I had forgotten that thrill for many years, until the first images appeared on the Internet from the paired Mars Rovers: Opportunity and Spirit. The one that really got my imagination running was the sunset photo. I could well imagine that being my view as I sat on my back porch after a day toiling in the Martian soil, á la Heinlein or Clarke.As is far too often the case, the thrill of exploration and discovery was lost to me again in the thrust and parry of everyday life since that day (2004—wow.), until this week.
Mars was always of interest to me. When I was 12 or 13, I received a small refractor telescope for my birthday. I would set it up in the backyard of my suburban Denver home and try to focus in on the brighter objects in the sky until the wee hours. Actually getting it to stop jiggling and moving with something in the field of view always took longer than the object would remain visible, though, due to the non-technical nature of the mount. Basically, all I had was a flimsy tripod. But, when I did manage to get Mars in the view, I was quite a thrill.
I had forgotten that thrill for many years, until the first images appeared on the Internet from the paired Mars Rovers: Opportunity and Spirit. The one that really got my imagination running was the sunset photo. I could well imagine that being my view as I sat on my back porch after a day toiling in the Martian soil, á la Heinlein or Clarke.As is far too often the case, the thrill of exploration and discovery was lost to me again in the thrust and parry of everyday life since that day (2004—wow.), until this week. Today, was the successful launch of the next generation of explorer to the red planet: the Mars Science Laboratory (NASA site, Wikipedia), nicknamed Curiosity. Much larger than either Spirit or Opportunity, Curiosity is designed to determine the habitability of Mars for sustaining life as we understand it: CHON. Touchdown is planned for mid-August 2012. Thinking about it takes me back to those summer nights in the backyard with my telescope. The heavens were just begging to be peered into and wondered at. Somewhere along the way, I lost some of that sense of wonder. Thanks NASA for bringing it bac
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AuthorJust a guy out exploring the world. Former world-class never-was endurance runner. Archives
December 2022
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