project after being so inspired as kids.

The emotional context comes because even aside from the years/decades of work that came before the mission itself, the sheer length of time Opportunity lasted meant a generation grew up while it worked, and as human beings we're very emotionally responsive to things that take up such large portions of our lives.

Even the film (and us as the audience) can't help but fall in love with the little robots – it's impossible as human beings not to see qualities that look for all the world like determination, grit, a work ethic and a survival instinct.

The CGI sequences by ILM depicting Opportunity and Spirit going about their lives on the red planet also add to the sense of anthropomorphism, and the narration of each rover's imagined diaries read by Angela Bassett only adds to the illusion that they're living beings.

It's an interesting enough story to begin with, but there are some aspects of the filmmaking itself by co-writer/director Ryan White that help really sell it, even if they get a little bit repetitive.

One is that (if you can believe it) the rhythm of the movie reminds you of a horror movie. As the mission hits some operational snag and the film shows a lot of discussion and worried-looking faces as people try to solve the problem, the tension escalating and eventually breaking into cheers or hugs in the control room when ad-hoc plans unexpectedly work.

Another is the motif of the song of the day, a NASA traditional where someone chooses a pop song to play throughout the facility when a new workday starts, one that encapsulates the challenge, hope or puzzle facing them that day.

When it's a clear day they choose Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves. When they have trouble reestablishing communication with Opportunity they play Wake Me Up Before You Go Go by Wham. When everyone admits Opportunity's finished they play Billie Holiday's I'll Be Seeing You (and I defy anyone not to mist up a bit when they do).

But the movie depicts staff and scientists sitting at their workstations or chatting to each other, bopping to the music as it blasts through speakers, and then when it cuts to Opportunity millions of miles away, the song gets a little quieter and tinnier as if the rover itself it receiving the transmission and being as inspired by the song as its human coworkers are (for the record they never transmitted the song of the day to the rovers, but it's a cute storytelling device).

Like the response to COVID – and some breathtakingly wrongheaded behaviour (drinking bleach, collecting together in thousands to attend protest marches) aside – extraplanetary exploration is the human story writ large.

It's about what we can achieve when we combine ingenuity across gender, religious, racial and every other (supposed) division, the ambition to do something amazing as an individual and applying yourself to achieve it and responding to everything in the universe around us emotionally, as if they're just one more kind of human – even other planets and the machines we send there.

They're all qualities Good Night Oppy captures and delivers beautifully, and it's essential viewing for anyone, especially if you have a pessimistic outlook about the future of the human race.