Moon Rover

Fido wagged his tail as he watched Joey tightening a bolt on the remote control moon robot.

"Only one more day until we get the last part delivered," Joey announced to his shaggy brown and white terrier. "Then we can send our rover to the Moon! We'll be famous.”

"Woof, woof!" Fido responded enthusiastically.

"If all goes well, we'll have glorious ground-level photos to share with everyone. Isn't it fun?"

Joey took a rag and wiped his greasy hands on it, then stood up and headed inside, Fido tagging at his heels.

The next day, Fido barked at the mailman as he dropped off a package for Joey.

"It's here!" The boy tore it open and pulled out the radio frequency channeler and antenna kit. "Now, to incorporate this into my robot. Come on, let's get started!"

In the basement Joey worked feverishly, adjusting a bolt here and a bit of metal shielding there. He fastened a satellite dish, trimmed wires, attached solar panels, filled the tires with air, and finally stood back to gaze proudly down at his completed moon rover.

"It's all ready! Now to lay plans for our launch."

Joey sat down with his tablet to begin plotting the route his moon rover would take. Fido curled up next to him.

A few mornings later, the Moon was perfectly aligned to allow for the briefest journey possible. Joey and Fido stood in the backyard with the rover poised and ready.

"Three, two, one, blast-off!" Joey yelled, pushing the big red button on his remote control handset.

The robot rose off the ground, heading higher and higher into the air until Joey could no longer see it in the clouds.

"Now we wait for the images it'll send back." Joey patted Fido on the head. "I couldn't have done it without you."

***

Joey stared at a wall of grainy images on his tablet. The land his rover was roaming was bare and rocky and desolate. Dusty dunes slipped aimlessly, and the rover slid down into craterous valleys and scooted around boulders with the confidence of a four-wheeler.

"Something doesn't look right, somehow," he mused. "Fido, does that look like the Moon to you?"

Fido barked at the screen. Then, Joey saw it: a cactus, shrunken, gray and scrawny, but most definitely a product of the Earth.

"Look! That's not the Moon!" He ran his location data again. "Good grief. Fido, our moon rover landed in the middle of Death Valley."

Fido wagged his tail and gave Joey a sagacious look. Joey tossed him a treat.

"Well, we may not be famous, but these are some pretty cool pictures, huh?"

Words: 441.
Written for a prompt requiring the words “robot,” “moon,” “control” and “famous” in under 500 words.