Since coming to Singapore, I had not kept up with the progress of the two Mars' rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, but recently I rediscovered the site that has raw images as they are uploaded each sol (Martian day). Expected to have just a three month mission, the two rovers are now coming up to three years continuous operation, having survived two Martian winters, a drive wheel failing, getting bogged down in soft terrain, and several communication and software glitches. I'm amazed at the skill and resourcefulness of the mission controllers in keeing the small craft alive. There is now little doubt that Mars had plentiful water, if not oceans.
After what seemed like an endless trek across a montonous flat landscape of blowing sand and treacherous drifts, Opportunity has now arrived at the vast crater "Victoria", and with the help of high-resolution images from the newly arrived Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the controllers back on Earth are exploring ways of entering it. The excitement is in the exposed rock strata that should give many clues as to the early history of Mars.
(The lower image is a composite taken through filters that approximate the actual colour. A rover has been added to the image to give a sense of scale - and is mostly likely what a martian would see!)
If we could only think a little more about our insignificance (and paradoxically, our likely uniqueness), then we might be more respectful of each other and of our small blue planet.
Offered for those whose life ends violently.
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