We'd better record those reefs while we've still got them,
at the rate they're disappearing. My best guess is that they'll probably outlive me, but not by much.
One sci-fi story I read came up with a similar concept, a free-roving humanoid robot equipped with sensors and servos on the surface of a highly toxic planetary environment. The operator in orbit wore a full body suit connected to and communicating with the robot and had the illusion he was working on the planetary surface.