Wednesday, February 18, 2004
Sublime Mars
Watching the Spirit and Opportunity Rovers' progress on Mars via a website is one thing, but it's still amazingly odd to see tire tracks on another planet:
Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon rallied the imagination of generations, so what does mechanical wake of Spirit do to your brain? I'm reminded of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy and the Reds who wanted to preserve Mars in its "natural" state and observe, learn and appreciate before getting in and terraforming. Is Spirit an ambassador for a future colony on Mars, and what happens if life in any of its forms is discovered on our nearest neighbour? Is humanity ready to take responsibility for not screwing up another enviroment (harsh as it may appear to us) when we can't even stop screwing up our indigenous one? Hmmm.
Watching the Spirit and Opportunity Rovers' progress on Mars via a website is one thing, but it's still amazingly odd to see tire tracks on another planet:
Neil Armstrong's bootprint on the moon rallied the imagination of generations, so what does mechanical wake of Spirit do to your brain? I'm reminded of Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy and the Reds who wanted to preserve Mars in its "natural" state and observe, learn and appreciate before getting in and terraforming. Is Spirit an ambassador for a future colony on Mars, and what happens if life in any of its forms is discovered on our nearest neighbour? Is humanity ready to take responsibility for not screwing up another enviroment (harsh as it may appear to us) when we can't even stop screwing up our indigenous one? Hmmm.
[Posted by Unknown] [1:40 pm]
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