NASA yesterday released an update on its rover, called Curiosity, launched last November. Destination, Mars, 567-million kms away. The Rover is due to land in the wee hours of August 6th and begin its exploration of Mars to look for signs of previous life forms. Where it will land, if all goes as planned, is thought by scientists to be the bed of long dried-up lake.
This quest to search infinity and beyond is fascinating, isn’t it? Â That scientists can send a thing, anything, so far away that the journey takes months and then control it with signals sent from earth that take more than 13 minutes to arrive. Â The whole thing boggles a simple mind like mine.
I suspect there is other life out there, somewhere. Â Whether it’s in the form of cells in a murky pool of water or some sort of beings more sophisticated than we are – who knows? Â But in a universe this vast and with all that we know about how many other planets are out there, it seems impossible that we are the only ones. Â I deliberately use the word “seems” because I can’t possibly know. Â If some of the world’s smartest people are working on the theory of “maybe”, that’s good enough for me. Â Go Rover, go.
UPDATE: NASA is going to live-stream the Rover’s landing on its website during the overnight hours of Sunday into Monday. Â A NASA spokesman calls it “seven minutes of terror”. It will also be broadcast live in New York’s Times Square and other locations throughout the US. Â Exciting!