Useless Time Machine

It's amazing we stand on the brink of a new dawn, as the makers of a new time travel device are honored in Europe. Called Retroprobe, the developers created a robot with an instruction set to collect samples and return to the capsule with in a set amount of time while in history. The pod was sent back to the year 1948, in an area at the time was vacant. Upon the pod's return the robot was released and samples where scrutinized. carbon dating found that the samples were indeed from 1948.
The scientist excited then tried another experiment and sent plants and insects in the pod to again 1948 and immediately returned the pod for observation. When the pod came back the plants and insects were normal. Next they created an even larger pod and sent a trained dog to again 1948 with commands to exit and return. The good dog did as it was trained and when the pod returned the dog was in normal health, and samples of the oxygen were found to be consistent of air quality of that area at the time.
Finally they were ready for human trials. They again chose to send subjects back to 1948 and do progressively more riguruss tests and collections. All were successful, and now the scientists insist that they do historical marker checks and record history via photographic means as a test of bringing back history. The went back in time every 100 years until 1048. At which they decided to go back to the age of the dinosaurs to get proof once and for all. So they got the pod ready and sent it back 30 million years into the past. After the scheduled time frame the pod didn't return. Now the pod was designed to return after 48 hours. When that time came the pod did return but not in the exact same place where it had left. So far the time machine left and returned to same spot it was sent. Luckily for the scientists they had put a homing beacon on the device in the case this happened. The found the case 400 miles away from its location and it appeared as if it had suffered a fall from quite a distance.
The person inside was dead and things were also difficult to explain. The autopsy report indicated the subject died from exposure to extreme cold, similar to conditions found in space. So this perplexed scientists. Many theories arose and people were debating the location of even the Earth. But after much debate a person spoke up with the Idea that they should look at historical and biblical records and start tracing back from those little by little and see if there was any existence before the silly notion of creation. To humor the man the scientist sent back the original pod with the robot to collect samples starting at just before the supposed flood. The pod returned with samples and they kept doing this until the last mission it completed.
With this mission the pod actually entered into empty space, not unlike when then person went back to the age of the dinosaurs. this time though something interacted with the pod, sending a message back. When the pod returned there was no one there to retrieve it. Earth was completely empty of all life. The scientist were gone, the people were gone, everything was gone. The message the robot inside began to speak as the pod opened up. "I am returning the day was today, the hour was now."