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There's a draft like this in TLP. Along the lines of "you're not the first", although the title may not sound exactly like that.
We can never truly eradicate the coronavirus, but we can suppress its threat like influenza
Ah, thank you!! "Where The Doomed Have Gone Before" https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=g1x62s6ihmo64g5s01fzzkuj
is exactly what I was thinking of. "Legacy of the Chosen" https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LegacyOfTheChosen is similar but launched and not specific to doomed predecessors.
I love scenes in movies where the protagonist realizes someone has tried this before, but the only good example I can think of is Neo in The Matrix Reloaded, when (spoiler!) the Architect tells him there have been however many "Ones" before him. Or, in literature, Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus has a similar plot point. I think it's quite poignant; skeletons along the journey, a de-centering of the protagonist's perspective. But I couldn't find a trope for it. (Tried looking at the page for Matrix Reloaded but didn't see anything. But could've missed it!)
Edited by tophtucker