By Ron Beasley
Not much excites me much these days - Iraq, the election, the economy, climate change - not much I can do about them and I don't have any real faith that anyone else can or will.
But the Phoenix Mars mission does. The Phoenix Mars expedition was well named it literally rose from the ashes of a failed 1999 mission. But it looks like Phoenix is anything but failed:
PASADENA, Calif. -- A NASA spacecraft today sent pictures showing itself in good condition after making the first successful landing in a polar region of Mars.
The images from NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander also provided a glimpse of the flat valley floor expected to have water-rich permafrost within reach of the lander's robotic arm. The landing ends a 422-million-mile journey from Earth and begins a three-month mission that will use instruments to taste and sniff the northern polar site's soil and ice.
"We see the lack of rocks that we expected, we see the polygons that we saw from space, we don't see ice on the surface, but we think we will see it beneath the surface. It looks great to me," said Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tucson, principal investigator for the Phoenix mission.
Now these pictures are exciting and the knowledge that will be gained is beyond value. That's why I was so disappointed this morning when I turned on my local NPR station and heard one person after another talking about what a waste it was when people all over the world are starving. Before we look at how short sighted this is lets remember that the entire mission cost what we are spending each and everyday on the occupation of Iraq.
Many of the things we take for granted today were developed as part of the space program - cable TV, cell phones, GPS. But even that is not the real issue. The real issue is that people object to "pure" science - research for the sake of learning. First of all learning for the sake of learning is one of the things that separates man from the apes, it's part of our soul. But there is even a more practical reason to support "pure" science. That's where most the really new ideas originate. If there is something we need now it's new ideas.
One of the things that made the US the economic and innovative power house it was is pure science. The transistor came out of the old Bell Labs where scientists and engineers were allowed to play and inovation was the result. You don't see that anymore because corporation are forced by Wall Street to above all else produce quarterly profits - long term thinking is discouraged.
I'm with you that not too much excites me either any longer or maybe its just now, I hope. But the Phoenix Mars mission and - fingers crossed - it's a success was just go old fun. I think we up here may be responsible for the small weather station as part of the project, fitting for Canadians, I guess. Unfortunately I've come to expect that lots of people will complain about any spending on science or the arts for that matter. I suspect, even though some mask their views about spending in these areas as concern for those suffering around the world, people just don't like it that some curious people may just like following ideas and get paid for it. Likely part of that resentment thing that seems to be going around.
ReplyDeleteI'm really excited by it as well. It never ceases to astound me that we've gone so far in space. It was a poetic landing.
ReplyDeleteYeah, freakout time. I pretty much can't get enough of this.
ReplyDeleteI recall when the first Saturn mission came in. The U of A scientists were gathered around the monitors absolutely going nuts at the closeups of the rings. I would work all day and then watch NPR all night. Sleep? Who can sleep when this is happening? OMG, look at that - braided rings!