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As images go, it's not very exciting. But, it's what it means that makes a difference to the scientists commanding the Phoenix Mars lander. The image above is a picture taken by the lander's robotic arm camera looking into the robotic arm's scoop. The spacecraft is still on its way to Mars, so this picture is equivalent of taking a picture of yourself onboard a jet while you're traveling and sending it back home via email to let your loved ones know you're still alive.
Why do this? The scientists routinely test instruments onboard spacecraft to make sure they'll be working when they arrive at their destinations. Cruise mode is a great time to make such tests and to work on any fixes (if they're needed). In Phoenix's case, these are the only pictures to be taken and returned to Earth while the spacecraft is en route. The next images we see from these instruments won't arrive until the spacecraft gets to Mars in May 2008.
Phoenix's work on Mars will be the sort of geology that humans would love to do when WE get to Mars. It will dig trenches, scoop up soil and water-ice samples, and then test them onboard the lander in a series of chemical and geological analyses. The imagers will give us full-color images of the nearby surface in great detail
Of course, the big questions this mission is designed to answer have to do with life; whether it existed on Mars and what remains would be detectable in the Martian soil. It's one of the main drivers for all our Mars missions as we seek to understand this bleak, cold, alien yet Earth-reminiscent planet. So, it's good that our planetary scout mission has sent us back some pictures. We know the camera works. And sometime next year, we'll use the other instruments to further our understanding of Mars's intricate geological history.
So, the newest set of Seven Wonders of the World has been voted upon. They're all things that humans built, which is great. But, there are other wonders out there, as Q might say, enough to satiate even the most jaded soul. Im calling mine the Seven Wonders of the Universe, and I'm going to post my list over the next 7 entries.
Mars, as seen by the Mars Global Surveyor on 26 September 2006.
Yes, I know I just talked about Mars a couple of entries ago. So, it's not surprising, is it, that I'd think Mars is one of the seven wonders of the universe. Here's why: water. No, there's not any obvious water there now flowing in rivers, or lying around in ponds or lakes or oceans. But, there IS water in the ice caps and most likely locked underground as permafrost. And, the evidence for past water action is all over the surface of this dry and dusty desert planet.
The Mars Spirit Rover at Husband Hill on Mars.
The Mars rovers are excavating and exploring the surface of the planet, turning over all kinds of rock and mineral evidence for the existence of water (flowing and otherwise) on Mars now and in the past. Just looking at Mars through the eyes of these rovers (and the Pathfinder before it, and the orbiting mappers and imagers we have there now) is a kind of secondary wonder that defines our modern age of technology.
Fine-grained silica churned up by the Mars Spirit rover is some of the best evidence yet for a water-rich environment on Mars.
So, I give you Mars. One of the seven wonders of the universe because it is teaching us a lot about other rocky planets, giving us insight into our own planet, and showing us a possible place for future human exploration.
Not long after I got out of college (the first time) I was working as a newspaper person, editing and sometimes writing the news for the Denver Post. I started as a newsroom editorial assistant, but before I knew it, I was writing science stories occasionally. One of the first big stories I covered was the Voyager 2 flyby of planet Saturn in 1981. That was a lot of fun and I got to meet a number of scientists and fellow science writers, some of whom I still see from time to time at various science meetings. I think the seed for my interest in going back to school to study astrophysics got planted in that busy, fascinating week of press conferences and discovery. The fact that I got sidetracked into science journalism is a separate story, but someday I'd like to get that degree in astrophysics... if I can ever find the time and money. But, I digress.
Not long after the Voyager encounter (which was the subject of a planetarium show I wrote a few years later), I got an invitation from an old college friend to attend a meeting in Boulder, Colorado, called the Case For Mars III. It was the third in a series of meetings where a lot of bright, energetic people sat down and roughed out plans for human exploration of the Red Planet. I attended as "press" but immediately got assigned to a propulsion systems study group that spent several days (and nights) sketching out the various propulsion needs for the eventual mission. It was our job to come up with the best "delivery methods" for the trans-Mars spacecraft as well as the landers the crew would need to shuttle back and forth to and from the surface. Other groups studied life sciences (how to keep the crews happy and alive during the long-duration mission), science goals (the geology, geography, biology, etc. of Mars), and social factors (crew selection, cultural aspects of "melting pot" crews, life in space, etc.)
There was a Case for Mars IV and so on, and in each meeting, the missions got honed down a little more, the cases were sharpened substantially, and it was clear that support for Mars missions was great, particularly in the science community.
An artist's rendering of a Mars scientist at work on the Red Planet.
The standard scenario we worked on went as follows (with some variations, but this is the general one):
1) Send a series of precursor missions to Mars to scout out the terrain, do some pre-landing science. These would be landers, mappers, orbiters, and sample-return missions.
2) Get to Earth orbit and build staging stations that would serve as construction yards for the trans-Mars spacecraft.
3) At the same time, return to the Moon and mine raw materials to build the craft (after first discerning whether or not those raw materials existed in abundance).
4) Build the things, while at the same time training the crews for the trip. The trip was a multi-year plan, based on getting to Mars at orbitally reasonable times, spending at least 180 days on the surface doing science and exploring, and then setting up for the next wave of explorers to land.
5) On Mars, there would be habitats, science stations, rovers, possibly some ultralite aircraft, and other infrastructure to maintain a modern science station.
Over the years I've seen part 1 happening pretty well. Some of the rovers are the grandchildren of the discussions we had in the early 1980s at the first CFM meetings. Part 2 is lagging, although we do have a space station that the world has been knocking together for a number of years now. The lessons learned there will be valuable no matter what else humans decide to build in Earth orbit. The actual scenarios may well vary widely from what we planned in the 1980s, but the basic framework remains the same: get to the Moon, then to Mars, in stages (when necessary).
Part 3, the getting to the Moon part, is now part of NASA's 'return to the Moon' effort. Last week NASA announced the selection of proposals for science experiments to be performed on the Moon, whenever it is that explorers return there. There's a lot of science to be done. The first human missions to the Moon were short and limited to sample returns and a few experiments. They went well and whetted an entire generation's taste for exploration. Despite a few decades of inactivity, I don't think people have lost that taste. What we need now is a bit more bold exploration and a lot of public support for these first steps back out to space, and eventually to Mars. I've always been a Mars exploration kinda person. We've got a long way to go, and a lot of "next steps" to take before it's a reality.
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